Syria launched a major military offensive to seize back parts of Damascus under de facto rebel control on Sunday, a day after the Arab League said it was abandoning its monitoring mission in the face of out-of-control violence.

Government forces killed at least 19 people, activists said, in some of the bloodiest fighting in the capital since Syria’s 10-month uprising began. Witnesses inside Damascus described scenes of mayhem, with troops shelling residential areas and fierce house-to-house fighting.

“It’s urban war. There are bodies in the street,” one activist, speaking from the suburb of Kfar Batna, told Reuters.

Around 2,000 troops, together with at least 50 tanks and armoured vehicles, began a major operation at dawn, when they headed towards the al-Ghouta area in eastern Damascus. The foray was part of a wider offensive against the suburbs of Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batna, activists said.

Video footage showed tanks trundling forward, followed by government soldiers on foot. The army pushed deep into the centre of Kfar Batna. Witnesses reported four tanks in the main square.

Activists said 14 civilians and five insurgents from the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) were killed. Gruesome unconfirmed video showed the mangled bodies of what appeared to be civilians caught by mortar or shellfire. …

Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 33 years, says he will step down after months of protests across the country

The Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has said he will step down in the coming days.

Late last month Saleh, who has been in power for 33 years, called for early elections in his first speech since his return from Saudi Arabia to Yemen, which provoked a wave of violent protests.

Saleh, who had travelled to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment after a June assassination attempt, said then that he accepted a power transfer, adding that the vice-president retained authority to hold talks with the opposition. ...

A secret CIA document shows that British and Libyans worked together to arrange the removal of a terror suspect to Tripoli

British and US intelligence agencies built up close links with Muammar Gaddafi and handed over detailed information to assist his regime, according to secret files found in Libyan government offices.

The documents claim that MI6 supplied its counterparts in Libya with details on exiled opponents living in the UK, and chart how the CIA abducted several suspected militants before handing them over to Tripoli.

They also contain communications between British and Libyan security officials ahead of Tony Blair's visit in 2004, and show that British officials helped write a draft speech for Gaddafi when he was being encouraged to give up his weapons programme.

The discovery was made by reporters and members of Human Rights Watch in the private offices of Moussa Koussa, the former foreign minister and head of Libyan intelligence, who defected to Britain in February. He is now believed to be in Qatar.

According to the documents, Libya's relationship with MI6 and the CIA was especially close between 2002 and 2004, at the height of the war on terror. The papers give details of how No 10 insisted that the 2004 meeting between Blair and Gaddafi took place in his bedouin tent, with a letter from an MI6 official saying: "I don't know why the English are fascinated by tents. The plain fact is that the journalists would love it."

They also show how a statement made by Gaddafi during the time in which he pledged to give up his nuclear programme and destroy his stock of chemical and biological weapons was put together with the help of British officials. A covering letter states: "For the sake of clarity, please find attached a tidied-up version of the language we agreed on Tuesday. I wanted to ensure that you had the same script."

Other letters seem to reveal that British intelligence gave Tripoli details of a Libyan dissident who had been freed from jail in Britain. One US document stated the CIA was in a position to deliver a prisoner into the custody of Libyan authorities.

The papers, which have not been independently verified, also suggest the CIA abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 who were subsequently handed over to Tripoli. Human Rights Watch has accused the CIA of condoning torture. ...

New details have emerged of the route used by Muammar Gaddafi's family to escape into neighbouring Algeria, triggering a diplomatic row over their fate.

According to officials in Libya's National Transitional Council, Gaddafi's second wife, daughter and two sons slipped out of the country along a road through central Libya not yet under NTC control.

The escape was made in a convoy of six armoured Mercedes limousines, once part of an extensive government fleet, which departed from the town of Bani Walid, the stronghold of Libya's biggest tribe, the Warfallah, where significant remnants of the regime are holding out.

Guma al-Gamaty, the NTC's UK co-ordinator, said the motorcade was carrying a total of 32 Gaddafi family members, including the ousted leader's second wife, Safia, daughter Aisha and two sons, Hannibal and Mohammed, and reached the Algerian border on Saturday.

"They were kept waiting there for 10 to 12 hours while the Algerian government decided what to do. It was the Algerian president himself [Abdelaziz Bouteflika] who authorised their entry," Gamaty said. "We will definitely be seeking their return, and we are co-operating with Interpol to secure their return."

On Monday the Algerian foreign ministry confirmed that the Gaddafi entourage had crossed the border that morning, after denying a report to that effect on Sunday. ...

Majority of 88 detainees who have died since start of uprising against regime said to have been tortured

Unconfirmed reports of six armoured Mercedes sedans crossing the border into Algeria as search for dicatator continues

Ousted leader calls retreat a 'tactical move' and urges Libyans to 'cleanse the capital of traitors' in audio recording

Explosions and gunfire shake Libyan capital as residents say anti-Gaddafi protesters have taken to the streets

Muammar Gaddafi's regime appears to be crumbling from within after the third defection of a senior member of his regime within days.

As rebels continued to advance on the battlefield, it was reported that Abdel-Salam Jalloud, who helped propel Gaddafi to power in 1969 and was for decades his powerful deputy, flew out of Djerba airport in Tunisia early on Saturday . Rebels attempting to oust Gaddafi claimed he had defected to their side, though this could not be independently confirmed.

Jalloud's apparent departure follows the reported defectionearlier this of oil minister Omrane Boukraa and a senior security official, Nasser al-Mabruk Abdullah, who fled to Cairo from Tunisia on Monday with his family.

A swirl of rumours now circulates concerning the intentions of Gaddafi and his family, as rebel forces continue operations on three fronts to cut off the capital, Tripoli.

In Zlitan, a town formerly largely loyal to Gaddafi that was captured on Friday, rebels continued with street-to-street searches, while rebel forces also claimed the final capture of Brega, which has changed hands on a number of occasions. ...

... Hamdi's family approached the lawyer Basma Mnasri to investigate a possible legal defence. Mnasri, a formidable woman sporting glamorous wraparound sunglasses, says she was "convinced of Fedia's innocence… Mohamed Bouazizi was let down by the system. But Fedia is the second face of injustice in Tunisia."

On 19 April, after 111 days of incarceration, Hamdi was finally freed by a tribunal in Sidi Bouzid after Mnasri demolished the case against her. She was found innocent of all charges when it emerged in court that only a single person claimed to have seen the slap – a street trader who bore a grudge against her – while four new witnesses testified that there had been no physical confrontation.

Hamdi had not seen her mother for four months. On the day of her release, the two women hugged each other on the courtroom steps, unable to speak through their tears. "My family and my colleagues suffered much more [than me] because they were rejected by the community," says Hamdi. "They tried to tell their story but no one would listen… In prison, I missed my family so much. When I saw them again after I was freed, I felt newborn."

We meet two DAYS after Hamdi's release in a room filled with a garrulous gathering of her colleagues and her seven siblings, who have come to celebrate her release over cups of sweet, milky coffee. Tahar Hamdi, her 75-year-old father and a retired police inspector, sits to one side wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, a red Fez and a three-piece suit. His wife, Meriem, 74, holds a "sebha" in her hands – a string of white beads that is the Islamic equivalent of a rosary – and prays under her breath. "It was unbearable having her in prison," Tahar says. "I hadn't cried since the death of my mother in 1998, but since my daughter was arrested, I cried so much I thought I'd never stop. She is such a loving girl. Even as a child, she always had a strong sense of right and wrong."

I am the first journalist Hamdi has ever spoken to. Why has she kept silent until now? She seems to find the question surprising. "You are the first to have listened," she replies, tears falling down her cheeks. She clasps her hands together to stop them from trembling. "It made me sick to my heart that everyone refused to listen. I felt I was facing so much injustice."

Hamdi's version of events differs from that of the Bouazizi family in small but crucial ways. She acknowledges that there was a confrontation with Mohamed at about 11am on the morning of 17 December because he had parked his fruit and vegetable cart opposite the municipal buildings and "the law doesn't allow market traders to go in a public zone". But she insists she never slapped him. A small crowd of market traders had gathered around her and she says she was scared that the dispute could get out of hand: "When I asked him to leave, he refused and he grabbed hold of my hand, hurting my finger. He was angry with me, so I let it go, but as a penalty I confiscated some of his bananas and peppers and gave them to a charitable association. Afterwards, I went back to my work and then I went home at 1pm." ...

Yemeni forces have opened fire on demonstrators in three major cities, killing at least 18 and wounding hundreds in one of the fiercest bouts of violence witnessed in nearly three months of popular unrest aimed at toppling President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The clashes between a defected faction of Yemen's army and the republican guard, have raised fears that Yemen may be reaching a critical juncture as public fury continues to mount at the president's refusal to step down.

Violence broke out in the capital when a throng of 2,000 protesters tore away from the main sit-in area at Sana'a University and surged en masse towards the cabinet building in downtown Sana'a with shouts of "God is great" and "Allah rid us of this tyrant".

As they neared their destination they were halted by republican guards who, after trying to disperse them with tear gas and water cannons, began firing live rounds at the crowd.

Soldiers positioned on the balconies and roofs of nearby houses rained bullets down on the angry mob of protesters, who responded by hurling chunks of broken-off paving slabs.

The standoff, which lasted for around four hours, climaxed when soldiers loyal to a defected general, Major Ali Mohsin, arrived in pickup trucks and began returning fire at Saleh's troops.

It was the first time the two sides have clashed in the capital since Mohsin declared his support for the opposition in late March.

Local press reported that a lieutenant colonel, Yahya Muhammad al-Ansi, belonging to the rebel general's first armoured division, was killed in the clashes. ...

Iran helping Syrian regime crack down on protesters, say diplomats

Claim comes as four women shot dead by security forces in first use of violence against an all-female demonstration

Syrian tanks move into city of Homs

12-year-old boy reported killed as residents describe hearing gunfire and shelling

Riots have swept across the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in the biggest anti-government protest in sub-Saharan Africa so far this year.

Security forces have launched a brutal crackdown, opening fire on unarmed civilians with live rounds, rubber bullets and teargas. Two people have been killed, more than 120 wounded and around 360 arrested. Women and girls have been among those beaten, according to witnesses.

Two weeks of growing unrest – sparked by rising food and fuel prices – have gained fresh impetus after the violent arrest of the opposition leader Kizza Besigye on Thursday. Critics say President Yoweri Museveni, in power for 25 years, is losing his grip. They claim his wildly disproportionate crackdown on Besigye's "walk to work" protests smacks of panic and is sowing the seeds of popular revolt.

"I thought the police were going to kill me," said Andrew Kibwka, 18, after police with heavy sticks rained blows on him. "I was telling them I'm harmless but they just carried on. I did nothing to provoke them. They beat me because I was running away."

Some point to the political earthquakes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and wonder if the aftershocks could reach tyrannies south of the Sahara. Already there are pockets of unrest from Burkina Faso to Senegal to Swaziland. Even South Africa, reputed anchor of the continent, is tormented by deadly protests over poor public service delivery.

In Uganda there is an inchoate revolution struggling to be born. Protests have spread to several towns, leaving seven people dead and hundreds in jail. The riots, in which roads have been barricaded with burning tyres and vehicles pelted with rocks, mark a new level of defiance. Facebook and Twitter, which the government unsuccessfully tried to block, are reverberating with dissent. Museveni's heavyhanded attempts to put out the fire only appear to be fanning its flames. ...

Syrian security forces opened fire on a demonstration on Friday in the coastal city of Latakia – the heartland of the ruling elite – wounding at least five people as thousands took to the streets in several places across the country, witnesses said.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime has stepped up its deadly crackdown on protesters in recent days by unleashing the army along with snipers and tanks. On Friday protesters came out in their thousands, defying the crackdown and using it as a rallying cry.

A witness in Latakia said about 1,000 people turned out for an anti-government rally when plainclothes security agents with automatic rifles opened fire. He said he saw at least five people wounded. Like many witnesses contacted by the Associated Press, he asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisal.

Other demonstrations were reported in Banias and in the north-eastern city of Qamishli.

The government had warned against holding any demonstrations on Friday. Syrian state television said the interior ministry had not approved any "march, demonstration or sit-ins" and that such rallies sought only to harm Syria's security and stability.

Many of the protests were held in remembrance of more than 50 people killed in the last week alone in Deraa, a southern city at the centre of the revolt. Deraa has been under military siege since Monday when thousands of soldiers stormed in backed by tanks and snipers.

A devastating picture has been emerging from the city – which is largely sealed off, without electricity and telephones – as residents flee to neighbouring countries. ...

The White House is preparing to introduce new sanctions against the Syrian regime in response to a military crackdown that saw tanks and armoured cars deployed against protesters on Monday.

The Obama administration condemned "the brutal violence used by the government of Syria", describing it as deplorable, and adding: "The United States is pursuing a range of possible policy options, including targeted sanctions, to respond to the crackdown and make clear that this behaviour is unacceptable."

Human rights groups estimate that about 350 people have died so far in Syria, 100 of them on Friday. Troops mounted a major assault Monday on Deraa, the city where the uprising began a month ago, and Douma, a suburb of Damascus.

It was apparently the first time that tanks have been used. Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, who is in exile in Egypt, was quoted by Reuters as saying at least 18 people died in Deraa alone.

The US, having announced sanctions unilaterally, is putting pressure on the UK and other European countries to impose sanctions against the Syrian regime.

The US treasury department and other American agencies are discussing freezing the assets of senior officials accused of human rights abuses and banning them from travelling to the US or doing business there. Such sanctions are mainly symbolic, as the US has long had stringent measures in place against Syria and has little trade with the country. Sanctions by European countries, with whom Syria has extensive trade, would have more impact and several members of the Syrian government have assets in Europe. ...

Bahrain accused of systematic attacks on doctors

Medical workers targeted because they have evidence of security force atrocities, claims US-based human rights group

Syria troops kill protesters in country's bloodiest day of turmoil

Dozens reportedly killed as live bullets and teargas used against rallies after Friday prayers

Libya regime accuses Nato of siding with rebels [Ed. Note: Well, duh!]

Minister claims France and UK 'violating' UN mandate as Nato airstrikes hit pro-Gaddafi communication centres [Ed. Note: Good show! Jolly good show, Majah!]

Syria to lift emergency rule after 48 years – but violence continues

Biggest concession yet to pro-democracy movement, which is gathering steam but has not reached tipping point

Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across Yemen on Sunday, denouncing President Ali Abdullah Saleh for saying women should not take part in protest rallies.

At least 10 people were shot and wounded in Sana'a by forces loyal to the president, doctors said, and around 200 were overcome by teargas. Clashes were also reported to have taken place in Dhamar, just south of the capital.

In a speech on Friday, Saleh had condemned the mingling of men and women at demonstrations, saying it violated Islamic law. The comments enraged many Yemenis and prompted the youth movement to call for mass protests, on what they called a day of honour and dignity.

There was a significant turnout, with more than 100,000 people – including significant numbers of women – taking to the streets in Taiz, and tens of thousands more marching in Ibb, Aden, Shabwa and other cities. Demonstrators also demanded the president step down.

Abdel-Malek al-Youssefi, a youth movement activist and organiser, said the protests could be "the last nail in Saleh's coffin".

Yemen has been racked with anti-government demonstrations for the past two months. The protesters are calling for steps to improve livelihoods and open up the country's restricted political life.

A young woman first led anti-Saleh rallies on a university campus in January, but women did not begin taking part in large numbers until early last month.

While Yemen has conservative social and religious traditions, women can vote, run for parliament and drive cars, unlike in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Near-daily protests and defections by key allies in the military, powerful tribes and diplomatic corps have failed to bring an end to Saleh's 32-year autocratic rule. A crackdown on protesters by government forces has killed more than 120 people, according to Yemeni rights groups, but has not deterred the crowds from gathering.

Last week, the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council suggested Saleh transfer power to his deputy, seeking an end to the unrest. The opposition criticised the proposal for not suggesting that the power transfer should be immediate. Opposition members are expected in the Saudi capital on Sunday to explain their position to Riyadh and other Gulf mediators. ...

There was to be no suicide pill, no bullet in the brain, no heroic martyrdom. Instead, it is claimed, there was a humiliating slap on the cheek and Laurent Gbagbo was hauled from his bunker and paraded before the TV cameras.

The fall of the African strongman came after one of the most drawn-out election results in history. Gbagbo was finally prised from his palace in the former Ivory Coast capital four months after the votes were cast against him.

Backed by French tanks, forces loyal to Gbagbo's opponent, Alassane Ouattara, said they stormed his underground bunker at the presidential residence in Abidjan, interrogated Gbagbo then carried him away with his wife, Simone, and his son Michel.

"We attacked and forced in a part of the bunker," Issard Soumahro, a pro-Ouattara soldier at the scene, told the Associated Press. "He was there with his wife and his son. He wasn't hurt, but he was tired and his cheek was swollen from where a soldier had slapped him."

The 65-year-old former history professor, who once dismissed the beheading of France's Louis XVI as public "ebullience", could be seen wearing a military flak jacket and flanked by two soldiers. His son was beaten and bleeding, according to an Ouattara spokesman.

Gbagbo was then reportedly taken to the city's Golf hotel, where Ouattara's government-in-waiting has been encamped under UN protection since Gbagbo's intransigence plunged the country back into civil war. ...

Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh has lost the backing of his closest allies in the Arab world who called on him to pass power to his vice president to ensure the country’s “unity, safety and stability.”

The Gulf Cooperation Council urged for the transition of power to Vice President Abduraboo Mansur Hadi and the creation of an opposition-led national unity government, Abdel Latif al Zayyani, secretary general of the GCC, told reporters in the Saudi capital Riyadh late yesterday. The group renewed its invitation to Saleh’s government and Yemen’s opposition to hold GCC-brokered talks in Riyadh.

