Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Running Down a Protest

Montage of protest and the response by security forces on Friday in Bahrain

See also Egypt Letter: Alaa Abd-El Fattah Blogs from Jail "These Are My Limits"
Egypt Feature: Activists Try to Bridge Digital Divide by Taking "Tweets to the Streets"
Syria Video Special: Another Friday of Protests
Friday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: And There Will Be Marches....

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2030 GMT: An anti-regime demonstration in the Midan district of the Syrian capital Damascus tonight:

1910 GMT: Burhan Ghalioun, the head of the opposition Syrian National Council, has addressed the Syrian people in a televised address tonight. A summary, provided on Twitter:

This crisis has unified efforts of all Syrians....Syria will no longer be like a farm owned by a single family....A new constitution will give rights to minorities, especially Kurds....Power will be in the hands of people, they decide who rule them.

Every drop of blood is one more step on the way to freedom....Those who use violence against their own people are traitors who will fall and lose.

The Syrian National Council is your way to make your voices heard around the world. We are honored by your support....We will not negotiate or compromise.

Regime attempts to buy time will not help them....We have asked the Arab League and UN to protect civilians in Syria....We salute the Free Syrian Army who defended their brothers and their peaceful protests....Syrians will not forget the sacrifices of those who defended the uprising.

We tell people who are undecided, this revolution is yours....Syrians will not forget those who supported their revolutions....The regime of tyranny has fallen, but they are still trying to cling to power.

New Syria is being built today....The future Syria will be coming soon, free, democratic, and without slavery....Long live free Syria.

1840 GMT: Protest tonight in the Bab Sreeja section of the Syrian capital Damascus:

A LiveStream is also available of tonight's demonstration in Nawa in Daraa Province in the south.

1740 GMT: The father of a teenage Iraqi football player detained in Bahrain says his son has been released after months in custody.

Abdulameer Naji said his son Zulfiqar Naji, now 17, was released on Saturday as a goodwill gesture for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Zulfiqar Naqi, who plays for the junior team of the Bahraini club Al Muharraq, was seized from the family home in Bahrain in April on suspicion of participating in demonstrations.

Naqi's release comes three days before the sports channel ESPN broadcasts a documentary on Bahraini athletes seized since protests began in February:

1735 GMT: Activists have raised the number of civilians killed today in Syria to 13, reporting that at least 10 died in continuing explosions, shelling, and heavy machine gun fire in and near the flashpoint city of Homs.

1725 GMT: Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said --- again --- that he will leave office under a plan for transition of power developed by the Gulf Cooperation Council:

We stress our intention to continue to support the efforts that Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is undertaking in light of his mandate to complete a dialogue with the opposition and sign the Gulf initiative and its operational mechanism ...to achieve a legitimate, peaceful and democratic transition and conduct early presidential elections.

Saleh has repeatedly said he wishes to step down; however, in the spring he balked at the last minutes on three occasions from signing an agreement.

In his speech today on the eve of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, Saleh criticised "deluded, malicious" opponents. He said they used women and children as human shields and created "baths of blood" on Yemeni soil: "Our country is living through exceptional conditions of extreme difficulty and serious danger...due to the suffocating political crisis that some forces hungry for the seat of power have illegitimately concocted."

1613 GMT: Syrian State media announce, "Marking [the religious celebration] Eid al-Adha, 553 detainees who were involved in the current events with no blood on their hands were released. Also, 119 detainees were released lately."

1513 GMT: Activists claim nine people have been killed today in Syria.

Five civilians were reportedly slain and dozens wounded in the Bab Amr section of Homs, which has sustained heavy shelling all week. Four pro-regime "shahiba" militia were killed in Saraqeb in the northwest near the Turkish border.

1510 GMT: According to four officials who were at the meetings, leading commanders in Libya have held secret discussions over the last week, considering who should lead a new national army and how to disarm regional militias should be disarmed.

1410 GMT: Activists claim on a Facebook page that filmmaker Nidal Hassan has disappeared in the Syrian capital Damascus.

1400 GMT: Back from a weekend break to find this video of an anti-regime demonstration in Daraa in southern Syria this morning:

And footage points to large protests in the northwest, in Binnish and in Kherbet Ghazale, with chants of "Death rather than humiliation":

1140 GMT: Another image of Friday's procession in Bahrain for Ali Hassan Al Daihi, who died from a heart attack after an alleged beating by police:

1130 GMT: France's Foreign Ministry has called on Egypt's rulers to free blogger and activist Alaa Abd-El Fattah, who has been detained after refusing to recognise a military court (see separate entry).

