Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Marching Again in Cairo

1645 GMT: Thanks to James Miller for taking the LiveBlog through the afternoon.

Video testifies to a series of protests across Yemen today, calling for a transitional government. Claimed footage of a march in Taiz attacked by security forces:

A march of women and children in Taiz:

A demonstration in Hodeidah:

1555 GMT: The Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) has again released a statement today affirming their commitment to democracy and the rights of it's citizens.

Major General Mahmoud Hegazi said the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has been studying all legitimate demands of the Egyptian people. He said the armed forces have pledged to achieve the demands of the Egyptians, stressing that the army is part and parcel of the people.

"We will make good on our promise to hand over power through fair and democratic elections."

This statement is framed by two interesting developments. First, elections scheduled for September will not be held until October or November. Some opposition groups have called for the postponement so they could organise more effectively for the vote.

State TV also reported that the military council fired 669 senior police officers amidst activists' demands that the security forces be cleansed of those who committed violence during the years of the Mubarak regime.

State TV said that 37 of the dismissed officers face charges of killing protesters. Among those dismissed were 505 major-generals, including 10 of the Minister of Interior's top assistants, 82 colonels, and 82 brigadiers, the report said.

"This is the biggest administrative move...to bring new blood" into the police force, Minister of Interior el-Issawi said.

Protesters still in Tahrir Square in Cairo lifted their siege of the city's largest government building on Wednesday, allowing business to resume there while camping out in the square for a sixth day. "The complex is open upon orders of the revolution," read a banner on the front gates of the Mogamma.

1526 GMT: In Libya, even more signs of abuses at the hands of the rebels from the city of Qawalish, recaptured today by Gaddafi forces. According to CJ Chivers, 6 bodies, apparently Gaddafi soldiers based on their uniforms, were found, executed and dumped down this equipment basin outside Qawalish. One body appeared to be beheaded.

1520 GMT: The Syrian Free Press has uploaded this video, taken today, showing a tank entering the city of Homs.

1503 GMT: A new report today suggest that the Libyan rebels don't have clean hands when it comes to rights abuses, particularly in the towns most recently captured from Gaddafi's forces, al-Awaniya, Rayayinah, Zawiyat al-Bagul and al-Qawalish. According to the Human Rights Watch:

"The rebel conduct was disturbing," said Fred Abrahams, Human Rights Watch (HRW) research supervisor.

"We documented fairly widespread looting of homes and shops, the burning of some homes of suspected Gaddafi supporters and - most disturbingly - the vandalisation of three medical clinics [and] local small hospitals, including the theft of some of the medical equipment."

He said the Libyan government had committed more serious crimes, but that did not excuse the behaviour of the rebels.

"Our aim is to hold all combatants, all militaries - whether they're organised and states and governments or rebels groups - to the same standards, and it's very much also a warning shot across the bow, because of these other areas they are approaching. We're deeply worried about how they might behave and treat civilians in those areas."

1459 GMT: Al Jazeera is running a potentially significant update, a mixup of security personell in Egypt:

According to Al Ahram, the Egyptian owned newspaper, changes announced by Minister of Interior today will affect 4000 police officers including ending the service of 505 major generals and 82 generals (including 18 major generals and 9 generals suspected of killing protestors).

1455 GMT: The people of Bahrain are celebrating the release of poet Ayat al-Qurmezi, a young woman who was jailed for writing this poem. Al-Qarmezi was sentenced to one month in prison (Ayat is in the center of the picture below, taken today).

1431 GMT: In Libya, Reuters provides more information on the town of Qawalish, recaptured by Gaddafi's forces today:

The loss of the village of al-Qawalish, about 100 km (60 miles) from the capital, underlined the faltering pattern of the rebel advances that has led some of the rebels' Western backers to push for a political solution to the conflict instead.

Fighters who pulled back to the nearby town of Zintan said pro-Gaddafi forces had swept through al-Qawalish from the east and reached as far as the checkpoint on the western edge of the village.

"We are fuelling up, preparing and, God willing, we are going to take it back," said one fighter in Zintan, who was at the wheel of a pickup truck with a heavy weapon mounted on the back.

Another fighter, on the western edge of Al-Qawalish, said: "We ran out of bullets and we had to pull out."

1417 GMT: The Bahrain Center for Human Rights has cataloged the government crackdown against teachers. According to the report, teachers were intimidated, arrested, interrogated, tortured, fired, suspended, and prosecuted in a crackdown that started in February and intensified over the next three months.

"Not only were members of the Teachers’ Union targeted but teachers themselves as well, being subjected to severe abuse and torture by the brutal Bahraini regime. 66 cases of teachers’ arrests have been reported to the BCHR, although the number is believed to be higher. Female teachers have been highly targeted as almost 74% of the cases reported were cases of women arrested. At least 15 Girls’ schoolshave also been repeatedly targeted by riot police, where both teachers and students were subjected to arbitrary arrests from the school campus and taken to police stations where they were physically abused."

1408 GMT: It appears that two small bombs have gone off, destroying an important oil pipeline in the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor. It is unclear who is responsible for the blast, but in the last two weeks there has been little sign of government forces in the region, which is now essentially controlled by the opposition activists. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has condemned the attack, regardless of who is responsible. The government of Syria, however, stated that it was possible the explosion was not a result of bombs going off, but rather the pipeline could have exploded during maintenance work.

1353 GMT: Meanwhile, Al Jazeera's James Bays is reporting that Gaddafi's forces have retaken the town of Qawalish, in Western Libya.

1345 GMT: James Miller reporting for duty. With both Scott Lucas and James on the road, updates will remain sporadic.

While Gaddafi has signaled to France that he is ready to step down from power, and with the rebels on the advance, the French government declares that now is not the time to waiver, renewing their commitment to the mission.

0615 GMT: We open this morning in Cairo, where thousands of demonstrators marched from Tahrir Square towards the Cabinet headquarters  and Prime Minister's office on Tuesday, demanding the removal of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

The protesters defied a warning by the military council that it would use "all legitimate means" to remove those who still remain in Tahrir Square after last Friday's mass demonstration. "Down, down with military rule," demonstrators chanted. "The people want the removal of the field marshal," referring to Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the SCAF head and longtime Minister of Defence for the Mubarak regime.

The protesters are pressing for open trials of members of the former regime, as well as members of the security forces who killed demonstrators during the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Other protests have been taking place in Alexandria and Suez, where people gathered outside a Suez Canal administration building.