“It has seemed more and more likely over the past week that Saleh would have to pass on power, whether in the two months that the opposition has called for or by the end of the year as the ruling party has said,” Abdul Ghani Aryani, an independent political analyst, said in a telephone interview from Sana’a. “With the GCC formally backing the transition, it will probably be at some point in between.”

In Yemen, the poorest Arab country, anti-government protests mirroring those across the Middle East and North Africa, are entering their third month. Saleh’s army, government and much of his tribal base have abandoned him as violent clashes between security forces and protesters calling for his removal escalated. At least 662 Yemenis, including 24 children, have been killed in the civil unrest since Feb. 18, the United Nations’ children’s fund said yesterday. ...

Ivory Coast's incumbent leader caught France and the rest of the world by surprise when he refused to surrender, accused Nicolas Sarkozy of an assassination plot, and defiantly held out as rebels attempted to storm his underground bunker.

French ministers had confidently predicted that Laurent Gbagbo could cede power within hours, ending the west African country's four-month crisis. A TV station run by his rival, Alassane Ouattara, played clips from Downfall, a German film about the final days of Adolf Hitler in his bunker in Berlin.

But France, the former colonial power, was forced to admit that negotiations for Gbagbo's surrender had collapsed on Wednesday. Troops loyal to Ouattara launched a ferocious assault on his presidential residence but met with unexpectedly stiff resistance. ...

Rebel forces in Ivory Coast have laid siege to the presidential palace as president Laurent Gbagbo made a last stand and the battle for power in Abidjan raged for a second day, with the UN mission coming under heavy fire.

Forces backing presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara have overrun nearly three-quarters of Ivory Coast and looked poised to topple Gbagbo, but after entering the economic capital met with stiff resistance outside his fortified residence and office. With reports of beatings, looting and arson on the streets of Abidjan, residents barricaded inside their homes reported heavy arms fire throughout the early morning on Friday. On the peninsula where the palace is situated buildings were shaking with each explosion, witnesses said.

Ouattara's spokesman, Patrick Achi, told Reuters: "His house is under attack. That's for sure. There is a resistance, but it's under attack. [Gbagbo] hasn't shown any signs of giving up. I don't think he will see the game is up, because he really believes God will save him … Gbagbo is in his house. I'm certain. He hasn't gone anywhere."

Ouattara ordered the borders closed to prevent Gbagbo and his allies fleeing. Ouattara's foreign affairs minister told the Associated Press: "His inner circle is trying to run, but they won't be able to."

Not seen in public for five days, Gbagbo has been weakened by high-level defections in the military. The regular army put up almost no opposition during a four-day offensive, including in Gbagbo's home town, where rebels said they broke into his compound and slept in his bed.

Some 50,000 soldiers, police and gendarmes have abandoned Gbagbo, according to the head of the UN mission, Choi Young-jin. "Only the Republican Guard and his special forces remain loyal, guarding the palace and residence," he told France-Info. The chair of the commission of the African Union, Jean Ping, urged him to immediately hand power to Ouattara "in order to shorten the suffering of the Ivorians". But a core of Gbagbo loyalists have fought to defend their shrinking territory. A spokesman, Abdon Georges Bayeto, told the BBC: "The president is not going to step down. He's been elected for five years and we are going to put up a fight." The heaviest clashes were at the state TV station, which went off air after Ouattara forces seized it overnight. Gbagbo's forces said they had retaken it this morning. A senior diplomat said fighting continued.

Heavy weapons fire was also heard at two military bases. ...

Rebels forces fighting to install Ivory Coast's democratically elected president are preparing to advance on the country's largest city, Abidjan, after seizing a key port and the official capital overnight.

Power seems to be slipping away from the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, after troops loyal to his rival, Alassane Ouattara, swept south, taking the official capital, Yamoussoukro, and the port of San Pedro late on Wednesday.

Residents and combatants from both sides said opposition troops are in control and it is now largely calm apart from some sporadic shooting. Now attention turns to Abidjan, where the mood is tense ahead of a possible rebel assault. Ouattara's prime minister, Guillaume Soro, told French radio that Gbagbo has just hours to leave power peacefully.

In a further sign of Gbagbo's weakening position, the Army Chief of Staff sought refuge last night at the home of the South African ambassador to Ivory Coast.

Gen. Phillippe Mangou, his wife and five children arrived at the ambassador's home in Abidjan on Wednesday night, according to the South African foreign ministry.

South Africa says it is consulting with unnamed parties in Ivory Coast, West African regional leaders, the African Union and the U.N. on Mangou's move.

Ouattara's New Forces, renamed the Republic Forces (FRCI), have made huge gains in the past two days, seizing swaths of territory in the centre, east and west.

Seydou Ouattara, a military spokesman, told Reuters: "We have taken the port of San Pedro. Gbagbo's forces have all left. We are in full control."

One San Pedro resident, who declined to be named, said: "Shooting started at around 9pm, then we saw the rebels' vehicles drive into the town. Everyone's staying indoors, but we're still hearing a lot of gunfire."

Witnesses saw soldiers taking off their uniforms and throwing guns and ammunition into ditches as they fled from the rebel army. Others say some soldiers simply switched sides and joined the Republican Forces.

Earlier, residents of Yamoussoukro said they braced themselves for conflict before sporadic gunfire erupted. Serge Kipre, who runs a small clothing store in the city, said: "The night before, we were all calling each other to make sure nobody went outside. In the morning, I saw loads of police with balaclavas and Kalashnikovs racing across town. The market closed, shops shuttered. Everybody seemed on edge."

But the approach of the rebels was eagerly awaited by many young pro-Ouattara supporters, who cheered as they drove by in 4x4s. ...

Ivory Coast's president, Laurent Gbagbo, is facing a bloody deposition after his top general deserted and rebel forces advanced into Abidjan, his seat of power.

Heavy weapons and machine-gun fire were heard in the centre of Ivory Coast's main city. And French troops were deployed as the four-month political crisis appeared to near its endgame.

Ivorian sources in South Africa said they heard rumours that Gbagbo could be about to step down, possibly turning to South Africa for a diplomatic channel to end his 10-year rule. Officials in Pretoria denied there had been any approach.

The speculation was begun by the abrupt departure of Phillippe Mangou, Gbagbo's army chief of staff, to take refuge with his wife and five children at the South African ambassador's residence in Abidjan.

"We've seen a regime collapse," said one western diplomat, who could hear gunfire and explosions from his residence. "The army is no longer an effective body. It has defected and deserted, and has no leadership now the general has gone into hiding. It lacks any command and control."

He added: "There's very little to keep Gbagbo in power and he must know it. I just hope he's not one of those men who fight to the death, because it will be a bloodbath." ...

Security forces fired shots and used teargas to disperse up to 4,000 protesters in the volatile Syrian city of Deraa on Monday as frustration mounted at the slow pace of promised reforms.

Despite the widespread presence of security forces, protesters appeared to consolidate their positions in Deraa in the deep south and in the northern port city of Latakia, which are the two main fronts in the challenge to the Syrian regime.

According to human rights activists, more than 150 people have been killed in 11 days of unrest, which have seen protesters calling for increased freedoms.

Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, who has not been sighted during the protests, is expected to deliver a speech within days.

The government has pledged to lift an almost five decade old emergency law, which – among other things – severely limits citizens' rights to demonstrate. That and other reforms are yet to be implemented.

A witness said demonstrators in Deraa had converged on a main square chanting "no to emergency laws". ...

Syria's government pledged to consider protesters' "legitimate demands" after thousands took to the streets for the funerals of nine people killed by the military.

Rights activists described Wednesday's shootings in the southern city of Daraa as a massacre, claiming that more than 100 people may have been killed when troops fired on a mosque in the early hours and throughout the day.

With protests called for after Friday prayers, Buthaina Shaaban, adviser to President Bashar al-Assad, announced that the government would consider ending Syria's emergency law and revise legislation for political parties and the media. Similar reform pledges have been announced in the past, and are unlikely to satisfy protesters.

In Deraa, funeral-goers chanted "God, Syria, Freedom" and "The blood of martyrs is not spilt in vain!", Reuters news agency reported. Some reports said that up to 20,000 people attended, but this could not be verified. The city has been cordoned off.

Deraa's hospital reported receiving 37 bodies from Wednesday's violence. YouTube videos apparently showed bloody scenes at the mosque.

Electricity and communications in the city were cut before the attack, which sources said was by a unit of forces headed by the president's brother, Maher al-Assad.

"This is a crime against humanity because forces opened fire on unarmed civilians without any warning," said Radwan Ziadeh, head of the Damascus Centre for Human Rights and a visiting scholar at Harvard University. ...

Libya: Italians fear Gaddafi revenge attack
Colonel Gaddafi and Silvio Berlusconi
Special relationship was so close Gaddafi even owns a piece of the company that makes the Lynx helicopter
By Andrea Vogt
LAST UPDATED 7:59 AM, MARCH 21, 2011

For most of Europe, Gaddafi's angry threats to turn the 'entire Mediterranean into a battlefield' following the first rain of Nato bombs and missiles on Libya over the weekend are just the rantings of the country's "mad dog" dictator. But Italians know better.

On Sunday, concerned authorities heightened security at all sensitive locations in Sicily, including ports, airports, military installations and consulates. Officials also announced the possible closure of Trapani and Pantelliera airports to civilian air travel because of increased military air traffic.

Four major factors are behind the Italians' palpable sense of concern: 1. Geography (they're closest); 2. History (Libya, a former colony, has fired missiles at them before); 3. Strategy (Operation Odyssey Dawn is being organised from Naples); 4. Fear of a vendetta.

The latter is critical: Gaddafi views Italy as "a traitor" after it turned its back on its former colony despite the two countries' close economic ties, a friendship treaty signed in 2008 and his close personal friendship with Silvio Berlusconi.

In short, nowhere in Europe is this conflict felt more acutely.

Italy is the EU nation physically closest to Libya, and until recently, the former colony supplied Italy with nearly a third of its natural gas and oil.

Last August, Berlusconi rolled out the red carpet with great fanfare for Gaddafi's arrival in Rome. And let's not forget, Berlusconi's infamous 'bunga bunga' parties are said to be modelled on his Libyan friend's harems. ...

MoD rejects Gaddafi low-flying aircraft complaint

Serious online blow to Libyan tyrant

Syrian police have sealed off a southern city after security forces killed at least five protesters.

Residents of Daraa were being allowed to leave but not enter the city , said prominent Syrian rights activist Mazen Darwish.

The cordon seemed aimed at choking off any spread of unrest after earlier clashes and emotional funeral processions for the dead.

President Bashar Al-Assad, who has boasted that his country is immune to the demands for change that have already toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, sent a delegation to the southern city to offer his condolences to families of the victims, according to a Syrian official.

Serious disturbances in Syria would be a major expansion of the region's unrest. Syria, a predominantly Sunni country ruled by minority Alawites, has a history of brutally crushing dissent.

Security forces launched a harsh crackdown on Friday's demonstrations calling for political freedoms. Protests took place in at least five cities, including the capital, Damascus. But only in Daraa did they turn deadly. ...

The US is pushing the UN to authorise not just a no-fly zone over Libya, but also the use of air strikes to stop the advance of forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

Washington's ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said on Wednesday that a no-fly zone would have only a limited use, and that the Obama administration was working "very hard" to pass a new resolution, which would authorise the use of aerial bombing of Libyan tanks and heavy artillery.

The UN security council is planning to vote on the resolution late on Thursday.

After a day of intensive negotiation in New York, Rice told reporters: "We need to be prepared to contemplate steps that include, but perhaps go beyond, a no-fly zone at this point, as the situation on the ground has evolved, and as a no-fly zone has inherent limitations in terms of protection of civilians at immediate risk."

The draft, supported by the US, Britain, France and Germany, reflects a significant shift by Washington, alarmed by the speed at which the uprising is collapsing and concerned at the possibility of a massacre in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. ...

Security forces in Bahrain arrested six key opposition members whom they accused of having contacted "foreign agents", as a crackdown on a two-month anti-government rebellion continued.

Several were accused of incitement to murder. They include Hassan Musaima and Abdul Jalil al-Sangaece, who had been jailed for allegedly plotting to overthrow the monarchy but had been freed in February as part of an amnesty designed to build trust. The pair had been critical of the government since their release.

Clashes continued in the capital, Manama, but not on the same scale as the pitched battles on Tuesday and Wednesday which drew strong international condemnation and set Bahrain's rulers at odds with the US, their key western backers.

Friday prayers loom as a further flashpoint in the violent rebellion, which has seen the Shia majority pitch against a ruling Sunni elite. Tensions soared this week after Bahrain's beseiged rulers invited into the kingdom troops from the Gulf Co-operation Council, led by a contingent from Saudi Arabia, which had felt increasingly threatened by the Shia uprising on its northern border. ...

Muammar Gaddafi's army won control of a strategic rebel-held Libyan town and laid siege to another as the revolutionary administration in Benghazi again appealed for foreign military help to prevent what it said would be the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people if the insurgents were to lose.

The rebels admitted retreating from the oil town of Ras Lanuf – captured a week ago – after two days of intense fighting and that the nearby town of Brega was now threatened.

The revolutionary army, in large part made up of inexperienced young volunteers, has been forced back by a sustained artillery, tank and air bombardment about 20 miles along the road to the rebel capital of Benghazi.

The head of Libya's revolutionary council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, claimed that if Gaddafi's forces were to reach the country's second-largest city it would result in "the death of half a million" people.

The Arab League, meeting in Cairo, called on the UN security council to impose a no fly-zone on Libya as Gaddafi's forces also began to move against Misrata, a city of 300,000 people about 125 miles from Tripoli. Misrata is the only town in the west of the country still under the control of the insurgents after their defeat in a vicious battle for Zawiya. The rebels said that Misrata was now surrounded by Gaddafi's forces, which included tanks.

"We are bracing for a massacre," Mohamad Ahmed, a rebel fighter in the city, said. "We know it will happen and Misrata will be like Zawiya, but we believe in God. We do not have the capabilities to fight Gaddafi and his forces. They have tanks and heavy weapons and we have our belief and trust in God. The fighters here and the people of Misrata hold the international community responsible for the fall of Zawiya and for all the deaths that happened. Gaddafi is responsible, but they are partners in crime."

Jalil again appealed for the imposition of a no-fly zone to stop the air attacks on rebel forces: "If there is no no-fly zone imposed on Gaddafi's regime, and his ships are not checked, we will have a catastrophe in Libya." ...

Al-Jazeera says a cameraman for the pan-Arab satellite station has been killed near the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. It is the first death of a journalist since the Libyan uprising began.

The station identified the slain journalist as Ali Hassan al-Jaber but did not specify his nationality. It said he was killed in what it called an "armed ambush" on an Al-Jazeera crew in the Hawari area near Benghazi, which is the headquarters of the rebellion seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. ...

Yemeni security forces have killed four people and wounded hundreds more in the second day of a harsh crackdown on anti-government protests, witnesses said. One of the dead was a 15-year-old student.

The assault with gunfire and tear gas was the toughest yet by the government in a month of protests aimed at unseating the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years. An ally in the Obama administration's fight against al-Qaida, Saleh had appeared to be one of the Arab leaders most threatened by the regional unrest inspired by revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.

The violence began with a pre-dawn raid on a central square in the capital, Sana'a, where thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been camped out.

Eyewitnesses said security troops surrounded the square with police cars and armoured personnel carriers shortly after midnight and began calling on protesters through loudspeakers to go home. At 5am, security forces attacked, firing bullets and tear gas.

One protester died from a bullet to the head, which may have come from a sniper on the rooftop of a nearby building, witnesses said.

"We were performing dawn prayers when we were surprised by a sudden hail of bullets and tear gas," said Walid Hassan, a 25-year-old activist. "The protesters began throwing rocks at security ... it was total mayhem, a real battlefield."

A few hours later, another protester was shot dead in a nearby street. In the city of Dar Saad in the southern province of Aden, police used live fire and tear gas to disperse a crowd of several thousand, killing one demonstrator. ...

Prince Andrew has pulled out of a proposed trip to Saudi Arabia after almost three weeks of damaging revelations about his personal integrity and links with corrupt and repressive regimes.

The Duke of York was due to travel next week to boost defence contracts in his role as Britain's trade envoy.

Buckingham Palace denied the trip was cancelled in light of the allegations, saying simply that the trip had been "postponed" because of safety concerns.

"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK Trade and Investment and the palace have agreed to postpone the visit given the current circumstances in the region," the palace said.

"Any suggestion that this had anything to do with recent UK media coverage is absolutely not the case."

The Queen is reported to have held private talks with Andrew on Tuesday over the mounting scandal. The Duke, who is fourth in line to the throne, has been plagued by revelations about his close friendship with convicted sex offender and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. ...

As unrest escalated across the Middle East, activists in Saudi Arabia demanded a political voice as well. Rather than promises of democracy, they got a $36 billion handout and a slap down from Islamic clerics.

Saudi academics, writers and representatives of the minority Shiite Muslim population called on King Abdullah, the sixth monarch in the Arab world’s largest economy, to move the country toward a constitutional monarchy. Anti-government demonstrators are advocating a “Day of Rage” today.

“Demands for political reform will inevitably increase in the kingdom as democracy takes root in the region,” said Thomas Hegghammer, a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment in Oslo and author of “Jihad in Saudi Arabia.” “If the regime does nothing, tension will grow between conservative and progressive factions.”

More than two months of protests have rocked the Middle East and North Africa as citizens demand civil rights, higher living standards and the ouster of entrenched autocratic regimes. In Bahrain, a Saudi neighbor and home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, mainly Shiite protesters are pressing their demands for free elections and a constitutional monarchy.

The Saudi Tadawul stock index has dropped 9 percent since Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted by a popular movement and fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14. The benchmark had been down as much as 21 percent since that date when it slumped close to a two-year low on March 2. Crude oil has advanced 19 percent since turmoil in Libya started on Feb. 17.
‘Urgent Matter’

“The monarchy is trying hard to absorb demands for political change and cast them as economic demands,” Madawi Al- Rasheed, a professor of Anthropology of Religion at King’s College London, said in response to e-mailed questions. “Political reform is an urgent matter.”

Saudi Arabia has so far tried to calm oil markets and avoid the political upheaval with a package of new jobless benefits, education and housing subsidies and debt write-offs. There was also a warning from the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars that public protests won’t be tolerated. ...

... The witness, speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared government reprisal, said police in the area opened fire and at least one protester was injured.

The Reuters news agency reported one witness as saying police fired percussion bombs to disperse the crowd of around 200 people.

Last week Saudi Arabia banned public protests following demonstrations by minority Shia groups.

The ruling came after widespread demonstrations in the Middle East – including those that led to the downfall of regimes in Egypt and Tunisia – and two weeks of Shia agitation in Saudi Arabia itself, during which 22 people were arrested.

A statement issued by the country's council of senior clerics at the time said: "The council ... affirms that demonstrations are forbidden in this country. The correct way in sharia [law] of realising common interest is by advising, which is what the Prophet Muhammad established.

"Reform and advice should not be via demonstrations and ways that provoke strife and division, this is what the religious scholars of this country in the past and now have forbidden and warned against."

The statement made clear the council's stance against political parties, which are banned as they are deemed to be not in keeping with Islam.

... The Queen is reported to have held private talks with Andrew about the mounting scandal over his trade dealings with despots for the government and his personal links to the US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who has been convicted of sex offences with young girls.

The prince's spokesman refused to comment on the meeting, said to have taken place at the Queen's private apartments at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, after more than two weeks of daily reports criticising his conduct and judgment as the UK's international trade envoy.

"I understand that she asked him if any more stories are going to come out in the next few days," the Daily Mail reported a senior aide as saying. "If the answer was yes, then his position will be untenable. I suspect he will make a decision in the next 48 hours or so."The newspaper said the Queen was concerned that scrutiny of the duke was overshadowing preparations for the wedding next month of Prince William and Kate Middleton, which the royal family hopes to use to increase public support.

But backing for the prince came from Sir David Tang, the Hong Kong restaurateur and businessman. He met the prince before his visit last October to promote business interests in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, GeneWatch UK, which has campaigned against the police national DNA database, has disclosed that the UK Forensic Science Service is involved in a plan to DNA-test the entire population of the United Arab Emirates, under a contract signed in the presence of Andrew in 2006.

Dr Helen Wallace, of GeneWatch UK, called on ministers to scrap the contract under which a universal DNA database is to being built and linked to a national identity card scheme. "This would allow the Emirates to track every citizen and identify their relatives, a frightening prospect for dissidents and women," she said. ...

Not quite the sharpest crayon in the box are ye, Andy?

Two journalists working for the BBC in Libya have been arrested, tortured and subjected to a mock execution by security forces of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

The shocking account of their experiences, including being held in a cage in a militia barracks while others were tortured around them, was made available to media colleagues in Tripoli after the men had been released and left the country.

At one point during their captivity the men say they had shots fired past their heads as they were led into a barracks.

One of the men was attacked repeatedly with fists, boots, rifle butts, a stick and piece of pipe. He also described trying to help other victims of torture whom they saw, some of whom had had their ribs broken during beatings.

The ordeal represents the most serious incident yet involving the targeting of the international media and may offer an insight into the fate of many of those opposition supporters who have been rounded up during the regime's crackdown on its opponents.

It also offers the first real eyewitness depiction of conditions endured by those arrested by the regime, including those whose only crime has been to talk to foreign journalists.

A reporter for the BBC Arabic service, Feras Killani, a Palestinian refugee with a Syrian passport and Turkish cameraman Goktay Koraltan, were arrested on Monday with Chris Cobb-Smith, a British citizen, at a checkpoint in Zahra, six miles from the besieged town of Zawiya 30 miles from Tripoli.

The two journalists say they were kicked and punched and beaten to the floor with rifle butts while being interrogated as suspected "British spies" despite having permission to work in Libya. Cobb-Smith was not assaulted. ...

It may be furnished, according to its new occupants, just as you would expect "when you have spent £10m of blood money on a house", but judging by the appearance mid-afternoon of a masked man in camouflage gear carrying two shopping bags from Budgens, no one had thought to fill the fridge.

Perhaps when occupying the multimillion-pound London mansion of a tyrant's son, food is some way down the list of priorities. More pressing tasks, for the small group of protesters who have moved into Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's redbrick Hampstead home, were affixing banners to the roof reading "Revolution" and "Out of Libya, out of London", and summoning the press, to whom they declared their actions had been taken "in solidarity with the people of Libya, the people of Cairo, the people of Saudi Arabia".

Spokesman Montgomery Jones told the Guardian that the group, called Topple the Tyrants, had been formed in response to the events of the Arab spring; this was their first action. How many of them were there? "We're not doing numbers."

Though there were no Libyans among the group, "we have people from the Middle East and we're hoping to disseminate the protests more widely". Further properties would be targeted "if they are owned by dictators, absolutely".

A printed notice declaring their legal rights as squatters and taped to the front door, and the appearance of a man in a yellow tabard with the words "legal observer" handwritten on the back, suggested this was not the first such protest for those involved.

The property, the protesters said, was managed by Gaddafi through a holding company registered in the British Cayman Islands. They said they had been alerted anonymously to the address. ...

Libya uprising - live updates

• Libyan forces launch counter attacks against rebels
• Prospect of military intervention by west moves closer
• Gaddafi labelled "delusional" by US ambassador to UN
• Libyan leader maintains "All my people love me"

Muammar Gaddafi has insisted that the people of Libya love him and denied during an interview that there have been any demonstrations against his regime.

"All my people love me. They would die to protect me," said the Libyan leader, speaking to news organisations including the BBC, laughing off international pressure to step down.

"As if anyone would leave their homeland," he replied, accusing western leaders of betrayal and of having "no morals."

Besides, he insisted, he had no official position from which he could resign: "It's honorary. It has nothing to do with exercising power or authority."

"In Britain who has the power, is it Queen Elizabeth or is it David Cameron?" he asked.

Throughout an interview, conducted at a Tripoli restaurant overlooking a port on the Mediterranean coast, he appeared to be in denial about the strength of the uprising against his 41-year rule that has ended his control over eastern Libya and is closing in on Tripoli itself.

Sometimes breaking into English from Arabic, he repeated claims that al-Qaida was behind the uprising and said that young people involved in it had been given drugs, which were now beginning to wear off. ...

Britain froze the assets of Muammar Gaddafi and his five children on Sunday evening at an emergency meeting of the Privy Council at Windsor castle presided over by the Queen.

The chancellor, George Osborne, acted amid reports that the Libyan leader had moved £3bn to Britain last week. In a separate cloak-and-dagger operation, £900m of Libyan currency was impounded in Britain.

Earlier ministers announced they had stripped the Gaddafi family of its diplomatic immunity in Britain.

A special meeting of the Privy Council at 5.15pm on Sunday approved an order in council freezing the assets of Gaddafi, his sons Saif al-Islam, Hannibal Muammar, Khamis Muammar, and Mutassim, and his daughter Aisha Muammar. The Times reported on Saturday that Gaddafi had deposited £3m with a Mayfair-based private wealth manager last week.

The chancellor said: "I have today taken action to freeze the assets in the UK of Colonel Gaddafi and his family or those acting on their behalf so that they cannot be used against the interests of the Libyan people. This follows the UN security council resolution tabled by the UK and France.

"I decided to implement this UN resolution in the UK as quickly as possible, before the financial markets reopened. This is a strong message for the Libyan regime that violence against its own people is not acceptable."

The order in council freezes "all funds, financial assets and economic resources owned or controlled by the listed individuals and entities, or by anyone acting on their behalf or by entities controlled" by the named members of the Gaddafi family. The City of London has been informed that "no funds or economic resources can be made available to listed persons or entities, or for their benefit". ...

"Have a good revolution," said the Tunisian customs officer, handing back our passports. We set out across the short stretch of no man's land towards Libya beneath a giant image of Muammar Gaddafi, his chin lifted, hands held together in a gesture of unity and victory.

Before we could reach him, a car bearing the flag of Libya's revolution raced out and its driver gestured us inside before speeding around the border post in a wide circle. We could make out the gaping expressions of the police and intelligence officers as they receded into the distance.

"This [is] all free now," the driver said, gesturing at the expanses of mountain and desert.

The roads in western Libya are clogged with makeshift checkpoints. Barricades built of burnt-out cars and rocks and manned by a patchwork of armed militias block the entrances to towns and villages. The fighters here are an assortment of turbaned Amazigh, or Berber, tribesmen, defectors wearing army uniforms and volunteers in mismatched combat fatigues.

The leaders of this uprising are equally varied: one burly military commander, Talibi, in civilian life is an Amazigh poet. Other revolutionaries we met were doctors, engineers, tribal elders, even a web-savvy youth in a baseball cap.

Night had fallen by the time we reached Nalut, where dozens of Amazigh tribesmen stood around campfires guarding barricades and manning checkpoints in the cold. Some carried weapons they had looted from army bases, the rest carried hunting rifles and clubs. The Amazigh we spoke to could not hide their euphoria.

"The fear of decades was broken after what happened in Egypt and Tunisia," said Khairy as he handed us small cups of green tea. The Amazigh have long struggled to retain their cultural rights in Gaddafi's Libya. "We never thought this could happen in our lifetime," he said. ...

... But the men in Zawiyah were not foreigners, or drugged – as Gaddafi had previously claimed. Nor were they bearded Islamists or even rebels from outside. Instead, they were the town's people. There were doctors and engineers, teachers, local youths and old men all anxious to speak, although many of them still fearful that the army – whose nearest positions were only two kilometres away – would try to enter Zawiyah again.

In a small mosque off the main square, locals led us into a small storeroom to show off two captured teenage soldiers, one whose family had come from Chad.

Terrified, the boys were led out of the room, one with a dressing on a face wound. We were told they were being handed over to one of the boys' fathers.

Youssef Mustapha, a doctor who had been working at the aid station, said he believed 24 people had died in the fighting in this city, which began last Thursday night and continued for almost four days.

"We saw all kinds of injuries," he said. "People shot in the head and neck. Shotgun and rifle wounds and injuries caused by heavy calibre weapons. The firing always came from the south and east. Have you seen the graves?"

These are in the centre of Martyrs Square. Those killed in the fighting are now buried there and a pair of open graves waited to be filled.

Ghari Ahmed, a computer engineer was worried about the soldiers outside: "They control all of the main roads into city," he explained. "Villagers from around the town want to come in, but the army is blocking them. I am afraid they will try to attack again." ...

International efforts to respond to the Libyan crisis are gathering pace under US leadership after a still defiant Muammar Gaddafi launched counterattacks to defend Tripoli against the popular uprising now consolidating its hold on the liberated east of the country.

The White House said Barack Obama planned to call David Cameron and France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to discuss possible actions, including a no-fly zone or sanctions to force the Libyan leader to end the violence. Switzerland said it had frozen Gaddafi's assets.

Gaddafi, in power for 42 years, has used aircraft, tanks and foreign mercenaries in eight days of violence that has killed hundreds in the bloodiest of the uprisings to shake the Arab world. Up to 2,000 people may have died, it was claimed by a senior French human rights official.

But there was no sign Gaddafi was prepared to change course. In another semi-coherent and abusive speech on Thursday, he accused protesters of being drugged and agents of al-Qaida. "Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee," he said in a telephone interview with Libyan state TV – suggesting he may already have left his heavily guarded Tripoli compound.

It only boosted the growing impression that he is desperate and out of touch with reality. "This is the speech of a dead man," said Said el-Gareeny in the eastern city of Benghazi, which is now in opposition hands.

"People always warn about al-Qaida and say this will become an Islamic state ... to get support from western countries. This isn't true. The Libyan people are free. That's it." ...

Gaddafi speech and Libya unrest – as it happened

• Gaddafi: 'I cannot leave my country, I will die a martyr'
• Libyan leader makes rambling speech after days of unrest
• 'Anyone who undermines state will be punished by death'
• Hague: 'Structure of Libyan state is collapsing'

Gaddafi urges violent showdown and tells Libya 'I'll die a martyr'

• Muammar Gaddafi tells loyalists to take to streets of Libya
• Witnesses speak of mercenaries in death squads
• International condemnation of bloodshed grows

With his flawless English, his expensive Italian suits and his place at the London School of Economics, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi appeared to be a man with whom the west could do business: a man who could smooth access to his country's vast mineral resources while avoiding the need to deal with his famously capricious father.

As state security forces were reported to be firing relentlessly into crowds of civilian protesters on Monday, and with Gaddafi Jr appearing on television to threaten a civil war in which the regime "will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet", many of his erstwhile associates were questioning their friendships with him.

The LSE has been quick to distance itself from Saif, issuing a statement in which it said the university had had a number of links with Libya, but that "in view of the highly distressing news from Libya over the weekend of 19-20 February, the school has reconsidered those links as a matter of urgency".

Although the LSE had accepted £1.5m from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, an organisation headed by Saif – some of which was to finance "a virtual democracy centre" – the university stressed that it was to be paid over five years, and only £300,000 has been received to date. "In current difficult circumstances across the region, the school has decided to stop new activities under that programme," the statement said. The LSE has also received scholarship funding in return for advice given to the Libyan Investment Authority in London. "No further receipts are anticipated," the university said.

Professor David Held, an academic advisor to Saif Gaddafi during his four years at the LSE, said: "Watching Saif give that speech – looking so exhausted, nervous and, frankly, terrible – was the stuff of Shakespeare and of Freud: a young man torn by a struggle between loyalty to his father and his family, and the beliefs he had come to hold for reform, democracy and the rule of law. The man giving that speech wasn't the Saif I had got to know well over those years." ...

Idi Amin finished up in Saudi Arabia. Mobutu Sese Seko went to Togo then settled in Morocco. Mengistu Haile Mariam, author of Ethiopia's Red Terror, is living out his days in Zimbabwe. And so, if the once unthinkable should happen and the dictator falls in Libya, whither Muammar Gaddafi?

Burkina Faso, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Venezuela and Zimbabwe are among the contenders floated by analysts if the self-declared "doyen of Arab leaders, king of kings of Africa and imam of all Muslims" was forced to seek asylum. Saudi hospitality has previously been extended to ousted Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif and overthrown Tunisia's Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. But its relations with Libya have been strained for years; in 2009 Gaddafi told King Abdullah: "You are propelled by fibs towards the grave and you were made by Britain and protected by the US."

Venezuela is a stronger candidate having had close ties with Libya of late. Gaddafi was seen shopping on a Venezuelan island during a summit 18 month ago. President Hugo Chavez has visited Libya several times and a football stadium there was named in his honour.

But Gaddafi also has a long history with the rest of Africa, which intensified after he switched from promoting Arab unity to buying influence at the African Union – debts he may now seek to call in. Adekeye Adebajo, executive director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution at Cape Town University in South Africa, said: "He has enough friends to be able to find a safe haven in many parts of Africa, but obviously there would be a lot of people scared to take him."

Adebajo noted Gaddafi's past involvement in funding rebel movements in Liberia and Sierra Leone. "A lot of insecure African leaders would be nervous to have him on their territory." ...

Libya and Bahrain protests – Saturday 19 February

• Dozens reported killed in deadly crackdowns
• Video shows Libya protester shot in head
• Iran opposition calls for more demonstrations

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is confronting the most serious challenge to his 42-year rule as leader of Libya by unleashing his army on unarmed protesters.

Unlike the rulers of neighbouring Egypt, Gaddafi has refused to countenance the politics of disobedience, despite growing international condemnation, and the death toll of demonstrators nearing 100.

The pro-government Al-Zahf al-Akhdar newspaper warned that the government would "violently and thunderously respond" to the protests, and said those opposing the regime risked "suicide".

William Hague, the UK's foreign secretary, condemned the violence as "unacceptable and horrifying", even as the Libyan regime's special forces, backed by African mercenaries, launched a dawn attack on a protest camp in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Britain is scrambling to extricate itself from its recently cosy relationship with Gaddafi, initiated by then prime minister Tony Blair in 2004. That rapprochement saw Libya open its doors to British oil companies in exchange for becoming a new ally in the "war on terror" while Britain sold Gaddafi arms.

Hague's outspoken comments came a day after the government revoked arms export licenses to both Bahrain and Libya for their use of deadly force against protesters calling for a change in the regime.

With internet services in Libya shut off for long periods, foreign journalists excluded and access already blocked to social networking sites, Gaddafi appeared determined to quell a revolt centred in the country's east, which has long suffered a policy of deliberate economic exclusion.

Libya has also jammed the signals of Al-Jazeera, the Arab broadcaster to the country. Reports from inside the country claimed pro-regime forces had deliberately aimed at protesters' heads. ...

Violence in Bahrain and Libya: live updates

• Bahrain: dozens injured as shots fired at protesters
• Libya: reports claim up to 50 killed
• Obama condemns violent attacks on protesters
• Egypt: protesters return to Tahrir Square
• Yemen: crowds demonstrating in Sana'a and Taiz ...

Violence in Libya and Bahrain has claimed scores of lives and left many more injured as the two Arab countries were united by popular protests that continue to shake the status quo and sound alarm bells across the region and the world.

Just a week after Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, was forced to stand down, dozens of Libyans were reported killed by Muammar Gaddafi's security forces. Meanwhile Bahraini troops shot dead at least one protester and wounded 50 others after mourners had buried four people who were gunned down on Thursday in the worst mass unrest the western-backed Gulf state has ever seen.

