2210 GMT: It is now after midnight in Egypt, and we are taking a few hours' break. We leave you for the moment with this image from tonight in Tahrir Square in Cairo,as protesters move away from a tear gas canister:
2200 GMT: Tonight's statement from protesters calling for the fall of the Egyptian Government and for a continued sit-in:
2145 GMT: Cyber-Watch. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports on how Iranian activists are welcoming the introduction of Google software, include the Chrome browser, Google Earth, and the photo-sharing service Picasa, into Iran.
2140 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Rooz Online publishes the English text of the appeal by 133 intellectuals and academics, such as Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, and Jurgen Habermas, for the freedom of Ebrahim Yazdi, the 80-year-old head of the Freedom Movement of Iran detained since last September.
2125 GMT: Leaving the Mayor at Home. Ayande News notes that Tehran has finished third out of five cities nominated for an international award in sustainable transport, awarded in Washington by a US-based non-government organisation. It mentions that Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf was not at the ceremony.
It does not mention why he was absent, however. Qalibaf was denied an exit visa by the Foreign Ministry.
In Tunisia, there continue to be dramatic developments. Amidst chatter that the interim Government would be replaced by a "council of wise men" to give the country a semblance of authority before March elections, the head of the Army, Rachid Ammar, suddenly appeared before protesters outside the Prime Minister's office (see Monday's updates).
Ammar's message was a request to the thousands of demonstrators and a warning to the politicians. He asked those assembled to finish their protest and allow a bit of space for discussions. And his declaration that the Army supported the people's revolution and would uphold the Constitution sent out the message to those inside the Government buildings: get this sorted now.
It promises to be an interesting Tuesday with potential filibuster reform and an outside chance of Republicans forcing a repeal vote on the health care plan. But in the end it will be the power of the Presidency that draws the world's attention to Washington on Tuesday. With one of his most important weapons, President Obama has the chance to remind Americans, and an international audience, of the optimism that surrounded his election in 2008.
Today at 10 a.m. the Senate will convene for the first time since 5 January. The issue of the day, hours before President Obama gives his State of the Union address will be filibuster reform.
The topic has been debated extensively over the last 12 months, and especially since the end of July after the DISCLOSE Act intended to reform campaign finance laws was defeated by "obstructionist" tactics. Possibly this afternoon, more likely later in the week, the Senate will finally decide whether or not to reform the rules that made the last two years the most filibustered in history of the chamber, with 400 bills passed by the House never reaching the floor of the Senate for debate.
Saeb Erekat (left) and Salam FayyadA leaked US cable summarises a July 2008 discussion between the Prime Minister of the West Bank, Salam Fayyad, and chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, on the state of Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Fayyad pointed to the dilemma for Gaza. On the one hand, Fayyad argues that "its crossings must be controlled or it will be gone forever", but on the other, he warns Americans and Israelis not to give Hamas the 'vulnerability' excuse to exploit the Gazans. The West Bank Prime Minister wanted to talk to Hamas and bring it to the legitimate political arena. This, however, could not come true at the expense of Israel's "security".
Aluf Benn, Haaretz, Israel, Palestine, Saeb Erekat, Salam Fayyad Day 2 of Al Jazeera's coverage of the more than 1600 internal documents it obtained on Israel-Palestine negotiations between 1999 and 2010. Tonight's headline: Israel was willing to transfer its Arab citizens to a Palestinian state and the Palestinian Authority was pursuing the "right of return" for only 150,000 of the 5-6 million Palestinian refugees.
The live programme has now ended. We will be posting video highlights as they appear on the Internet.
Roudabeh Akbari, Jafar Kazemi's wife, has spoken by phone about the killing of her husband, a lithographer at Amir Kabir University, this morning: "This morning we went to visit with him. We filled out a [visitation request] card, too. But they came back and told us that they had hanged him."
Last night, in a special broadcast, Al Jazeera English unveiled more than 1600 documents on Israel-Palestine discussions from 1999 to 2010. We have posted links to both Al Jazeera and to The Guardian, which is also publishing the documents and anlaysis, in our initial entry.
We are awaiting the full copy of the special broadcast, including a dramatic interview with Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authoriyt. In the meantime, this is Al Jazeera's discussion during the programme with former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami, Daud Abdullah of Middle East Monitor UK, and Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada. The video is in three parts:
Yesterday I posted an analysis, "How the US Media Missed the Important Story", which sought to highlight a key reason for the failure of this weekend's talks on uranium enrichment between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China, Germany) --- the 5+1's proposal for "third-party enrichment", with more than 90% of Tehran's uranium stock leaving the country, was much tougher than what it put on the table in the discussions of October-November 2009.
Scott Peterson of The Christian Science Monitor, whom I mentioned in the analysis, has offered us an important follow-up....
