Southwest Asia

From his satirical soapbox of Karl reMarks (and with the help of Twitter and Facebook), Karl Sharro has gone from London architect to renowned Middle Eastern satirist. His work includes “Three dictators walk into a bar” jokes to imagined conversations between Middle Eastern leaders.

A Syrian cartoonist is arrested in October 2012 and disappears into the security services of Bashar al Assad. Now there are reports that the cartoonist died in prison, the cause described as everything from torture to an untreated illness. But not everyone buys the story. A dialogue begins on Facebook and Twitter about whether the cartoonist is really dead. His family — and many friends and colleagues — says he’s still alive though they haven’t seen or heard from him since the cartoonist was detained. Who to believe? That’s the morose challenge for relatives, friends and colleagues of those arrested in war-torn Syria.