"We don't care if they kill 5,000 of us," a protester screamed inside the forecourt of the Salmaniya hospital, which has become a staging point for Bahrain's raging youth. "The regime must fall and we will make sure it does."

Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa went on television to promise a national dialogue once calm has returned. But Bahrain's most senior Shia cleric, Sheikh Issa Qassem, condemned attacks on protesters as a "massacre" and said the government had shut the door to such dialogue.

But while the unrest in Bahrain was broadcast instantly around the world, the unprecedented bloodshed in the remote towns of eastern Libya was far harder for global media to cover.

Amid an official news blackout in Libya, there were opposition claims of 60 dead as diplomats reported the use of heavy weapons in Benghazi, the country's second city, and "a rapidly deteriorating situation" in the latest – and the most repressive – Arab country to be hit by serious unrest.

Libyans said a "massacre" had been perpetrated in Benghazi, al-Bayda and elsewhere in the region. Crowds in the port city of Tobruk were shown destroying a statue of Gaddafi's Green Book and chanting "We want the regime to fall," echoing the slogan of the uprising in Egypt.

Umm Muhammad, a political activist in Benghazi, told the Guardian that 38 people had died in the city. "They [security forces] were using live fire here, not just tear gas. This is a bloody massacre – in Benghazi, in al-Bayda, all over Libya. They are releasing prisoners from the jails to attack the demonstrators." Benghazi's al-Jala hospital was appealing for emergency blood supplies to help treat the injured. ...

On 1 February, Issan Nadir tipped petrol on his clothes and set fire to himself outside the education ministry in the Moroccan capital of Rabat. It was yet another desperate act of self-immolation in a region where the example set by Muhammad Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit seller who sparked a wave of revolution, has been imitated from Mauritania to Saudi Arabia.

The flames were doused before Nadir, a 27-year-old volunteer teacher demanding a paid job, could do as much damage to himself as Bouazizi. Video footage seen by the Guardian shows firefighters frantically putting out flames in front of the ministry.

After a week in Rabat's Ibn Sina hospital, Nadir is recovering in his home town of Safi. "He doesn't want to see anyone," says his friend and fellow protester Hafid Libi."If they don't do anything, there may be more of the same."

Nadir is not the only protester to have set fire to himself. Last week 26-year-old Mourad Raho died in Benguerir, 36 miles north of Marrakech. Five similar attempts have been reported in recent weeks.

Popular demonstrations called for this Sunday will be a test of both public upset with the regime led by King Mohammed VI and how far Morocco – which claims to be more liberal than its north African neighbours – is prepared to tolerate protest. ...

A supporter of Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh holds a traditional dagger as pro-government protesters attempt to get at his opponents in Sana’a University. Photograph: Gamal Noman/AFP/Getty Images
[What does it tell you, girls and boys, when the pro-government supporters have big scary knives (& dollar-sign ballcaps??? WTF) but the anti-gov't protesters don't?]

Anti-government protests flared in Yemen for the sixth consecutive day, turning violent as protests sprang up across the country, spurred on by the resignation last week of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

In Yemen's main southern city of Aden, security forces chased hundreds of people who took to the streets of Al-Mansura neighbourhood demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdallah Saleh. At least one protestor was shot dead by police as demonstrators hurled stones at police, set tyres and vehicles on fire and stormed a municipal building.

In the capital city, a student-led protest inside the gates of Sana'a University calling for an improved curriculum and the removal of the university dean turned into an anti-government rally when hundreds of other students flocked to the scene.

"The people want to overthrow the regime" and "Oh Ali, son of Saleh, your regime is no good," the protesters chanted, mirroring a growing sense of frustration that has been swelling in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest state.

A street battle broke out when a handful of armed [Ed. Note: and doubtless paid] Saleh supporters, mainly middle-aged men armed with batons, arrived in buses and began chanting government slogans. ...

Officers from Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency are expected to begin tracing the bank accounts of Hosni Mubarak's cabinet after the Egyptian government made a formal request for a freeze on the assets of the ousted president and his former colleagues.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, said Soca would take charge of the hunt for accounts in London, although the timing and extent of the investigation would be decided by EU finance ministers following discussions in Brussels. Hague said UK rules prevented the police from freezing bank accounts without "evidence of illegality or misuse of state assets". He said if evidence became available, the government would take "firm and prompt action".

Egypt's state prosecutor meanwhile launched corruption investigations against three former government ministers and a member of parliament from Egypt's ruling National Democratic party. They are the former minister of commerce, Muhammad Rachid, the former tourism minister, Zoheir Garranah, the former housing minister Ahmed Maghrabi, and member of parliament Ahmed Ezz.

The corruption investigations came as thousands of anti-government protesters remained in Cairo's Tahrir Square and outside the parliament building. Protesters held a funeral procession for those killed in anti-protest violence.

British MPs have argued that the UK government should move more quickly to help the new Egyptian government in its efforts to repatriate illicit funds sent overseas. The shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, said the government had failed to authorise an immediate investigation to prevent funds leaving the UK for less regulated offshore tax havens. He said the government needed to move quickly to prevent Mubarak, his family and cronies who benefited from the corrupt regime from avoiding scrutiny. ...

Egypt's uprising has sent powerful shockwaves across the Middle East , with two deaths reported in street clashes in Iran and Bahrain and violent demonstrations in Yemen, as further protests and strikes erupted across Egypt.

Thousands of Iranians defied a government ban and volleys of teargas to join a rally in Azadi Square in the centre of Tehran. The protests were the biggest since those that erupted after the disputed 2009 presidential elections.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, leader of the Iranian Green movement, was placed under house arrest, as was Mehdi Karroubi, another prominent opposition figure. Protest rallies were also held in Isfahan and Shiraz.

Iran's Islamic regime has hailed the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, though neither involved organised activity by Islamist opposition movements. Both protests were led by young people seeking political freedoms and an end to autocracy – just like many Iranian demonstrators.

Large numbers of police and security forces, wearing riot gear and many mounted on motorbikes, were stationed around Tehran's main squares. Mobile phone connections were down in the area of the protests.

Unrest in the Gulf island state of Bahrain on a "day of rage" organised by activists using Twitter and Facebook appeared to be similarly inspired by events in Cairo and Tunis but rooted in local factors, especially anger at discrimination against the Shia majority by the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty.

It was the first sign of post-Egypt unrest anywhere in the wealthy Gulf states. Riot police fired teargas and rubber bullets at demonstrators demanding the release of Shia detainees. "Our movement is peaceful and our demands are legitimate," read one slogan. At least 14 people were injured in Newidrat in the south-west of the kingdom, — a key western ally that hosts the US fifth fleet. "We are only asking for political reforms, right of political participation, respect for human rights, stopping of systematic discrimination against Shias," activist Nabeel Rajab told al-Jazeera. He said one person had died of injuries sustained during the protests.

In the Yemeni capital Sana'a, protesters marched for a fourth consecutive day, demanding the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh....

Thousands of defiant protesters in Iran's capital have clashed with security officials as they marched in a banned rally. One person was reported killed, with dozens injured and many more arrested.

Supporters of the Green movement appeared in scattered groups in various locations in central Tehran and other big cities in what was seen as the Iranian opposition's first attempt in more than a year to hold street protests against the government.

The riot police and government-sponsored plainclothes basiji militia used teargas, wielded batons and opened fire to disperse protesters who chanted "death to the dictator", a reference to both Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Witnesses told the Guardian that despite a heavy security presence, small groups of people succeeded in gathering in main squares leading to Azadi ("freedom") Square – a chosen focal point.

HRANA, a human rights website, reported that one protester was killed and three injured when riot police opened fire at protesters near Tohid Square in Tehran. The website also said that at least 250 protesters have been arrested. Opposition websites also reported significant gatherings in the cities of Shiraz, Isfahan, Rasht, Mashhad and Kermanshah.

An Iranian student who participated in a protest in Enghelab Square in Tehran, who asked not to be identified, said: "What I saw in the streets today was very promising. It showed that the green movement is quite alive in spite of all crackdowns and arrests and people are still striving for freedom." ...

When it finally came, the end was swift. After 18 days of mass protest, it took just over 30 seconds for Egypt's vice-president, Omar Suleiman, to announce that President Hosni Mubarak was standing down and handing power to the military.

"In the name of Allah the most gracious the most merciful," Suleiman read. "My fellow citizens, in the difficult circumstances our country is experiencing, President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak has decided to give up the office of the president of the republic and instructed the supreme council of the armed forces to manage the affairs of the country. May God guide our steps."

Moments later a deafening roar swept central Cairo and protesters fell to their knees and prayed, wept and let loose victory chants. Hundreds of thousands of people packed in to Tahrir Square, the centre of the demonstrations, waved flags, held up hastily written signs declaring victory and embraced soldiers.

"We have brought down the regime, we have brought down the regime," chanted the crowd.

Among those in the square was Mohammed Abdul Ghedi, a lifeguard in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the former president and his family flew on Friday. Abdul Ghedi held up a sign in English that said: "Mubarak you are nothing, you are heartless, without mind, just youkel, worthless, fuck off."

"This is my first day here and he is gone. Mubarak is a liar. When he promised to leave in three or six months we don't believe him. We only believe him when he is gone," he said. "Now Egyptians are free. All of Egypt is liberated. Now we will choose our leaders and if we don't like them, they will go."

Another protester with tears in his eyes, Karim Medhat Ennarah, said: "For 18 days we have withstood teargas, rubber bullets, live ammunition, Molotov cocktails, thugs on horseback, the scepticism and fear of our loved ones, and the worst sort of ambivalence from an international community that claims to care about democracy. But we held our ground. We did it." ...

Hosni Mubarak's presidency was born amid gunfire and bloodshed and ended in an equally dramatic fashion. As vice-president, Mubarak was sitting next to Anwar Sadat on 6 October 1981 at an army parade in the Cairo district of Nasser City when soldiers with Islamist sympathies turned on their leader, pouring automatic weapons fire into the reviewing stand. Sadat was killed outright. Mubarak narrowly escaped. Eight days later, he was sworn in as Egypt's third president.

That Mubarak should be ejected from the job he has held for nearly 30 years is, with hindsight, hardly a surprise. It had become clear to Egyptians and the world in recent years that even at the age of 82 he regarded the presidency as his by right, hence his nickname of "pharaoh" – and that he would not quit voluntarily. As the crisis overwhelmed him, he said he had had no intention of standing again in September. Few believed him. Others assumed he planned instead to install his second son, Gamal, in a dynastic succession.

Mubarak's attitude to his people was by turns paternalistic, aloof and repressive. Though he claimed to love his fellow Egyptians, he did not trust them, maintaining the harsh emergency laws imposed after Sadat's assassination throughout his reign. Leading an unswervingly secular, pro-western regime, he demonised even moderate Islamist parties and made of the Muslim Brotherhood a bogeyman with which to scare the Americans.

Yet, in rare interviews he implied that he believed he held some sort of divine mandate, that he ruled through and by God's will. After he survived an attempt on his life by Gema'a Islamiya (Muslim Group) terrorists in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in June 1995, one of up to eight attempted assassinations over 30 years, he returned to Cairo proclaiming that God had saved him through an act of divine providence, as in 1981.

Imperious, abstemious (he does not smoke or drink), and intensely private, he suggested Egyptians were lucky to have him in charge. Without him, he said repeatedly, there would be only chaos. And this claim to ensure stability was, in truth, his entire electoral manifesto.

Yet mixed up with his vague sense of God-given power and obligation was a strong strand of regal hubris, bordering on self pity. "I've only had three months' holiday in my 56-year career," he told a television interviewer in 2005. "I've been doing hard labour for 56 years and it's all for Egypt." He never cried, he said, he never despaired, and he never allowed himself to be provoked. Influenced perhaps by his military background, he clearly saw such emotional repression as a virtue.

Speaking this week, Mubarak returned to his favourite theme of self-sacrifice. As hundreds of thousands of demonstrators demanded he follow Tunisia's Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali into exile, he insisted he would serve Egypt until his last breath. "This dear nation ... is where I lived, I fought for it, and defended its soil, sovereignty and interests. On its soil I will die. History will judge me like it did others." Talking to ABC television last week on Thursday,he repeated his life-long, heart-felt mantra: that, if he left, chaos would descend.

For all his vanities and inadequacies, Mubarak's early achievements were significant. To the turmoil that followed Sadat's death, he brought a steady hand and, at a moment of great peril, held the nation together. Confronting the ostracism of Egypt by Arab and Muslim countries following Sadat's 1979 peace treaty with Israel (the Arab League decamped from Cairo to Tunis in disgust), he worked assiduously to restore relations, finally succeeding by 1989 with all but the rejectionist leaders of Tehran. ...

The Egyptian military has secretly detained hundreds and possibly thousands of suspected government opponents since mass protests against President Hosni Mubarak began, and at least some of these detainees have been tortured, according to testimony gathered by the Guardian.

The military has claimed to be neutral, merely keeping anti-Mubarak protesters and loyalists apart. But human rights campaigners say this is clearly no longer the case, accusing the army of involvement in both disappearances and torture – abuses Egyptians have for years associated with the notorious state security intelligence (SSI) but not the army.

The Guardian has spoken to detainees who say they have suffered extensive beatings and other abuses at the hands of the military in what appears to be an organised campaign of intimidation. Human rights groups have documented the use of electric shocks on some of those held by the army.

Egyptian human rights groups say families are desperately searching for missing relatives who have disappeared into army custody. Some of the detainees have been held inside the renowned Museum of Egyptian Antiquities on the edge of Tahrir Square. Those released have given graphic accounts of physical abuse by soldiers who accused them of acting for foreign powers, including Hamas and Israel.

Among those detained have been human rights activists, lawyers and journalists, but most have been released. However, Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in Cairo, said hundreds, and possibly thousands, of ordinary people had "disappeared" into military custody across the country for no more than carrying a political flyer, attending the demonstrations or even the way they look. Many were still missing.

"Their range is very wide, from people who were at the protests or detained for breaking curfew to those who talked back at an army officer or were handed over to the army for looking suspicious or for looking like foreigners even if they were not," he said. "It's unusual and to the best of our knowledge it's also unprecedented for the army to be doing this."

One of those detained by the army was a 23-year-old man who would only give his first name, Ashraf, for fear of again being arrested. He was detained last Friday on the edge of Tahrir Square carrying a box of medical supplies intended for one of the makeshift clinics treating protesters attacked by pro-Mubarak forces.

"I was on a sidestreet and a soldier stopped me and asked me where I was going. I told him and he accused me of working for foreign enemies and other soldiers rushed over and they all started hitting me with their guns," he said. ...

The sickening, rapid click-click-clicking of the electrocuting device sounded like an angry rattlesnake as it passed within inches of my face. Then came a scream of agony, followed by a pitiful whimpering from the handcuffed, blindfolded victim as the force of the shock propelled him across the floor.

A hail of vicious punches and kicks rained down on the prone bodies next to me, creating loud thumps. The torturers screamed abuse all around me. Only later were their chilling words translated to me by an Arabic-speaking colleague: "In this hotel, there are only two items on the menu for those who don't behave – electrocution and rape."

Cuffed and blindfolded, like my fellow detainees, I lay transfixed. My palms sweated and my heart raced. I felt myself shaking. Would it be my turn next? Or would my outsider status, conferred by holding a British passport, save me? I suspected – hoped – that it would be the latter and, thankfully, it was. But I could never be sure.

I had "disappeared", along with countless Egyptians, inside the bowels of the Mukhabarat, President Hosni Mubarak's vast security-intelligence apparatus and an organisation headed, until recently, by his vice-president and former intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, the man trusted to negotiate an "orderly transition" to democratic rule.

Judging by what I witnessed, that seems a forlorn hope.

I had often wondered, reading accounts of political prisoners detained and tortured in places such as junta-run Argentina of the 1970s, what it would be like to be totally at the mercy of, and dependent on, your jailer for everything – food, water, the toilet. I never dreamed I would find out. Yet here I was, cooped up in a tiny room with a group of Egyptian detainees who were being mercilessly brutalised.

I had been handed over to the security services after being stopped at a police checkpoint near central Cairo last Friday. I had flown there, along with an Iraqi-born British colleague, Abdelilah Nuaimi, to cover Egypt's unfolding crisis for RFE/RL, an American radio station based in Prague.

We knew beforehand that foreign journalists had been targeted by security services as they scrambled to contain a revolt against Mubarak's regime, so our incarceration was not unique.

Yet it was different. My experience, while highly personal, wasn't really about me or the foreign media. It was about gaining an insight – if that is possible behind a blindfold – into the inner workings of the Mubarak regime. It told me all I needed to know about why it had become hated, feared and loathed by the mass of ordinary Egyptians. ...

Talks between the Egyptian government and opposition have all but collapsed after the regime balked at surrendering power to a transitional administration in the hope that mass protests would die down.

Instead, the unrest is spreading as some of the largest demonstrations yet against President Hosni Mubarak were joined by labour strikes across the country, including on the Suez canal, in the city of Alexandria and by public transport workers in Cairo.

A prominent member of a key opposition group, the Council of Wise Men, said negotiations had "essentially come to an end". A western diplomat said Washington was alarmed by the lack of progress and the vice-president Omar Suleiman's warning of a coup if the opposition refused to accept the government's terms.

Diaa Rashwan, of the Council of Wise Men, said he offered Suleiman a compromise in which Mubarak would have remained president but with his powers transferred to a transitional government.

Rashwan said this proposal was rejected at the weekend and there had been no further movement. He said: "Suleiman's comments about there being a danger of a coup were shocking to all of us – it was a betrayal of the spirit of negotiations, and is unacceptable. The regime's strategy has been just to play for time and stall with negotiations. They don't really want to talk to anyone."

