Syria, Yemen (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Marches of the 10,000s

Claimed footage of a funeral procession in the Damascus suburb of Al Kiswah in Syria for a protester killed by security forces on Friday

2005 GMT: Activists say the Syrian military has occupied another village in northwest Syria near the border with Turkey.

Troops and tanks moved into Najia today. The village is near Jisr al-Shughour, the flashpoint town cleared out by the military after dozens of people --- activists says civilians, the regime says security forces --- were killed in clashes.

The military also reportedly moved into Qusair near the Lebanese border.

1900 GMT: Dr Ala'a Shehabi, an economics lecturer, writes of the abduction, interrogation, and prosecution of her husband, Ghazi Farhan, who was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday. She concludes:

Today, the best of the best in Bahraini society are being dragged through military courts. Doctors and nurses are being punished for treating protesters, teachers and engineers for participating in a national strike, footballers for protesting - academics, journalists, students, businessmen are all dragged through the ordeal of this military court. As Human Rights Watch testifies, this is a "travesty of justice".

These military courts must be disbanded and prisoners of conscience must be released immediately. Such show trials undermine the rule of law by forcefully reinforcing the regime's sense of power and control - and are not sustainable. Justice needs to prevail for any enduring peace and security to exist on this island.

1700 GMT: The Egyptian regime has halted plans to seek loans from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, according to Minister of Finance Samir Radwan.

The regime had revised the planned deficit in the 2011-12 budget from 11% to 8.6% of GDP, Mr Radwan told Reuters news agency, but an advisor admitted the decision was partly a response to the "pressure of public opinion".

Radwan said Egypt would cover the greater part of the deficit from "local sources", as well as packages from Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which he said had provided $500m in the past week as a "gift".

Many in Egypt have criticised the IMF for bolstering the rule of ousted President Hosni Mubarak and imposing harsh economic conditions that benefited the rich more than the poor.

Radwan turned to the IMF in May, agreeing a $3bn (£1.9bn), 12-month stand-by loan facility after loan deals with the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

1650 GMT: An Egyptian court has sentenced former Minister of Trade Rachid Mohamed Rachid in absentia to five years in prison for profiteering and squandering public funds.

Rachid, who fled abroad in January, days after the beginning of the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, was also fined 9.385 million Egyptian pounds ($1.57 million).

1605 GMT: A snapshot from a journalist in Yemen, "Power cuts are getting ridiculous. In Sanaa, we had four hours of electricity in the past 24 hours. It's even worse in other areas.

1600 GMT: NATO has carried out a double missile strike Friday on regime targets in Brega in north-central Libya.

At the same time, the coalition said it was unaware of 15 civilian deaths reported by state media.

Libyan State TV said a local bakery and a restaurant had been hit, wounding 20 people in addition to the 15 dead.

A Reuters correspondent in the capital Tripoli heard a total of four loud explosions as jets flew overhead on two occasions on Saturday. The blasts appeared to come from the eastern suburb of Tajoura.

1550 GMT: Back from a Saturday break to find that Syrian Vice Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad has denied reports that blogger Tal Mallouhi died in detention.

Mallouhi, 20, was taken from her home in December by security officers, apparently because of the poems about Palestine and social commentaries on her blog. She was accused of spying for the US and sentenced on 15 February to five years in prison.

1035 GMT: Up to 1000 people have fled into Lebanon to escape violence in southern Syria, according to a Lebanese security official.

Six of the refugees had gunshot wounds.

The death toll from clashes during Friday's protests across Syria has risen to 20, including two children, according to activists. The Local Coordination Committees said most of the deaths occurred in the Barzeh neighborhood of the capital Damascus, as well as the suburb of al-Kaswa. Several others died when security forces opened fire in Homs.

The Syrian opposition says about 1,400 people have been killed since the uprising begin in mid-March.

1030 GMT: Seventeen leading figures in Libyan football, including four members of the national team, have announced their support for the opposition.

The group includes the Libyan national goalkeeper Juma Gtat and the coach of Tripoli's top club al-Ahly, Adel bin Issa.

1025 GMT: Back from a break to find footage of a protest march in Bani Jamra in northwest Bahrain on Friday:

0555 GMT: "Giant flag" rallies were a feature of Friday's protests in Syria, as anti-regime demonstrators tried to outdo similar displays by supporters of President Assad. This video is from a town in the south of the country:

0530 GMT: Friday's display of defiance in Syria on the "Day of National Legitimacy" was even greater than expected, both in size and in reach across the country, as tens of thousands of people rallied in villages, towns, and cities. Video testified to mass gatherings with the notable exceptions of central Damascus and the second city Aleppo.

At least 15 people were reportedly killed in clashes with security forces. 

Another clip of the demonstrations,  from Binnish in the northwest:

See also Syria Video: Today's "Day of National Legitimacy" Protests Set 1 AND Set 2

In Yemen, the pro-reforms protests were even larger, with huge turnouts in the capital Sana'a and Taiz.

And even Bahrain, amidst the crackdown on dissent, had small displays of defiance. This footage is from the village of Boukoh: