Libya, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Getting Organised?

2110 GMT: Bahrain State TV is reporting that the Bahraini regime has shut down Al-Wasat, the only independent newspaper in the country.

In preparation for the move, State television has been broadcasting all night on the supposed plagiarism and distortions of Al-Wasat.

2005 GMT: In Libya, the opposition National Transitional Council has named a "crisis team" to political and military positions.

On the political side, Mahmoud Jebril will head the group taking its direction from the NTC. Omar Hariri is in charge of the military department, with General Abdel Fattah Younes al Abidi, Muammar Qaddafi's former ally and Minister of Interior, as Chief of Staff.

The economics and finance portfolio is held by Ali Tarhouni, a U.S.-based academic who returned to Libya to help the uprising. Appointments were also announced for a new National Oil company and a Central Bank.

Other positions filled included foreign affairs, infrastructure, information, and justice.

Meanwhile, an opposition fighter has said that US and Egyptian special forces have been secretly training insurgents at a camp in eastern Libya.

The fighter said training was given in the use of "a new shipment of Katyusha rockets...sent into eastern Libya from Egypt....These were state-of-the-art, heat-seeking rockets and that they needed to be trained on how to use them, which was one of the things the American and Egyptian special forces were there to do."

1910 GMT: Yemeni opposition parties say they agreed tonight on a plan for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power to a transitional government.

After a meeting of opposition leaders, spokesman Mohammad Qahtan said the plan will be announced in a few hours. "The ball would then be in the President's court."

Sources have also said negotiations between Saleh and the opposition did not stop last week, despite an apparent breakdown in the deal for the President to step down.

1810 GMT: Thousands of anti-government protesters in Aden in south Yemen have hurled stones at anti-riot police backed by tanks.

Demonstrators opposed to President Saleh were calling for a general strike on Saturday and witnesses said many residents responded by not going to work.

Protesters set tyres on fire and erected barricades with large rocks at the entrance of main roads to prevent tanks from moving.

1740 GMT: Syria's state news agency SANA has justified the early-morning detentions of at least 20 people by claiming that authorities are searching for members of an "armed group" that killed "a number of citizens and security forces" in the Damascus suburb of Duma on Friday.

Activists have claimed that security forces killed at least nine people in Duma yesterday.

1550 GMT: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on his way back from Britain, has told Hurriyet newspaper that he will press President Bashar al-Assad for reforms in Syria, "Beyond governmental change, there were expectations on removal of emergency rule, release of political prisoners and a new constitution. If those expectations do not take place, we will say this to Mr Assad on Monday."

1425 GMT: The Libyan opposition has posted a very graphic video, which it claims is of a doctor being executed by regime forces.

1420 GMT: Back from a break to find Al Jazeera English reporting that the opposition have re-taken part of the oil port of Brega in north-central Libya. James Boys reports from his position on the road halfway between Brega and Ajdabiya. Note the passage at the end where he says the insurgents have new communications --- provided by whom? --- to assist their fight.

Libya Snapshot: The Public Interrogation of A Journalist
Yemen Feature: Making Money Out of Protest
Bahrain: A Calculated Campaign of Intimidation?
Latest Syria Video: The Friday Protests
Reading Libya Amidst the Defections: Scott Lucas on the BBC
Friday's Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Defections v. A Military Push

1205 GMT: NATO has said it will investigate this morning's coalition airstrike which accidentally killed at least 13 opposition fighters and civilians.

The strike, on the road between Ajdabiya and Brega in east Libya, hit at least four vehicles, including an ambulance.

1200 GMT: The "Libya February 17" activists have posted a 13-minute video of the conditions in the main hospital in Misurata, the country's third-largest city, which has been under protracted siege by regime forces.

1155 GMT: A human rights groups says 21 people in Daraa in southern Syria have been arrested by security forces after a pro-democracy march.

1015 GMT: Activists claim Syrian security forces have made dawn arrests as mourners prepared to bury the first of at least nine people killed in anti-regime protests on Friday.

The seizures were around the town of Daraa in southern Syria, the flashpoint of more than two weeks of demonstrations.

0530 GMT: While most Friday attention was focused on Syria and Libya, it should not be forgotten that there were significant developments and protests from Egypt to Jordan to Tunisia. In Yemen alone, many thousands --- some reports said "hundreds of thousands" --- turned out both for and against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

A full run-down is available in Friday's LiveBlog.

0520 GMT: British media continue to advance the story that the Qaddafi regime is in discussions with Western governments for an end to the conflict in Libya.

Former Prime Minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi told Britain's Channel 4: "We are trying to talk to the British, the French and the Americans to stop the killing of people. We are trying to find a mutual solution."

On Wednesday, a senior aide to Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam reportedly met British officials.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said British officials have been in contact with a number of Libyan counterparts, including Ismail, in recent weeks in behind-the-scenes diplomacy. The spokesman insisted, "There are no deals" and "We are sending them all one very clear message, which is that Gaddafi must go."

0500 GMT: As regime and insurgent forces continued to face off on the tentative front line outside the oil port of Brega in north-central Libya, the opposition made a push to show it was dealing with the disorganisation that had hindered its fight. 

Ben Wedeman of CNN summarises, "Orders from the 'Libyan national army' instruct fighters not to advance unless they are part of an organised unit. Signs today that opposition finally getting its military act together. The front is no longer free for all for anyone with a gun."

Despite the checking of the recent regime advance, the battle is still a messy one, to say the least. This morning it is reported that a NATO airstrike on the road between Brega and opposition-held Ajdabiya to the east accidentally killed at least 13 insurgent fighters and civilians.

Meanwhile, we will be looking for signs in Syria of reaction to another Friday of protests and clashes. Supporters of the regime turned out in Damascus early in the day but throughout the afternoon and evening there was a stream of video testifying that --- despite President Assad's speech on Wednesday and the threat of a large security presence, protesters calling for reform turned out throughout the country, from Daraa in the south to Qamishli in the northeast to Hama and Homs in the west to the capital of Damascus (see special video section).

At least 10 people were reportedly killed by security forces.