Instead, the largest demonstration so far took place in Cairo on Tuesday, the same day as 25 big demonstrations elsewhere in Egypt and the start of a series of strikes as trade unions joined the fray. Some stoppages are mainly about wage demands, but in the present crisis there is little doubt they are timed to support the pro-democracy movement. Tens of thousands of workers stayed away in Alexandria to demand Mubarak's resignation. Employees of the state-run Suez Canal company, public transport workers in Cairo and iron and steel workers in other areas have also joined the strikes.

At least two people were killed and several wounded in clashes between thousands of protesters and police in New Province, 300 miles from Cairo. This takes the estimated number of deaths at the hands of government forces above 300.

Rashwan said that the lack of progress in talks and the rise in protests had shifted the initiative back to the street. ...

Omar Suleiman may be starting to deserve the adjective "embattled" that has often been attached to his boss, Hosni Mubarak, since Egypt's uprising began.

Appointed vice-president as a safe and loyal pair of hands, Mubarak's former intelligence chief has been mandated to run "an inclusive and serious national dialogue with participants from the whole political spectrum to deliver an orderly transition to democracy by September".

But doubts about the regime's real intentions, present from the start of the crisis, are growing fast.

The first talks on Sunday were inconclusive. The impression is strengthening, say analysts in Egypt and abroad, that Suleiman is not serious about a constitutional review, a timetable for change, protecting freedom of expression, allowing peaceful protest, and ending the state of emergency. His remarks on Tuesday, rejecting an immediate departure by Mubarak or any "end to the regime", did not sit well with his wish to resolve the crisis through dialogue. His warning of a possible "coup" sounded like a threat of more overt military intervention than has been seen so far.

The view from Cairo is that the regime, though confused, is taking a hard line, and that the negotiations have essentially come to an end. The regime's strategy has been to play for time, believing that the protests would fade in the face of a faltering economy and government initiatives such as raising wages for state employees.

In a fast-moving situation, the mood changes from day to day. Only last Friday the government seemed to have acted wisely by not sending back its thugs to Tahrir square. That eased pressure from abroad, with the US, Britain and others tacitly accepting that Mubarak was unlikely to leave office before September. Worries about the Muslim Brotherhood taking advantage of the chaos may also have played into western calculations.

Now, with protesters showing determination and resilience after Tuesday's big rally, and another massive turnout planned for Friday, there is a tougher line from Washington. Joe Biden, the US vice-president, urged Suleiman to rescind the emergency laws immediately. ...

8.36am: The Egyptian newspaper, Youm7, has images and reports of violence overnight in the town of Al-Wadi al-Jadid in the south-west. It says 100 people have been injured including eight seriously.

Scott Lucas, an academic from the University of Birmingham, writing on the blog Enduring America has anunconfirmed report of a "massacre" taking place in the area. It names one man reported to have been killed.

The police cut off the electricity and water about 2-3 hours ago. They fired live bullets at the protesters. After brutally beating the protesters, the police were forced to retreat. While retreating they set a gas station on fire. The protesters successfully put out the fire using buckets full of sand.

The protesters set the NDP HQ, Governorate building, and the police station on fire (the police station is unconfirmed). The police arrested a lot of youth randomly and took them to an unknown destination. Also the police set a lot of convicts from the Wadi Prison free to scare the people,keeping only political detainees. The latest news was that the convicts are set to attack the museum, and the protesters are preparing Molotovs for defense. Mohammed Hassan Belal, a 20-year-old protester, is the first confirmed death.

8.18am: Protesters have turned on the Egyptian pop singer Tamer Hosny after he appeared on state TV to support Mubarak, al-Jazeera reports.

He tried to address the crowd in Tahrir square, but was shouted down, it reports. It also shows a video of protesters chanting against him.

8.00am: Wael Ghonim, the released activist and newly anointed voice of the revolution, has urged protesters to keep up the pressure for Hosni Mubarak to stand down.

In a series of Twitter message today he spoke of his pride following yesterday's massive demonstration in central Cairo, and he urged Egyptians living aboard to return home to join the protests.

He also rejected opposition talks with the government. ...

... 12.49pm: Al Jazeera reports that 20 lawyers have lodged a petition alleging that Mubarak and his family have stolen state funds. Such a lawsuit is unprecedented and, like many of the events since the protests began, would have been unthinkable 15 days ago. The regime's response to the petition should be interesting. ...

Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who helped organise the protests that started Egypt's uprising, has been hailed as a hero and a symbol of hope amid calls for him to be appointed spokesman for the country's democracy movement.

Ghonim, a marketing manager and web activist who was lionised by demonstrators after he went missing on 27 January, confirmed in an emotional TV interview immediately after he was freed from detention on Monday that he was behind a Facebook page that galvanised protests by angry youth.

Ghonim broke down and wept openly live on camera for Dream TV and his remarks were translated and quickly posted on Twitter to become what has been widely described as a rallying point to keep the protests alive. ...

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have turned out for the largest demonstration to date in Cairo, with renewed demands for the immediate resignation of their president, Hosni Mubarak.

Vice-president Omar Suleiman, the former intelligence chief who is leading negotiations with Egypt's opposition groups, sought to appease protesters with a TV assurance that Mubarak had endorsed a timetable for a "peaceful and organised transfer of power" in September.

Suleiman said that Mubarak has set up a committee to recommend constitutional amendments to remove tight restrictions on who can run for president, and promised there will be no reprisals against protesters.

"The president welcomed the national consensus, confirming that we are putting our feet on the right path to getting out of the current crisis," Suleiman said.

However, in a sign of growing impatience with the demonstrations, he warned last night the protests could not go on indefinitely. "We can't bear this for a long time, and there must be an end to this crisis as soon as possible," he said. State news agency Mena said he made the remarks at a meeting with newspaper editors, where he rejected any departure for Mubarak or "end to the regime" and said they prefered to deal with the crisis using dialogue, adding, "We don't want to deal with Egyptian society with police tools."

But the consensus among the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who packed into Tahrir Square on the 15th day of protest – discrediting government claims that support is fading – was that Mubarak must go now and that the regime cannot be trusted.

On the streets, the concessions were viewed as further evidence of the government's weakness and spurred a determination to keep protesting. ...

The hardcore of revolutionaries who refuse to step outside of Tahrir Square is down to 1,000 or so.

Each night they are squeezed into the cluster of tents planted on the large roundabout at the heart of the square.

The protesters are an unusually mixed community: young and middle-aged, mostly men but a few women and families too. Muslims, Christians and those who choose not to pray have been thrown together in a single cause.

At times the easygoing atmosphere has the air of a festival, as do the long lines for the toilets.

But a glance over at the ever-present soldiers on the edge of the square and the strategically piled rocks – sometimes used to spell out demands such as "leave now" and "get out" – are reminders, if any were needed, of the bloody price paid a few days ago to keep the square in the protesters' hands.

Once the sun is up, Tahrir Square starts to fill. On some days, hundreds of thousands have squeezed in after showing identity cards to the soldiers ringing the square in a disconcerting demonstration of orderliness and respect.

The overnight residents take to clearing up, brushing dirt from the roads, putting rubbish in bags for the dust carts that arrive each day and stacking the stones. The tea sellers emerge and the young boys who sell Egyptian flags for E£10 (£1.40) each.

The morning arrivals come with bread and vegetables for those who have stayed through the night. Amr Mahmoud, who has been in the square since the beginning of the protest a fortnight ago, waves his hand at the small bowl of food before him. He is outraged.

"The government says we are eating Kentucky Fried Chicken. Where is the Kentucky?" he asks. "They say we are paid to be here but we have no money."

The KFC just across the street is firmly shut. It is plastered in anti-government posters and graffiti, as is just about every other business in the square except for a small gift shop whose owner remains a fan of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president. ...

Leading opposition groups in Egypt, including the Muslim Brotherhood, are standing by a demand that President Hosni Mubarak resign before there can be a political agreement to end two weeks of mass protests against his regime.

Pro-democracy campaigners called another mass demonstration for Tuesday to keep up the pressure on Mubarak to quit in the face of the government's attempts to marginalise the street protests as no longer relevant because political talks are under way.

In Washington, Barack Obama expressed optimism about developments in Egypt. "Obviously Egypt has to negotiate a path, and I think they're making progress," he said.

But there remains considerable suspicion within the opposition about the intentions of Mubarak's vice-president, Omar Suleiman, who is overseeing the political transition and leading the negotiations, particularly after the continued arrest of opposition activists and fresh harassment of the press.

Mubarak's new cabinet, installed after he sacked the previous one in an attempt to placate protesters, held its first meeting today and promptly announced a 15% pay rise for government employees in an apparent attempt to buy support among workers hit by sharply rising food prices.

The government also promised investigations into official corruption and widespread fraud that delivered the ruling party its large victory in last year's parliamentary election. The curfew was relaxed by an hour.

But the government's attempts to return Egypt to normality with a call for a return to work and an end to the demonstrations met with only partial success. Banks opened for a second day but the stock exchange, which the government hoped would be trading, remained closed, as did schools and many businesses. The value of the Egyptian pound fell sharply.

Suleiman met major opposition groups, including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, yesterday and made a series of concessions in the hope of defusing the protests. But Muslim Brotherhood members who attended the meeting said today that they "will continue in dialogue only if people's demands are respected".

The Islamist group said this required "the immediate resignation of President Mubarak" as well as the dissolving of parliament, the release of political prisoners and the lifting of oppressive emergency laws. ...

There is a lot more behind Hosni Mubarak digging in his heels and setting his thugs on the peaceful protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square than pure politics. This is also about money. Mubarak and the clique surrounding him have long treated Egypt as their fiefdom and its resources as spoils to be divided among them.

Under sweeping privatisation policies, they appropriated profitable public enterprises and vast areas of state-owned lands. A small group of businessmen seized public assets and acquired monopoly positions in strategic commodity markets such as iron and steel, cement and wood. While crony capitalism flourished, local industries that were once the backbone of the economy were left to decline. At the same time, private sector industries making environmentally hazardous products like ceramics, marble and fertilisers have expanded without effective regulation at a great cost to the health of the population.

A tiny economic elite controlling consumption-geared production and imports has accumulated great wealth. This elite includes representatives of foreign companies with exclusive import rights in electronics, electric cables and automobiles. It also includes real estate developers who created a construction boom in gated communities and resorts for the super-rich. Much of this development is on public land acquired at very low prices, with no proper tendering or bidding.

It is estimated that around a thousand families maintain control of vast areas of the economy. This business class sought to consolidate itself and protect its wealth through political office. The National Democratic party was their primary vehicle for doing so. This alliance of money and politics became flagrant in recent years when a number of businessmen became government ministers with portfolios that clearly overlapped with their private interests.

Mubarak presided over a process in which the national wealth passed into a few private hands while the majority of the population was impoverished, with 40% living below the poverty line of less than $2 a day, rising rates of unemployment, and job opportunities for the young blocked. In the last few months of 2010, Egyptians protested for an increase of the minimum monthly wage to less than $240, but the now departed Nazif government decreed that less than $100 was sufficient as a basic income. This, at a time when the prices of food staples and utilities tariffs increased at very high rates. Indeed, as one local economist asserted, every single commodity and service cost significantly more under the Nazif government – which is the government of business that ended progressive taxation and replaced it by a single unified income tax.

Additionally, public social services underwent masked privatisation, taking health and education beyond the reach of vast segments of the population. Many poor families were forced to give up the hope of educating children and had to send them to do menial work to contribute to the income of the household. There was little public investment in most services, and in infrastructure such as roads, water and sewerage. In the 2000s, Egypt witnessed numerous demonstrations by ordinary people across the country for the construction of overpass bridges on fast roads and for clean water in towns and villages. ...

The news dribbled in to Tahrir Square in phone calls, text messages, by word of mouth. The details were vague but the demonstrators, some of whom have been camped in the square for nearly a fortnight, agreed that concessions offered by the man who increasingly appears to run Egypt, the vice president and former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, were a good sign. The regime was crumbling.

But what of President Hosni Mubarak? The news was disappointing.

Tens of thousands of people packed in to Tahrir Square again, as determined now to rid Egypt of the man who has ruled for 30 years as they were when the uprising began nearly a fortnight ago.

Some welcomed news of talks between Suleiman and opposition figures as further evidence that the regime's power is waning. But they still wanted to see the protests through until their central demand – for Mubarak's resignation – has been met.

Many were wary of the apparent deal being cooked up between Washington and Suleiman, with European backing, for the old regime to oversee the transition to democracy.

"If Mubarak is still president, nothing will happen. If he will leave, then Omar Suleiman, no problem if he meets our demands," said Amr Mahmoud, who has spent 12 days in the square with his wife, Reem. "But Suleiman was part of the old system. We want a new system." ...

The Egyptian government has offered a series of concessions at the first talks with opposition groups, including the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, in an attempt to end the mass pro-democracy protests across the country.

But opposition leaders said that Egypt's vice-president and longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, did not go far enough in his proposals for greater political freedom and pledge of free elections.

In Cairo, demonstrators again packed Tahrir Square to demand President Hosni Mubarak's immediate removal from office as a prerequisite for any deal, undermining the government's attempts to get people back to work because of the huge economic losses caused by the crisis.

While the mood was relaxed in the square for much of the day, with even a wedding taking place, the army fired warning shots after dark in an apparent confrontation with some protesters. There are concerns that demands by the military to remove barricades blocking roads are a move towards breaking up the demonstration.

A government statement said that Suleiman, who is apparently playing an increasingly powerful role, agreed to a number of measures including the formation of a committee of political and judicial figures to oversee changes to the constitution which would scrap provisions that limit the ability of the opposition to run for the presidency.

The government said it will also immediately release "prisoners of conscience of all persuasions" and end legal restrictions on the press. However, it gave only a partial commitment to lift the state of emergency, which gives the president considerable powers and has been used to jail opponents, saying that it will be rescinded "based on the security situation and an end to the threats to the security of society".

The meeting was greeted with scepticism by Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, who is now a prominent opposition voice.

"The process is opaque. Nobody knows who is talking to whom at this stage. It's managed by Vice-President Suleiman. It is all managed by the military and that is part of the problem," he said on NBC. ...

Egypt's new vice president, Omar Suleiman, has long sought to demonise the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in his contacts with sceptical US officials, leaked diplomatic cables show, raising questions whether he can act as an honest broker in the country's political crisis.

US embassy messages from WikiLeaks's cache of 250,000 state department documents, which Reuters independently reviewed, also report that the former intelligence chief accused the Brotherhood of spawning armed extremists and warned in 2008 that if Iran ever backed the banned Islamist group, Tehran would become "our enemy".

The disclosure came as Suleiman met opposition groups, including the officially banned Brotherhood, to explore ways to end Egypt's political crisis. The US has been exploring options for speeding up President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, including a scenario that calls for turning over power to a transition government led by Suleiman and backed by the military.

Mubarak, who had done without a vice president for 30 years, hurriedly appointed 74-year-old Suleiman as his deputy last month as protesters demanded the forcing out of the autocratic ruler. ...

America yesterday swung its support behind Egypt's vice-president, Omar Suleiman, and the political transition he is leading, calling for a process of orderly reform. The policy, made clear by Hillary Clinton at the Munich Security Conference, was the latest sign of steps by the US and senior members of the Egyptian military to nudge President Hosni Mubarak aside and contain the potential for street violence.

The move came as senior members of the leadership of the ruling National Democratic party resigned from the party in response to the protests. They included Mubarak's powerful son, Gamal, long expected to succeed his father. A relative liberal, Hossam Badrawi, was appointed the party's new secretary general. ...

11.29pm: More from the Reuters interview with ElBaradei:

"To hear ... that Mubarak should stay and lead the process of change, and that the process of change should essentially be led by his closest military adviser [Sulieman], who's not the most popular person in Egypt, without the sharing of power with civilians, it would be very, very disappointing.

ElBaradei said he did not think the demonstrations were running out of steam, though he worried the situation could get bloodier. "There is of course a little fatigue everywhere," he said, adding that there was a "hard core" of demonstrators who would not give up as long as Mubarak held onto power:

It might not be every day but what I hear is that they might stage demonstrations every other day. The difference is that it would become more angry and more vicious. And I do not want to see it turning from a beautiful, peaceful revolution into a bloody revolution."

ElBaradei suggested that the United States did not appear to have a clear policy on Egypt:

It would appear that you [the United States] are just responding to who is more powerful for each day rather than a principled position, which would be for me personally disappointing and for all the people who are demonstrating."

11.05pm: Barack Obama called leaders from Germany, Britain and the United Arab Emirates today to discuss the situation in Egypt and the need for political change there, Reuters reports. The White House said:

The President emphasized the importance of an orderly, peaceful transition, beginning now, to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people, including credible, inclusive negotiations between the government and the opposition."

Obama also voiced "his serious concern about the targeting of journalists and human rights groups, and reaffirmed that the government of Egypt has a responsibility to protect the rights of its people and to release immediately those who have been unjustly detained".

10.57pm: The Huffington Post has a video of "what appears to be a protester shot in the streets of Alexandria".

10.51pm: Mohamed ElBaradei has told Reuters that US support for Mubarak or Suleiman to lead Egypt's transition would be a "major setback".

ElBaradei also said he feared the demonstrations could become "more angry and more vicious" if Mubarak holds onto power. ...

Barack Obama yesterday tried to nudge Hosni Mubarak towards the exit, sending his strongest message yet to the Egyptian president that it was time for him to quit.

But Mubarak, even after hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere in Egypt to call on him to go, remained defiant and showed little sign of preparing to depart.

Mubarak earlier this week promised to leave in the autumn but that has failed to satisfy the protesters who want him to go immediately.

Obama, taking questions from the media for the first time since the crisis began, used a White House press conference to drop a series of heavy hints that the US regarded Mubarak as having outlived his usefulness and that it would be better if he went.

"In light of what's happened the last two weeks, going back to the old ways is not going to work," Obama said. "Suppression is not going to work. Engaging in violence is not going to work."

