Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Back to Business After Obama

2105 GMT: Protestors in the far eastern town of Albou Kamal, on Syria's border with Iraq, have reportedly have set fire to offices of the ruling Baath Party.

A tribal leader said, "People want to overthrow the regime. There can be no dialogue with tanks and soldiers, no dialogue with security men who kill, arrest and smash the homes of civilians. We want democracy and freedom. We want to feel we are real citizens, not numbers."

2000 GMT: Activists say at least 34 people were killed today by security forces --- 11 in Homs, 13 died in Maarat al-Numan near Aleppo, 2 in Deir Al Zor, 1 each in Daraa, Sanamin, Latakia, Darraya near Damascus, and Hama, and 3 in unknown locations.

1620 GMT: Today's mass protest in Hodeidah against the Yemeni regime:

1610 GMT: About 3000 protesters gathered in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Friday, calling for punishment of former President Hosni Mubarak, his family, and former officials.

Demonstrators condemned Protesters denounced the release of Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt's former First Lady, and Zakareya Azmy, former Presidential chief of staff, on bail this week. The Cairo Criminal Court later ordered Azmy to remain in custody for another 30 days pending investigation.

The crowd also called for the resignation of the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud.

1600 GMT: The challenge to the Yemeni regime in the capital Sana'a today:

1555 GMT: An eyewitness has spoken of the shooting of protesters by security force in Barzeh, a suburb north-east of Damascus, killing four and wounding tens: "The protesters have all been shot in the legs and stomach."

The protest of about 1000 people began after Friday prayers with chants of “Peaceful, peaceful” and calls for the toppling of the regime.

The eyewitness said security forces first beat protesters with sticks and fired tear gas at them. "Then they opened fire on us," he said.

After the deadly clash, After the killing, security forces began detaining people, he said. "So people are afraid to go home for fear of being arrested."

The eyewitness claimed security forces poured fuel on a shop and a house in Berze before setting them on fire while protesters tried to stop them: "I think they are doing it to blame us for sabotage."

Barzeh is now surrounded by police checkpoints and electricity to the town has been cut.

1520 GMT: Human rights activist Razan Zeitouna says today's death toll in Syria ia now at least 23.

Nine have been killed in suburbs of Hama, ninein Homs, four in Barzeh near Damascus, and one in Sanamin.

Meanwhile, Syrian security has raided the headquarters of the Assyrian Democratic Association in Qamishli and arrested 12 of its members, according to two activists.

A Kurdish leader said the arrests followed the new development of widespread participation by Christian Assyrians in protests. Khodr Abdel Karim, a human rights activist in Qamishli, said: "This is a message from the regime to Syrian Christians not to participate in any of these demonstrations."

1425 GMT: Video has been posted of Aiham Al-ahmad, an 11 year-old boy killed today when he was shot in the head in Homs in Syria.

1420 GMT: Syrian activists now claim that 12 people, 9 of them in Homs, have been killed today by security forces.

1320 GMT: Video of mass anti-regime protests in Taiz and in Ibb in Yemen:

1255 GMT: AFP is reporting that Syrian security forces have killed five people, including a child, in #Homs and the southern region of Daraa.

1200 GMT: Reuters claims, citing a Syrian rights group, that one protester has been killed after security forces opened fire on a pro-democracy protest in Sanamin, south of Damascus.

1140 GMT: The Associated Press reports that firing into the air in the Syrian coastal town Baniyas to disperse protesters.

An eyewitness has told Al Jazeera that pro-regime men with iron bars have attacked a group of 500 to 700 worshippers as they left the Dahabiyye Mosque after Friday Prayers in Bab Sriejeh, in the Old City of Damascus. In the Midan neighbourhood of the capital, a demonstration by Abu Ayoub al-Ansari Mosque had barely begun before security forces fired tear gas on around 1000 protesters, arresting several.

At the nearby al-Hassan mosque, a protest called for an end to the military sieges imposed on Daraa, Baniyas, Homs, and Douma.

In Berzeh, a suburb northeast of Damascus, between 500 to 700 protesters are marching from al-Diea Mosque towards Salaam Mosque where they plan to join other protesters heading to the main square.

1135 GMT: Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh told a pro-regime rally today, "We call for an early presidential election to prevent bloodshed...in a smooth and democratic way."

The President gave no details. He has been alternative refusing and then saying he will accept a Gulf Co-operation Council-brokered arrangement for a transition of power within 30 days.

1130 GMT: A human rights activist has claimed that Syrian security forces have fired live ammunition at pro-democracy demonstrators in Homs.

1125 GMT: The Bahraini regime has declared that "the door for dialogue has been open in the Kingdom of Bahrain since the launch of a National Action Charter and will remain so".

The statement, coming a day after President Obama's call for discussion between the regime and opposition, continued, "It hopes that the dialogue witnesses the participation of all to achieve a national consensus through constitutional means,"

Without referring directly to Obama's challenge, "You can't have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail," the regime said, "The Kingdom of Bahrain...has responded to the false accusations and wrong information on all occasions."

1120 GMT: The Syrian regime says troops have begun withdrawing from the border town Tal Kalakh after a six-day military operation. The official news agency SANA said troops had successfully ended the state of "chaos" caused by armed gangs.

Activists, confirming that some units were leaving, say that 36 civilians have now died in the Tal Kalakh operation.

1100 GMT: Back from an academic break to find activist claims that residents of the southern town of Daraa in Syria are not allowed in the streets and electricity has been cut.

There is also the claim of gathering protests in Hama and other towns and the picture of this gathering in Idlib in the northwest:

0700 GMT: Claimed video of a demonstration in Horan in southern Syria yesterday:

0550 GMT: The family of Anton Hammerl, an Austrian-South African photojournalist  missing in Libya since 5 April, believe he has died after being shot in the desert.

Clare Gillis and James Foley, two of four journalists released by the Libyan regime on Wednesday, told Hammerl’s wife that they were with him when he apparently was shot in the stomach

0520 GMT: Syrian activists have claimed that regime tanks have entered Raqqa, 550 km (340 miles) northeast of Damascus.

0500 GMT: Just in case you were wondering if everything in North Africa and the Middle East stopped for President Obama's speech on Thursday....

The Libyan regime offered a defiant reaction: "Obama is still delusional. He believes the lies that his own government and media spread around the world. It's not Obama who decides whether Muammar Qaddafi leaves Libya or not.  It's the Libyan people." 

Meanwhile, NATO said its aircraft sank eight regime warships in overnight attacks on the ports of Tripoli, Al Khums, and Sirte.

The regime continued to deny the defection of the Minister of Oil: "Shokri Ghanem is on an official visit to Tunisia and some European countries and is expected to be in Egypt. We are quite confident he will continue his work and help his people to move out of this difficult time."

In Syria, the challenge to the Assad regime enters another Friday of protests. In Bahrain, the monarchy proceeds with the crackdown, sentencing more protesters to long jail terms, despite Obama's call for the release of political prisoners.

And in Yemen, President Saleh continues to play around with the deal that is supposed to see his handover of power within 30 days: having balked at signing it on Wednesday, he was saying through his spokesman yesterday that he had changed his mind and would agree on Sunday.