Spokesperson Romain Nadal said, “France expresses its concern after the appearance before a military court of well-known blogger and activist M Alaa Abd-El Fattah. His detention because he is demanding to be heard by civilian jurisdiction is not justified.”

1120 GMT: We noted the reaction by US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland on Friday to the report that the Syrian regime had offered amnesty to demonstrators who turn in their weapons: "I wouldn't advise anybody to turn themselves in to regime authorities at the moment."

Here is Syrian State news agency SANA's headline re-framing of that statement, "Official Source: Statements of US Department of State Spokesperson Prove US Policies in Support of Killing and Financing Armed Groups":

The source said that the Syrian Government condemns these irresponsible statements which only aim at inciting sedition, supporting the acts of killing and the terrorism practiced by the armed groups against the Syrian citizens.

1100 GMT: A doctor has said 126 unidentified bodies have been delivered to the Al-Watani Hospital in Homs in Syria during the past three days.

The doctor said eight of the bodies were burnt, and the deaths have not been reported in the state-run news media.

The report was largely supported by Saleem Kabbani, a member of the opposition Local Coordinating Committees of Syria. He claimed three sources had told him that approximately 100 unidentified bodies had been taken to the hospital in recent days. Kabbani said his sources included a person who was involved in the transport of the bodies; a witness who saw the bodies in the location where they were found; and a witness inside the hospital.

0900 GMT: The International Monetary Fund has completed a visit to Egypt without saying whether the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces had requested funds.

Minister of Finance Hazem el-Beblawi has said Cairo is open to support but the regime has not made any formal request for aid since it turned down a financing package of more than $3 billion in June.

The IMF mission, which visited from 26 October to 3 November, said, "Egypt's medium-term economic potential is promising. However, maintaining macroeconomic stability and social cohesion amidst modest short-term growth prospects and a weakening external environment remains challenging."

0840 GMT: The events in Bahrain on Friday caught the eye of The New York Times, which adds this claimed video of the National Guard moving in armoured vehicles to prevent demonstrations at Pearl Roundabout/Martyrs Square.

0750 GMT: Rachid Ghannouchi, the head of the vote-leading Ennadha Party in Tunisia, has said a new government will focus on democracy, human rights, and a free-market economy in planned changes to the Constitution, rather than putting an emphasis on religion.

Ghannounchi said the government, due to be announced next week, will not introduce sharia or other Islamic concepts to alter the secular nature of the Constitution: "We are against trying to impose a particular way of life."

Ennahda won 41.7% of the vote in ballloting for an Assembly on 23 October.

European Union electoral observers urged on Friday that the complete results be published "as soon as possible", citing concerns at "weaknesses" in the counting. It is calling for results from each and every polling station to be released.

0730 GMT: Protesters at Occupy London, outside St Paul's Cathedral, link up with demonstrators in Damascus and Homs in Syria in a two-way LiveStream:

0630 GMT: Syria offered more of the frustrating, hopeful, angry, and deadly "new normal" on Friday, with at least 18 people slain during the mass of demonstrations across the country. EA's James Miller captured not only the day but the months behind and ahead with his summary last night:

For two days, the video evidence, verified by shots of newspapers, protest signs, landmarks, and comparison against eyewitness accounts, has pointed towards a single conclusion. The Syrian military regime, led by Bashar al Assad, has no interest in negotiating, reforming, or ceding power. Today the regime...showed that if you surrender then you may be spared, but if you continue to resist, we will shoot.

But it was not only Syria where we had a message from protesters and security forces. In Bahrain, thousands turned out for the funeral of Ali Hassan Al Daihi, the elderly father of a leading opposition official. His family claims the death was caused by a police assault on Wednesday.

When some in the crowd tried to move to Pearl Roundabout, the symbolic centre of the demonstrations from February, the security forces responded with attempts, including tear gas, to disperse the crowd. That in turn led to eye-catching images, from the man hiding behind a shield to avoid live fire to the videos of police jeeps trying to run down protesters (see video at top of entry).