He added that work on an orderly succession had to begin "right now", had to be meaningful and broad-based, which meant involving opposition groups.

The US president stopped short of calling unambiguously for Mubarak to stand down immediately but his comments went further in support of the protesters than his brief statement on Tuesday. ...

12.30am GMT: Things remain quiet in Cairo for the time being – quiet enough for al-Jazeera to start running cricket items – other than a few bursts of gunfire in warning from the army, so it's time to wrap up the blog for the night. Here's a summary of the latest events:

• Thousands of protesters remain in Cairo's Tahrir Square after a day that saw largely peaceful mass demonstrations throughout the country

• Greek prime minister George Papandreou is to visit Egypt on Sunday to deliver a message from the EU to President Mubarak face to face

• Al-Jazeera's offices in Cairo were destroyed and the Arabic channel's bureau chief was taken into custody by security forces, continuing official attacks on the Qatari network

• Barack Obama says "some discussions have begun" about the transition of power within Egypt, an apparent confirmation of reports aimed at replacing Mubarak

• Egypt's health minister said 11 people are dead, and 5,000 injured, since the start of the protests – a lower estimate than many others which put the dead at 100 to 300

Thanks for reading today. You can follow the Guardian coverage on our World news site.

12.15am GMT: On his radio show yesterday, Rush Limbaugh appeared to be mocking the capture of two New York Times journalists in Cairo – until he heard that a Fox News journalists had been beaten up.

Brad Friedman's Brad Blog reports Limbaugh's first response:

Ladies and gentlemen, it is being breathlessly reported that the Egyptian army ... is rounding up foreign journalists.

I mean, even two New York Times reporters were detained. Now, this is supposed to make us feel what, exactly? How we supposed to feel? Are we supposed to feel outrage over it? I don't feel any outrage over it. Are we supposed to feel anger? I don't feel any anger over this. Do we feel happy? Well, do we feel kind of going like, 'neh-neh-neh-neh'?

I'm sure that your emotions are running the gamut when you hear that two New York Times reporters have been detained along with other journalists in Egypt. Remember now, we're supporting the people who are doing this.

Then Limbaugh is informed about the Fox News journalist:

Fox News' Greg Palkot and crew have been severely beaten and are now hospitalized in Cairo. Now we were kidding before about the New York Times, of course. This kind of stuff is terrible. We wouldn't wish this kind of thing even on reporters. ...

... 7.05pm: Khalid Abdalla, a British-Egyptian actor, who has been in Tahrir square for over a week, told me people are not getting frustrated yet:

People here [in Tahrir Square] feel secure and they know they've got to keep fighting and they know what they're fighting for and the longer we are here the clearer the message.

6.48pm: Apologies if I'm late to the party on this one but Egyptian hip hop group Arabian Knightz have recorded a protest track called "Rebel" featuring a sample from Lauryn Hill.

6.23pm: There are still huge numbers of pro-democracy protesters in Alexandria.

6.21pm: After Mubarak said Obama did not understand Egyptian culture (7.32am) Egypt has now turned its ire to the UN, Reuters reports:

Egypt has told the United Nations it is unhappy with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's public criticism of the Egyptian government and his calls for change, according to a spokeswoman for Egypt's UN mission. Ban this week urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his government to take "bold measures" to address the concerns of people demonstrating for change. He urged Mubarak's government to view the demonstrations "as an opportunity to engage in addressing the legitimate concerns of the people."
Egypt's mission to the United Nations in New York expressed its annoyance with Ban, who made public remarks about Egypt while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as well as during visits to Britain and Germany. "Egypt has verbally complained about the characterization of the SG (secretary-general) of the situation in Egypt," Nihal Saad, a spokeswoman for the Egyptian mission, said in an e-mail late on Thursday. "The remarks made by the SG, whether in Davos or London, were viewed as raising the bar above all the other remarks that have been made by other member states, including those who criticized Egypt," she added.
U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that U.N. officials had discussed Ban's remarks with the Egyptian mission and added: "We stand by what he has been saying."

6.16pm: Egyptian PM Ahmed Shafiq has been talking on al-Arabiya defending Mubarak's right to stay in office and he said it was "unlikely" he would hand over to his vice president Omar Suleiman.

I don't think that a president after 30 years....after all these years of public service..these five months are not going to make much difference.

The whole point is that they do make a difference to the protesters.

6.05pm: Some sad news. Al Ahram journalist Ahmed Mahmoud who was shot during protests on January 29 has reportedly died.

6.00pm: The Egyptian blogger and journalist, Wael Abbas, has been released after being arrested (4.56pm) by the army.

army released us, but getting stopped by every single checkpoint, rabbena yestor!

5.52pm: Egyptian blogger @suzeeinthecity has tweeted what she says are the seven demands of the protesters (see the four drawn up by youth groups we detailed at 5.05pm


1. Resignation of the president

2. End of the Emergency State

3.Dissolution of The People's Assembly and Shora Council

4. Formation of a national transitional government

5.An elected Parliament that will ammend the Constitution to allow for presidential elections

6. Immediate prosecution for those responsible of the deaths of the revolution's martyrs

7. Immediate prosecution of the corrupters and those who robbed the country of its wealth.

5:47pm: In an interview with al-Jazeera Arabic, Mohamed ElBaradei has apparently denied telling an Austrian newspaper that he would not stand for president.

From @draddee, who has been prolifically tweeting on the protests since they began:

lBaradei Just denied the quote carried by the Austrian paper that he will not run: "I will run if called to it" #jan25 ...

1.47am GMT: Time to wrap up the live blogging for the night. Here's the Guardian's latest wrap-up of the day's events from our correspondents in Cairo, Alexandria, Washington DC and London.

A summary of what we've learned in the last few hours:

• US and Egyptian officials are working on a plan for Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to stand down immediately, and replaced by a three-man junta, according to a report in the New York Times

• Mubarak remained defiant in an interview with ABC News's Christiane Amanpour, saying: "If I resign today, there will be chaos"

• Fighting saw estimates of the death toll around Cairo's Tahrir Square rise to 13, with hundreds more injured, as protesters fortified the centre of the square

• Protesters are gearing up for an expected mass demonstration on Friday

• Attacks aimed at journalists and TV crews forced media off the streets and reduced the coverage of events in central Cairo...

The Obama administration is working on a plan in which the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, would stand down immediately in spite of claims yesterday he was intent on clinging on to power until the elections in the autumn.

The White House, the state department and the Pentagon have been involved in discussions that include an option in which Mubarak would given way to a transitional government headed by the Egyptian vice-president, Omar Suleiman. Such a plan has the backing of the Egyptian military, the New York Times reported.

Anti-government protesters are hoping they can force Mubarak from office today, a day they have dubbed "departure Friday". Fridays after midday prayers is traditionally an explosive point in Middle East countries, with masses taking to the streets after attendance at mosques.

But Mubarak was defiant yesterday, insisting that he intended remaining in office until the autumn election. He said that while he was fed up after six decades of public service and wanted to leave, he feared that an early departure would lead to chaos.

In his first major interview since protests began, Mubarak told America's ABC News: "I am fed up. After 62 years in public service, I have had enough. I want to go."

Mubarak expressed no sense of betrayal over Barack Obama's call on Tuesday for him to begin the transition to democracy "now". But there was a hint of resentment when he said Obama did not understand Egyptian culture and the trouble that would ensue if he left office immediately. "If I resign today, there will be chaos," he told ABC's Christiane Amanpour. ...

Dozens of foreign journalists were arrested, attacked and beaten yesterday as the Egyptian government and its supporters embarked on what the US state department called a concerted campaign to intimidate the international media.

Human rights workers also fell victim to crowd violence, while police raided the offices of two groups in Cairo, the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre and the Centre for Economic and Social Rights, and arrested observers. Amnesty International said one of its staff was detained at the law centre, with a Human Rights Watch colleague.

A group of reporters from Daily News Egypt, an independent, English-language paper, were among those targeted. They were set upon by a group of passers-by in Dokki, west of the Nile, that quickly swelled into a 50-strong crowd after they ventured out of their offices to investigate a story about rising petrol prices.

"It was terrifying," said Amira Ahmed, the publication's business editor. "They were chanting: 'We've found the foreigners, don't let them go,' and calling us traitors and spies. When I pointed out to them that I was Egyptian, they responded: 'Your Egypt isn't the same as ours.'"

Like many who were caught up in similar incidents today, Ahmed said the most chilling part of the encounter was the mob mentality that took hold. "We had one French journalist with us who we managed to put in a taxi and get to safety. But the people who were showing up had no idea why we were the targets. They just took up the cry of 'foreigners' and 'journalists' and joined in. There was no leader we could appeal to for reason."

Ahmed and her companions agreed to be handed over to the army to avoid provoking any more violence. On the way, they were followed by men on motorbikes and one youth who clung to the trunk of their cab. The army took custody of them and released them without harm. "I've never felt unsafe in Egypt before. I always felt that if anything ever happened to me on the street here, other Egyptians would come in to protect me," said Ahmed.

"But today was different and it was horrible. There was no logic to any of it; people are divided and people are raging, and they're casting out for targets to direct that rage against."

The Egyptian interior ministry arrested more than 20 foreign journalists in Cairo, including the Washington Post's bureau chief and a photographer. Al-Jazeera said three of its journalists were detained. ...

Violence has surged in Zimbabwe with reports of mob attacks, death threats, politically motivated arrests and at least one shooting ahead of possible elections, civil rights groups claim.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims youth militias loyal to Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party are "running amok" in poor townships, and accuses the police of siding with the offenders.

Analysts regard the upsurge as a warning sign that Mugabe is gearing up for elections, possibly as early as June, and fear a repeat of the 2008 polls in which the MDC says 253 people died.

"Violence is certainly escalating and we are really worried," said Nelson Chamisa, a government minister and MDC spokesman. "I think it's the talk about elections. Zanu-PF has not graduated from its traditional ways of transacting politics by using violence."

Chamisa saw few grounds for optimism. "Zanu-PF are determined to crush the country," he added. "They don't care; they never have. There is a danger of worse violence. We still want to see a clear roadmap implemented for a free, fair and credible election."

Reports of politically inspired attacks have grown steadily in recent weeks. An MDC youth leader, William Mukuwari, claims he was assaulted and shot in the leg by a gang including a Zanu-PF chairperson in Budiriro township last month. ...

12.14am GMT: It's after 2am in Cairo – time to wrap up the live blog for the evening, although we'll be keeping a close eye on any outbreaks of further violence. Here are the highlights this evening:

• At least three people were killed and as many as 1,500 injured in a day of violence in central Cairo, as supporters of the Mubarak regime appeared in force. Protesters found plainclothes policemen among them

• Fighting continued around Tahrir Square past midnight, with both sides building barricades and pro-government supporters throwing molotov cocktails, setting fire to cars and buildings while the army refused to intervene

• The US government incrementally increased its pressure on Mubarak to step down and for reforms to take place, with Hillary Clinton speaking directly to vice president Omar Suleiman

• Pro-government forces appear to have arrested or attacked journalists reporting on the bloody events in Cairo. CNN presenter Anderson Cooper and his crew were among those attacked

Thanks for reading – we'll be back tomorrow.

12.01am GMT: One last entry – a very depressing piece of analysis by Robert Springborg in Foreign Policy, who argues the upshot will be "back to business as usual with a repressive, US-backed military regime":

While much of American media has termed the events unfolding in Egypt today as "clashes between pro-government and opposition groups," this is not in fact what's happening on the street. The so-called "pro-government" forces are actually Mubarak's cleverly orchestrated goon squads dressed up as pro-Mubarak demonstrators to attack the protesters in Midan Tahrir, with the Army appearing to be a neutral force. The opposition, largely cognizant of the dirty game being played against it, nevertheless has had little choice but to call for protection against the regime's thugs by the regime itself, ie, the military. And so Mubarak begins to show us just how clever and experienced he truly is. The game is, thus, more or less over.

The threat to the military's control of the Egyptian political system is passing. Millions of demonstrators in the street have not broken the chain of command over which President Mubarak presides. Paradoxically the popular uprising has even ensured that the presidential succession will not only be engineered by the military, but that an officer will succeed Mubarak. The only possible civilian candidate, Gamal Mubarak, has been chased into exile, thereby clearing the path for the new vice president, Gen. Omar Suleiman.

On that happy thought: good night. ...

1am GMT: That's it for today's live blog – here's a summary of the main events on a packed day:

• Huge protests throughout Egypt saw city centres packed with protesters demanding the end of President Mubarak's rule as president

• Mubarak announced that he would not run in the coming presidential elections, promising constitutional reforms and a transfer of power

• President Obama spoke directly to Mubarak for 30 minutes and later said an orderly transition "must begin now"

• Mubarak's concessions were rejected by many protesters and opposition parties, with continued calls for Mubarak's removal from office

• Plans appear to be underway for another mass protest on Friday outside the presidential palace in Cairo

• Small groups of pro-Mubarak demonstrators were reported in Cairo and elsewhere, while violence and looting continues to be a concern around the country

• Protests in Jordan and Yemen led to hurried responses by their respective governments ...

Egypt's army gave a powerful boost to the country's opposition last night by announcing that it would not use force to silence "legitimate" demands for democratic reforms in the Arab world's largest nation.

On the eve of a million-strong protest planned for today and amid multiplying signs that the US is moving steadily closer to ditching its long-standing ally, Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, now has few options left.

Last night, in an apparent attempt to soften popular anger, the Egyptian vice-president said Mubarak had asked him to start a dialogue with all the country's political parties. According to state TV, Omar Suleiman said it would involve constitutional and legislative reforms.

The White House said in a statement that the crisis should be settled by "meaningful talks", while the EU called for an "orderly transition" to democracy via "free and fair" elections. Mubarak has shown no sign of accepting either.

The veteran Egyptian leader formed a new cabinet yesterday, after appointing his intelligence chief as his vice-president, but there was no indication that popular pressure for him to quit was abating.

The military's statement, reported by the state-run Mena news agency, said: "The presence of the army in the streets is for your sake and to ensure your safety and wellbeing. The armed forces will not resort to use of force against our great people." It referred to the "legitimate demands of honourable citizens".

It was not clear whether the pledge not to use force was intended to draw the sting from protests or signal a weakening of support for the president, who relies heavily on the armed forces as the guarantor of the regime and its stability.

On the seventh consecutive day of unrest, tens of thousands of people again rallied in Cairo's Tahrir Square chanting "Get out … we want you out" and singing Egypt's national anthem emphasising the patriotic motives of the unprecedented mass unrest.

"We have spoken. When the citizens speak, we cannot go back," said Ahmed Mustafa. "I came here to fight the fear inside me. People have lost their fear." ...

The industrial city of Abu Rawash sits in the desert beyond the pyramids. You reach it down a dusty road that seems to lead to nowhere. Then the factories and warehouses begin: Toyota, Hyundai, Mazda and Jeep deserted save for a handful of security guards sitting in front of a vacant parking lot for absent staff.

Outside the gates of the Toyota warehouse Ayman Ibrahim is talking to the gatekeeper. The factories are closed, the man tells Ibrahim, who owns a window business on the same site. They won't reopen until at least mid-week. Perhaps even Friday. No one really knows.

The closures in places such as Abu Rawash have been accompanied by calls from unions for an indefinite general strike. "I'm losing £10,000 pounds a week," says Ibrahim. "But it's worth it, I've been to the protest in Tahrir Square for the past three days with my kids. Mubarak is costing me money, but he has been costing Egypt money for 30 years."

It is not only Ibrahim whose business is being hurt financially by the crisis. All of Egypt is hurting. On the main road close to the factories the large Carrefour-Dandy mall is as deserted as the car plants. Egypt's stock market, the bourse, is closed after losing 16% in value last week. Moody's and Fitch – the debt rating companies – have revised their outlook for the country's bonds to negative. The country's banks have been closed for the past two days in fear of a run on the county's bank system.

It is damaging Egypt at all levels. Already some bank machines have run out of money. Some petrol stations have begun running out of fuel. Economists are warning of the risks of shortages of staples, such as bread and water.

Elsewhere shops are shuttered. Those not shut, like some in the paved streets in the financial district close to the epicenter of Egypt's uprising in Tahrir Square, are empty. The owners sit on plastic chairs. "This is very, very bad," says Ah Mahmoud, who owns a clothes shop called Polo. "The problems between the people and president Hosni Mubarak are bad for business. Bad for work. With no money coming in how will we eat?" ...

8.26am: David Cameron has just appeared on the BBC 1 breakfast sofa, to call for a reform. Egypt must go down the path of reform, not repression, he said according to BBC tweet.

Once again news is coming thick and fast on Egypt.

• Protesters have called for a million people to take to the streets of Cairo tomorrow, al-Jazeera reports.

• The rating agency Moody's has downgraded Egypt to Ba2 status reflect growing anxiety among investors about the continuing unrest. "Moody's decision to downgrade Egypt's government bond ratings is driven by increased event risk," Moody's said in an emailed statement, according to the Wall Street Journal. "This has resulted from escalating political tensions in the country following the recent uprising in Tunisia, with large-scale antigovernment protests taking place."

• Israel has urged the world to temper the criticism of Mubarak, according to the Israeli parper Ha'aretz. "The Americans and the Europeans are being pulled along by public opinion and aren't considering their genuine interests," one senior Israeli official told the paper. "Even if they are critical of Mubarak they have to make their friends feel that they're not alone. Jordan and Saudi Arabia see the reactions in the West, how everyone is abandoning Mubarak, and this will have very serious implications." A columnist in the Jerusalem Post describes the unrest in Egypt as "worst disaster since Iran's revolution".

8.09am: Mubarak appeared to blame the Muslim Brotherhood for "infiltrating" the protest, in his statement read out on state TV last night.

"The citizens and the young people of Egypt have gone out to the streets in peaceful demonstration asking for their right for the freedom of speech," he said according to a transcript reported on CNN.

"However, their demonstrations have been infiltrated by a group of people who use the name of religion who don't take into consideration the constitution rights and citizenship values."

This is a "desperate ploy" according to the Middle East analyst Juan Cole.

He [Mubarak] contrasted the hooliganism of the Brotherhood with the peaceful aspirations of most Egyptians, and pledged to work for economic and social reform (while giving the pledge no content). Mubarak is attempting to split the movement against him by sowing seeds of doubt among its constituents.

These include Coptic Christians, educated middle and upper middle class Muslims, and non-ideological youth, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood. By suggesting that the MB is taking advantage of the protests to conduct a campaign of sabotage behind the scenes, with the goal of establishing a theocratic dictatorship, Mubarak hopes to terrify the other groups into breaking with the Muslim fundamentalists. Since middle class movements such as Kefaya (Enough!) are small and not very well organized, Mubarak may believe that he can easily later crush them if he can detach them from the more formidable Brotherhood.

It is a desperate ploy and unlikely to work. Mainstream Muslim Egyptians and Copts do have some fear of the Muslim Brotherhood as a sectarian and fundamentalist tendency, but their dislike of the Mubarak government for the moment seems to overcome their anxieties about a theocracy.

7.49am: What will happen next?

Writing on his own blog al-Bab, the Guardian's Middle East expert Brian Whitaker, assesses the current stand off and the prospects for the next few days.

Today, in an effort to restore a semblance of normality, the police will be back on the streets – reportedly with instructions not to confront the protesters. They had been withdrawn over the weekend, apparently to facilitate looting by the regime's thugs and provide the excuse for a crackdown. That move was thwarted by the public, who organised their own unofficial policing.

One of the most striking things about the uprising so far has been the resourcefulness of the protesters and their determination. At the same time though, on the other side, we have President Mubarak – equally implacable and determined to stay put.

The result, for now, is deadlock. But the deadlock is not going to be broken on the streets by the army or the police. At some point there will have to be movement on the political front – and that is not going to happen instantly. (It's worth repeating that the removal of Ben Ali in Tunisia took four weeks; the Mubarak regime is a tougher nut to crack and the uprising began less than a week ago.)

There seems to be widespread recognition, even by some of the regime stalwarts, that Egypt is moving towards "transition". The argument, basically, is whether it will be a transition supervised by Mubarak or not. The protesters' fear is that a transition under Mubarak will merely bring a change of faces without real change in the system they are protesting about. As far as the protesters are concerned, that is a deal-breaker.

Mohamed ElBaradei offered the regime a carrot yesterday by putting himself forward as "leader" of the opposition. Like him or not, this means a channel is now open for dialogue if and when the regime is ready to talk – though on the protesters' side that can't happen until Mubarak goes.

7.44am: Egyptian protesters have called for general strike today after another night of demonstrations in defiance of a curfew. ...

... 11.30pm GMT: Time to wrap things for today's live blogging. Here's a final summary of the day's events:

• Egypt's army said for the first time that it would not use force on protesters, declaring in a televised statement that "freedom of expression through peaceful means is guaranteed," and said it recognised the "legitimate demands" of the protesters.

• The Mubarak regime made its first public offer to speak directly to protesters, as newly-appointed vice president Omar Suleiman offered to hold talks with members of the opposition during an appearance on state television.

• Plans are underway for a "march of millions" and a general strike on Tuesday as protests intensify and pressure on the Mubarak regime is maintained for a week.

• Al-Jazeera journalists in Cairo are arrested by Egyptian security forces and then released after strong intervention from the White House and other governments.

• Egypt's last functioning commercial internet service provider is shut down, while the government appears to be canceling train services and public transport ahead of Tuesday's protests.

• The US announced that a special US envoy to Egypt is in Cairo and holding talks with members of the government and other actors. The White House continued to call for an "orderly transition" of power and democratic reforms.

And of course we'll be back on Tuesday morning with more live coverage. In the meantime, visit our world news site for all the latest news. Thanks for reading.

11.15pm GMT: A first: a US Senator calls on Mubarak to resign. Bill Nelson, the Democratic senator for Florida, has a comment piece in The Hill newspaper in Washington DC:

"Mr Mubarak will have to go – but not without an exit strategy that prevents the government from falling and leaving the door open for extremists."

11pm GMT: Renesys, a US internet monitoring firm, has traffic data showing Noor's disappearance from the internet, as Egypt's last functioning internet service provider shuts down.

Update: Twitter user @ioerror points to two networks that are still operating in Egypt: the library of Alexandria and the ministry of information.

10.56pm GMT: One way to get around Egypt's internet blackout: the engineers at Google have helped build a new "speak-to-tweet" feature for those in Egypt who want to get their message out....

... This has nothing to do with any political party. It is truly a popular movement. There is concern about what is going to happen next. We need to continue to experience this with joy. We have to remain peaceful until we get our demands. Look, there are more and more people walking into Tahrir Square.

We want new elections to set up a committee to write a new constitution. We want clean elections; once we have a new constitution, we can elect a new government. We are not less than South Africa. Tell the Americans we are not less than South Africa. We deserve our rights. So far the judges have not spoken yet. We are waiting to hear from the judges about bringing about the constitutional changes that we need. But the judges are not being allowed to speak to the people.

Clinton just spoke: she says we deserve human rights. We want political rights. Please tell the people in America we want our rights. Please explain we don't have internet. Everyone has to understand that the rights of the Egyptian people are being sold for Israel's security. Our rights are being sold. It's as if we are monkeys. They have one strategic consideration and that's Israel.

We sleep at night in fear. We sleep without police at night. Do you know what that's like? To wake up one day and there's no police, no prisons, no safety? The police is over. We are scared. The curfew was for 6pm and the police were told to go home. There are two theories of what happened to the police a) the police were shocked by the people's reaction, got scared and took off b) the ministry of the interior is teaching us a lesson, so they withdrew the police to scare us.

But it backfired. We were out all night in the streets guarding our neighbourhood in Zamalek. Together, neighbour with neighbour. We worked together. Most of us hadn't even met before this. The ministry of the interior pulled all the police to scare us: it backfired. We are taking care of each other. ...

11.31pm: We're just about to wrap up the live blog here, but we'll finish with a summary of the main points on day seven of the protests in Egypt:

• Opposition leader Mogamed ElBaradei called for President Mubarak to step down at once as demonstrators massed in Cairo's central Tahrir square to ignore a night-time curfew. ElBaradei, who predicted change within "the next few days", said he wanted to negotiate about a new government with the army, which he described as "part of the Egyptian people".

• Western leaders pointedly declined to throw their support behind the country's embattled president. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said she wanted Egyptians to have a chance to chart a new future, but added: "It's not a question of who retains power. It's how are we going to respond to the legitimate needs and grievances expressed by the people."

• Al-Jazeera satellite TV was ordered to close because of its coverage of the protests. The channel denounced the move as an attempt to "stifle and repress" open reporting.

• Thousands of prisoners, including Muslim Brotherhood activists, escaped from four jails. Armed gangs took advantage of the chaos in Cairo and other cities to free the prisoners, starting fires and engaging prison guards in gun battles, officials said.

• The death toll over the past six days was reported to have risen to 102.

• Large-scale protests erupted in Alexandria, Egypt's second city, after the funerals of victims of the unrest.

• British nationals in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez were told to leave if it was safe.

• The US said it was organising flights to evacuate its citizens and urged all Americans in Egypt to consider leaving.


11.28pm: America's highest-ranking military officer has praised the "professionalism" and restraint of Egypt's armed forces, following a phone call with a senior Egyptian commander. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Lieutenant General Sami Enan, chief of staff of Egypt's armed forces, of his "appreciation for the continued professionalism" of the Egyptian military. "Both men reaffirmed their desire to see the partnership between our two militaries continue, and they pledged to stay in touch," a Pentagon spokesman announced.

10.51pm: Senior judges and scholars from Al-Azhar University are among those lending their support to the late-night demonstrators in Tahrir Square, Al Jazeera TV reports.

10.26pm: According to Egyptian state television, President Hosni Mubarak has promised that his new government will preserve subsidies, control inflation and provide jobs. "I require you to bring back confidence in our economy," Mubarak wrote in a letter to his new prime minister. "I trust your ability to implement economic policies that accord the highest concern to people's suffering." ...

Egyptian opposition leader, Mohamed ElBaradei, tonight predicted change within "the next few days" as western leaders pointedly declined to throw their support behind the country's embattled president, Hosni Mubarak.

In another dramatic day, thousands of protesters kept up the pressure on a defiant Mubarak amid sporadic violence and signs that the US and allies may ditch him unless he allows an "orderly transition".

ElBaradei, the former top UN nuclear arms inspector and de facto leader of the opposition, called for the president to step down at once as demonstrators massed in Cairo's central Tahrir Square to ignore a night-time curfew.

ElBaradei, who is now backed by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups, said he wanted to negotiate about a new government with the army, which he described as "part of the Egyptian people".

As crowds streamed towards the rally, military helicopters and F16 fighters flew overhead – an apparent show of force that provoked both fear and ridicule. ...

International alarm about the political and security implications of continuing unrest in Egypt intensified tonight as the United States, Israel and Turkey sent aircraft to evacuate their stranded citizens, and other countries advised their nationals to get out by any means possible.

Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague, said UK nationals should avoid nonessential travel to large cities such as Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. But the government did not offer to help evacuate those already there. They should leave by commercial flights unless they had vital reasons for remaining, Hague said.

The situation in Egypt's Red Sea resorts, where most Britons are staying, remained calm, he added. "We will watch over it very, very carefully, I'm sending extra resources to our embassy there."

The US government announced an immediate airlift for all Americans wishing to leave. "The department of state is making arrangements to provide transportation to safe haven locations in Europe," it said. Airlifts were also announced by Turkey and Israel.

Hague said Britain was concerned that Egypt could fall into the hands of extremists, but would not intervene directly. "What matters is that the process [of political reform] takes place, whatever that means for President Mubarak personally," he told Sky News. "It is important for him to initiate that transformation and broadly based government, and that is what we would like to see. That is far preferable of course to Egypt falling into the hands of extremism or a more authoritarian system of government." ...

11.24pm: AFP says the death toll from five days of protests has reached 102.

10.58pm: AP and Al Jazeera report that 19 private jets carrying families of wealthy businessmen have left Cairo for Dubai.

10.43pm: Writing below the line, @Kritik has alerted us to this moving video of Waseem Wagdi, an Egyptian living in London, talking about the recent events during a protest outside the Egyptian embassy. ...

... 10.16pm: Reuters has a Q&A on what might happen next:

Will the appointment of a vice-president end the unrest?
Mubarak's decision to pick Suleiman gave a clear indication that the Egyptian leader understands the magnitude of the social and political upheaval that has gripped his country.
Five days of unrest have forced Mubarak to make the long-delayed move of picking a deputy, signalling that his days in power may be numbered and that he may not run in a presidential election scheduled for September.
With protests keeping the momentum and his army and police failing to quell running battles in the streets, the pressure seems to have grown on the 82-old president from allies and aides to prepare for a transition.
Mubarak's legitimacy has all but evaporated under the overwhelming unrest in which 74 people have been killed and more than 2,000 injured.
It has also diminished the probability that he or his son Gamal, who has been lined up as a possible contender, would run in this year's presidential election.
"Mubarak has been damaged. I can't see how this is not the beginning of the end of Mubarak's presidency," said Jon Alterman, Director of the Middle East Programme for the Center of International Studies.
"It seems that his task now is to try and manage the transition past his leadership. I have a hard time believing that he will be the president in a year."
So far protesters responded to the announcement by stepping up anti-government demonstrators.
Witnesses reported seeing looters ransacking and setting public buildings on fire. Nothing less than Mubarak stepping down can quell the unrest, some said.
"The story of Gamal and Mubarak is over. Now, the regime is looking for who will rescue it. Mubarak, Omar Suleiman and Ahmed Shafiq know each other on a personal level," said Safwat Zayat, a military analyst.
"Their task in the coming months would be to ensure Mubarak's safety until the end of his reign. They will reorganise the regime's internal affairs."

What might happen on the streets?
The army has deployed tanks and troops alongside police forces but has so far refrained from using force.
Security forces however have warned that they could resort to tougher measures to impose order.
They said that those arrested carrying out acts of vandalism would be tried in military court.

Is this the beginning of the end for Mubarak?
The revolt is the most serious challenge to the Egyptian government since the 1952 coup that ended monarchy and inaugurated a procession of military strongmen.
It has shaken the government to its core, sent shock waves across the Middle East and alarmed Western and regional allies.
Mubarak's nomination of an influential military figure with strong diplomatic credentials as his possible successor speaks volumes about the authorities' resolve to ensure that power stays in the hands of military and security institutions.
Mubarak also secured the much-needed support from the army.
"Mubarak is gone, because of his illness, because of his age and because of what happened now in Egypt," said Bassma Kodmani, the head of Arab Reform initiative.
"This man will be gone by September 2011. He is not an option and everyone knows that and his inner circle knows that.
"Mubarak is buying time. He needs to buy time to provide the needed minimum stability and control of the country to allow for an orderly transition."

What did he learn from Tunisia?
Neither Mubarak nor his close aides, including Suleiman, want to see a Tunisia-style exit.
When Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali appeared on television after weeks of rioting, those watching the address said fear appeared to be his dominant emotion.
When Mubarak appeared on TV on Friday, the contrast could not be greater. His was a poised and confident performance. Yet, it did little to calm tens of thousands of protesters.
Seeking to avoid appearing weak, Mubarak delivered a tough message and showed his resolve to stay in power.
The message involved giving the military full control and acknowledging people's economic frustrations, as well as promises to help the poor and introduce political reform.
"Ben Ali made concessions and a day later he was out of the country. He didn't want to make the same mistakes. The regime has broader support than Ben Ali had in the last days," said Alterman.
"The military in Tunisia not only didn't defend the president but they helped push him out of the country. In Egypt, the military rather than push Mubarak is his next line of defence," he said.
"The appointment of Omar Suleiman is intended to send a message that if Hosni Mubarak leaves, the regime remains in place. It is not intended to mollify (the protesters). It is intended to show resolve."

9.46pm: Reuters reports that police shot dead 17 people trying to attack two police stations in Beni Suef governorate, according to witnesses and medical sources. Twelve of those shot were attempting to attack a police station in Biba while five others were trying to attack another in Nasser city. Dozens of others were injured in the exchanges.

9.32pm: The New York Times describes an interview on CNN with Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian blogger and journalist.

Eltahawy ... appealed to the media to not fall for what she described as a Mubarak regime plot to make the protests in Egypt seem like dangerous anarchy. "I urge you to use the words 'revolt' and 'uprising' and 'revolution' and not 'chaos' and not 'unrest, we are talking about a historic moment," she said.

Moments later, as Ms. Eltahawy suggested that looting and damage to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo shown on Egyptian television was the work of "the police and the thugs of Hosni Mubarak," the lower third of the screen displayed the banner headline: "EGYPT IN CHAOS."

She added, "Egyptians want to fix Egypt, they don't want to destroy Egypt."

The network then displayed video from Egyptian state television of damage to the museum, which has been shown around the world on Saturday.

9.29pm: Al Jazeera reports that gangs have been arrested in Alexandria, and that flares have once again been fired at the ruling party's headquarters in Cairo ...

We've waited for this revolution for years. Other despots should quail

Change is sweeping though the Middle East and it's the Facebook generation that has kickstarted it

Mona Eltahawy
Saturday 29 January 2011

My birth at the end of July 1967 makes me a child of the naksa, or setback, as the Arab defeat during the June 1967 war with Israel is euphemistically known in Arabic. My parents' generation grew up high on the Arab nationalism that Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser brandished in the 1950s. But we "Children of the Naksa", hemmed in by humiliation, have spent so much of our lives uncomfortably stepping into pride's large, empty shoes.

But here now finally are our children – Generation Facebook – kicking aside the burden of history, determined to show us just how easy it is to tell the dictator it's time to go.

To understand the importance of what's going in Egypt, take the barricades of 1968 (for a good youthful zing), throw them into a mixer with 1989 and blend to produce the potent brew that the popular uprising in Egypt is preparing to offer the entire region. It's the most exciting time of my life.

How did they do it? Why now? What took so long? These are the questions I face on news shows scrambling to understand. I struggle with the magnitude of my feelings of watching as my country revolts and I give into tears when I hear my father's Arabic-inflected accent in the English of Egyptian men screaming at television cameras through tear gas: "I'm doing this for my children. What life is this?"

And Arabs from the Mashreq to the Maghreb are watching, egging on those protesters to topple Hosni Mubarak who has ruled Egypt for 30 years, because they know if he goes, all the other old men will follow, those who have smothered their countries with one hand and robbed them blind with the other. Mubarak is the Berlin Wall. "Down, down with Hosni Mubarak," resonates through the whole region.

In Yemen, tens and thousands have demanded the ousting of Ali Abdullah Saleh who has ruled them for 33 years. Algeria, Libya and Jordan have had their protests. "I'm in Damascus, but my heart is in Cairo," a Syrian dissident wrote to me.

My Twitter feed explodes with messages of support and congratulations from Saudis, Palestinians, Moroccans and Sudanese. The real Arab League; not those men who have ruled and claimed to speak in our names and who now claim to feel our pain but only because they know the rage that emerged in Tunisia will soon be felt across the region.

Brave little Tunisia, resuscitator of the Arab imagination. Tunisia, homeland of the father of Arab revolution: Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old who set himself on fire to protest at a desperation at unemployment and repression that covers the region. He set on fire the Arab world's body politic and snapped us all to attention. His self-immolation set into motion Tunisian protests that in just 29 days toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year dictatorship. We watched, we said wow and we thought: that's it? Ben Ali ran away that quickly? It's that easy? ...

Egypt appears to have cut off almost all access to the internet from inside and outside the country from late on Thursday night, in a move that has concerned observers of the protests that have been building in strength through the week.

"According to our analysis, 88% of the 'Egyptian internet' has fallen off the internet," said Andree Toonk at BGPmon, a monitoring site that checks connectivity of countries and networks.

"What's different in this case as compared to other 'similar' cases is that all of the major ISPs seem to be almost completely offline. Whereas in other cases, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter were typically blocked, in this case the government seems to be taking a shotgun approach by ordering ISPs to stop routing all networks."

The cutoff appears to have happened around 10.30pm GMT on Thursday night.

Only one internet service provider appears to still have a working connection to the outside world: the Noor Group, for which all 83 routes are working, and inbound traffic from its connection provider, Telecom Italia. ...

...many Egyptians are finding ways around the cuts and getting back on the Internet, allowing them to more easily communicate with the outside world and spread information from the inside. One popular method is to use the local phone lines, which remain intact. The trick is to bypass local Egyptian ISPs (Internet Service Providers) by connecting to remote ones hosted in outside countries -- many are hosted here in the United States; Los Angeles seems, for whatever reason, to be a popular site. This is easy enough for the most computer-illiterate among us to do using basic settings and a built-in 'Help' function, but Egyptians have a second hurdle as most homes in the country are unable to call internationally. One way that many are getting around this is by linking through a mobile phone network by establishing a connection between a cell with built-in bluetooth compatibility and a laptop with similar functionality or a computer with a bluetooth dongle.

Several Western powers banded together Saturday in urging Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to do all he can to prevent bloodshed and speedily fulfill his promises of reform.

The heads of England, France and Germany joined their counterpart in the United States on Saturday in calling on Egypt's leader to institute substantive police changes in short order as well as new, open elections.

"It is essential that the further political, economic and social reforms President Mubarak has promised are implemented fully and quickly, and meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people," said a joint statement issued by British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"The Egyptian people have ... a longing for a just and better future," the statement continued. "We urge President Mubarak to embark on a process of transformation, which should be reflected in a board-based government and in free and fair elections." ...

With Egypt in turmoil, it’s widely being reported that the United States gives $1.5 billion in foreign aid to the government in Cairo each year. And with the U.S. at risk of running a $1.5 trillion deficit this year, that means it’s only a matter of time before budget hawks start picking apart U.S. foreign aid.

The $1.5 billion requested for Egypt in the president’s fiscal year 2011 budget puts the country fourth on the list of recipients for aid managed by the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development. Only Afghanistan ($3.9 billion), Pakistan ($3.1 billion) and Israel ($3 billion) have more aid requested for them. Most of the money for these four countries is allocated for “peace and security,” a broad category that includes combating drug traffickers and terrorists as well as preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In Egypt specifically, $1.3 billion of the requested amount this year is for “peace and security.” ...

Dial-Up Provides Internet Access for Cut-Off Egypt
By Curt Hopkins / January 29, 2011

Most people were extremely grateful to ditch their old dial-up Internet connections. But for the last couple of days, some Egyptians in the darkness of the Internet blackout, have been grateful to have it back. After over 90% of Egyptian access was shut down with its major ISPs, some have been coordinating these old-style connections through the country.

Manal and Alaa, an Egyptian couple currently living in South Africa, and Jacob Appelbaum, and American hacker associated with Wikileaks, have both contributed to the establishment and promotion of dial-up connections in Egypt during the #jan25 uprising.

Dial-up is not the only avenue for those who cannot access the remaining, functional ISP in Egypt, Noor.

al j cop run.jpgIn fact, all legacy tech seems increasingly important as the latest in communications technologies prove themselves more vulnerable than most of us would have liked to have believed and none of us should have been surprised to see.

Ham radio users are busy transforming from (sorry, folks) eccentric anachronism to vital link in the export of Egyptian information.

The old-fashioned phone has proven extremely valuable, as well, though both mobile and land lines have been up and down over the last few days. There is a Twitter account, Jan25 Voices, that exists solely to tweet news that comes in to contributors by phone.

Very few Egyptians and others in country are able to reach out via Twitter and similar tools. Some of the exceptions, such as Ben Wedeman from CNN and Sarah El Sirgany of Daily News Egypt, have satellite and other workarounds in place.

In fact, a situation like this almost insists that traditional journalists prove that far from being replaced by technology, they are its guarantor...

Permanent residency revoked for Ben Ali family
By Graeme Hamilton, National Post January 28, 2011

MONTREAL – Belhassen Trabelsi calculated that his Canadian permanent resident card would provide a soft landing as he fled the revolution that toppled his brother-in-law’s oppressive regime. But his hope for a Canadian safe haven grew shakier Thursday as Prime Minister Stephen Harper denounced his presence, the Canadian government revoked his permanent-resident status and Tunisia’s transitional government formally requested his arrest.

It was a dramatic change in circumstances for Mr. Trabelsi, who is alleged to have used his family ties to deposed president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to amass a substantial fortune. Mr. Ben Ali and his wife, Leila Trabelsi, escaped to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14, abruptly ending 23 years of iron-fisted rule.

The Arab world has been rocked by a wave of protests since the Tunisian revolt, and Egypt has been hit by three days of major demonstrations. More rioting in Egypt is expected after Friday prayers, and the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest organized opposition group, raised the stakes when it announced it would take part in the protests. This “is the big day,” said Essam El-Erian, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Fallout from the Tunisian unrest reached Montreal a week ago when Mr. Trabelsi and his family arrived by private jet. They had been staying in a suburban Montreal hotel, the all-news network LCN reported, but on Thursday left for an undisclosed location in Montreal. ...

Updated: Sat Jan. 29 2011
ctvottawa.ca

Belhassen Trabelsi, the billionaire brother-in-law of ousted Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, is claiming refugee status in Canada, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Saturday.

Trabelsi's formal claim means his case could be tied up in the courts for years. It will also hamper Canadian efforts to remove Trabelsi from the country.

Trabelsi fled to the Montreal area with his family after Ben Ali was ousted in a popular uprising on Jan. 14,

Cannon said the Trabelsi family was not welcome in Canada but he is entitled to make his case.

Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali goes to buy new boots. As soon as he enters the shop, the salesman hands him a pair. “How did you know my size?” asks Ben Ali. The answer: “You’ve stomped on us for 23 years, how can we not?”

Two weeks ago, the only time Tunisia’s dared mention Ben Ali’s name, was to praise him. Now, he is the butt of jokes, of online caricatures and of songs even aired on state TV.

Ben Ali fled Tunisia on Jan. 14, after weeks of protests demanding freedom from police rule.

On Facebook and online, activists who had been muzzled for so long immediately posted caricatures of the ousted president, his wife and her family, who many Tunisians accuse of accumulating wealth at the expense of the people.

One shows Ben Ali as a donkey, led along by his wife Leila. Another depicts Ben Ali milking the cash cow that is Tunisia.

State television, long an instrument of Ben Ali propaganda, broadcast a rap song that mocked his wooden tones with a video clip that appears to compare him to Adolf Hitler.

The last page of the newspaper Sabah, or Morning, which was owned by Ben Ali’s son-in-law, has been filled with caricatures of the former strongman. One shows Ben Ali about to drown, yelling “now I believe in democracy.” ...

Tanks moved on to the streets of Cairo and Alexandria as protesters in Egypt defied a nationwide curfew ordered by President Hosni Mubarak in an effort to quell the fourth and most violent day of demonstrations against his 30-year rule.

In a late-night TV address, Mubarak refused to relinquish power, but dismissed his government, promising a new administration to tackle unemployment and promote democracy.

But his call for stability appeared to cut little ice with many protesters, who surged on to the streets as soon as he finished speaking, defying a curfew. Protesters who had earlier been forced into nearby side streets by the military could be heard chanting "People want to change the regime" immediately after Mubarak's broadcast to the nation finished.

One eyewitness said that a small fire had been set at the Mogama building, housing several government offices in the central Tahrir square, which was shrouded by clouds of smoke and teargas.

Mubarak, in his first public appearance since unrest broke out four days ago, said on state television: "It is not by setting fire and by attacking private and public property that we achieve the aspirations of Egypt and its sons, but they will be achieved through dialogue, awareness and effort."

Two weeks to the day after Tunisia saw its veteran president flee into exile, the capital of the Arab world's largest country witnessed extraordinary scenes as tens of thousands of demonstrators braved teargas, rubber bullets and baton charges to vent their fury at repression, poverty, unemployment and corruption.

Medical sources said at least five protesters had been killed and 1,030 wounded in Cairo. Thirteen were killed in Suez, and six in Alexandria. A teenager was shot dead in Port Said, al-Jazeera reported.

The toll of wounded from other towns and cities was not immediately available. ...



GTFO, mubarek!

Running battles between police and anti-government protesters continued in Egypt for a second day today, despite an official ban by the government on protests and gatherings, and a huge deployment of police in Cairo.

Riot police and plainclothes officers armed with staves and bars broke up a demonstration outside one of the capital's biggest tourist hotels, the Ramses Hilton, on the banks of the river Nile.

Tonight demonstrators and police are still playing a violent game of cat and mouse through the city centre with protesters quickly regrouping after being broken up.

The sound of police sirens and detonating teargas canisters could be heard across the city in the biggest protests against the regime of 82-year-old President Hosni Mubarak in three decades.

Protests took place across Egypt, with gatherings broken up by police outside a number of locations in the capital, including the supreme court, Nasser metro station and on Ramses Street.

Police continued to round up scores of people, including photographers and reporters covering the demonstrations. The latest clashes came on a day when officials announced that 860 people had been rounded up following mass protests against Mubarak on Tuesday, when at least four people died. Two people died yesterday in Cairo but security officials contradicted each other on the circumstances. One told reporters a protester and a policeman were killed in clashes. But another official later said they died in a traffic accident.

The crackdown by authorities brought harsh words from European leaders, who said the events underlined the need for democratisation and respect for human and civil rights. One of the toughest comments came from German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, who said he was "extremely concerned" and called on all involved to show restraint. "We are seeing in the last few weeks that a country's stability is not endangered by granting civil rights. It is through the refusal of civil and human rights that societies become unstable," he said in a reference to Tunisia. ...

Egypt is not Tunisia. It's much bigger. Eighty million people, compared with 10 million. Geographically, politically, strategically, it's in a different league – the Arab world's natural leader and its most populous nation. But many of the grievances on the street are the same. Tunis and Cairo differ only in size. If Egypt explodes, the explosion will be much bigger, too.

Egyptians have been here before. The so-called Cairo spring of 2005 briefly lifted hopes of peaceful reform and open elections. Those hopes died, like autumn leaves, blown away by a withering sirocco of regressive measures and reimposed emergency laws. Food and price riots in Mahalla el Kubra in 2008 briefly raised the standard of revolt again. They were quickly suppressed.

But Tuesday's large-scale protests were different in significant ways, sending unsettling signals to a regime that has made complacency a way of life. "Day of Rage" demonstrators in Cairo did not merely stand and shout in small groups, as is usual. They did not remain in one place. They joined together – and they marched. And in some cases, the police could not, or would not, stop them.

This took President Hosni Mubarak and his ministers way out of their comfort zone. Interior minister Habib al-Adli had said earlier he held no objection to stationary protests by small groups. But marching en masse, uncontrolled and officially undirected, along a central Cairo boulevard, heading for the regime heartland of Tahrir Square – this was something new and dangerous.

The protests' organisation was different, too – recalling Tunisia, and Iran in 2009. The biggest opposition grouping, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, for so long a useful Islamist idiot manipulated to bolster western support for the secular regime, declined to take part. Egypt's establishment rebel, the former UN nuclear watchdog chief, Mohammad ElBaradei, also steered clear.

Instead an ad hoc coalition of students, unemployed youths, industrial workers, intellectuals, football fans and women, connected by social media such as Twitter and Facebook, instigated a series of fast-moving, rapidly shifting demos across half a dozen or more Egyptian cities. The police could not keep up – and predictably, resorted to violence. Egypt's protests already have their martyrs, killed by police or burned to death by their own hands. But Egypt does not yet have a Neda Agha-Soltan. Pray it never does.

The language and symbolism were different, too. "Enough, enough (Kifaya)!" they shouted in 2005, giving a name to the movement for change. Now the message is: "Too much, too far, for too long!"

"Mubarak, Saudi Arabia awaits you," the demonstrators chanted, referring to the refuge of the Tunisian ex-dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. "Out! Out! Revolution until victory," shouted a group of mothers, babes in arms. Across Cairo, Alexandria and beyond, the banners of the Tunisian intifada waved liked semaphore flags, wishfully signalling an end to the ancien regime. ...

Egypt's authoritarian government is bracing itself for one of the biggest opposition demonstrations in recent years tomorrow, as thousands of protesters prepare to take to the streets demanding political reform.

An unlikely alliance of youth activists, political Islamists, industrial workers and hardcore football fans have pledged to join a nationwide "day of revolution" on a national holiday to celebrate the achievements of the police force.

With public sentiment against state security forces at an unprecedented level following a series of high-profile police brutality cases and the torture of anti-government activists, protest organisers are hoping that a large number of Egyptians will be emboldened to attend rallies, marches and flash mobs across the country in a sustained effort to force concessions from an increasingly unpopular ruling elite.

In a move that suggests the uprising in Tunisia may be spreading to other parts of the Arab world, Tunisian activists announced they would be holding their own protests in solidarity with their Egyptian counterparts, while many Egyptians plan to wave Tunisian flags. Parallel protests are also scheduled to take place outside the Egyptian embassies in London and Washington.

Demonstrators are calling for the sacking of the country's interior minister, the cancelling of Egypt's perpetual emergency law, which suspends basic civil liberties, and a new term limit on the presidency that would bring to an end the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, one of the Middle East's most entrenched dictators.

State security officials have branded the protests illegal, and said that those taking part will be dealt with "strictly". ...

Nearly a third of Zimbabwe's 5.5m registered voters are dead, research has found. Others appear to be up to 120 years old, improbably outstripping the country's average life expectancy of 43.

The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said the country's electoral roll was a "shambles" and should be overhauled before fresh elections, which could be held this year.

A new electoral register is a key demand of the Movement for Democratic Change , which has accused President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party of counting "ghost voters" in its own favour.

After conducting an audit of the roll, the ZESN reported that 27% of people registered to vote were dead.

"The computer test revealed that 2,344 people born between 1901 and 1909, therefore aged between 101 and 110 years, were on the voters' roll," it said. "Nine people born between 1890 and 1900, aged between 111 and 120 years, are registered voters."

Life expectancy in Zimbabwe is 43 years, according to the World Health Organisation. Mugabe will soon turn 87. ...

Tunisia's president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali has fled his country after weeks of mass protests culminated in a victory for people power over one of the Arab world's most repressive regimes.

Ben Ali had taken refuge in Saudi Arabia, at the end of an extraordinary day which had seen the declaration of a state of emergency, the evacuation of tourists of British and other nationalities, and an earthquake for the authoritarian politics of the Middle East and north Africa.

After hours of conflicting reports had him criss-crossing southern Europe by air, the Saudi state news agency confirmed he had arrived in the kingdom together with his family. Earlier, French media reported that Nicolas Sarkozy had refused Ben Ali refuge, although France denied that any request had been received.

In Tunisia, prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi announced that he had taken over as interim president, vowing to respect the constitution and restore stability for Tunisia's 10.5 million citizens. "I call on the sons and daughters of Tunisia, of all political and intellectual persuasions, to unite to allow our beloved country to overcome this difficult period and to return to stability," he said in a broadcast.

But there was confusion among protesters about what will happen next, and concern that Ben Ali might be able to return before elections could be held. "We must remain vigilant," warned an email from the Free Tunis group, monitoring developments to circumvent an official news blackout. ...

Even while under curfew following the ouster of their long-serving authoritarian leader, Tunisians on Saturday experienced newfound freedoms online as their acting president promised a "new phase" for his embattled land.

Filters on websites like Facebook and YouTube, put in place under former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, were dropped and Internet speed picked up considerably -- a development that followed the new government's vow to ease restrictions on freedoms.

In addition, three Tunisian journalists -- including two bloggers critical of Ben Ali -- have been freed from jail, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Saturday.

These developments come as Fouad Mebazaa was sworn in as the country's acting leader on Saturday, after Ben Ali and his family took refuge in Saudi Arabia following days of angry street protests against the government.

Speaking on national TV, Mebazaa, who had been the country's parliamentary speaker, promised to ensure the nation's "stability," respect its constitution and "pursue the best interest of the nation." ...

April 8, 2010
Totalitarian drab is à la mode as Kim Jong Il is hailed a fashion arbiter

Kim Jong Il’s trademark suit is in vogue across the world thanks to the North Korean leader’s greatness, according to the official government website.

Uriminzokkiri.com said: “The august image of the Great General, who is always wearing the modest suit while working, leaves a deep impression on people’s minds in the world. That is because his image as a great man is so outstanding.”

The article quoted an unidentified French fashion expert as saying that the North Korean leader’s style was followed internationally. “Kim Jong Il mode, which is spreading expeditiously worldwide, is unprecedented in history,” the stylist said. ...

Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, ­yesterday called for a jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland, in an escalation of his vendetta against the country where police once arrested his son.

At a meeting in the city of Benghazi to mark the prophet Muhammad's birthday, Gaddafi described the country as an infidel state that was "destroying" mosques. Last year he urged the UN to abolish Switzerland and divide it between Germany, France and Italy. ...



gaddafi gaddafi

gaddafi duck

Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe calls for 'friendly relations' with west

• Speech to parliament raises hopes of diplomatic thaw
• President renews call for EU and US sanctions to be lifted



[brilliant snooty English butler]I'm sorry, sir, but no one is accepting your calls.[/brilliant snooty English butler]