Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Regime v. People with Rocks

2040 GMT: Claimed footage of protesters throwing stones at security forces in Hama today:

1700 GMT: Activists of the Local Coordination Committees of Syria claim the death toll in Hama today is now at least 13, including a 15-year-old boy.

The activists also claim 67 people are in hospital with serious injuries, with another 200 treated and discharged.

Among those reported killed are Ahmad Bitar, Emad Mohammad Khallouf, Baha Halbosy Nahar, Hasan Saraqbi, Mohammad Swaid, Foad Al Mukhallalati, Maher Sharabi, Mohammad Qasem Owair, Mahmoud Mahalle, Omar AlDalati, a martyr from Yousfan family, Omar Bahah and Bilal Mohammad (15 years old).

1530 GMT: Hassan Zaid, the head of the Yemeni opposition party Al-Haq, has said that he was briefly arrested at Sana'a airport.

"Today they were going to kill me at the airport," Zaid said after his release. "Security forces returned me and my companion from the airport with machine guns pointed at our backs. They called us traitors, collaborators and agents of Iran.

1415 GMT: Footage of injured in Hama in Syria today:

1405 GMT: A cyber-attack has reportedly shut down the independent Moroccan news website Demain Online.

1400 GMT: Activists say at least six people have been killed today by security forces in Hama in Syria on the second day of a military crackdown in the area.

Five of the activists have been named as brothers Baha and Khaled Al-Nahar, Emad Mohammad Khallouf, Hassan Saraqbi, and Ahmad Bitar.

1350 GMT: Sources say four civilians and six gunmen were killed in a series of air raids on the city of Zinjibar in southern Yemen.

Three of the civilians were killed when an air strike hit the home of a top Yemeni official, Mohammed Ali al-Shadadi, on the outskirts of Zinjibar. It is unclear why the home was targeted, although al-Shadadi has supported protesters who have demanded the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Insurgents took control of Zinjibar last month, and fighting has continued to be intense in the city and surrounding area.

1250 GMT: Workers at the Egyptian port of Suez, on strike for the last three weeks, have stepped up their protests for better wages bycutting off electricity to the neighbouring city of Port Tawfik.

The protesters said that Minister of Manpower Ahmed Hassan al-Borei had promised to fulfill their demands, but they still have not received the promised salary increases.

1240 GMT: An Egyptian court has cleared three ministers of the Mubarak regime on charges of graft.

Former Minister of Information Anas El Fiqi and former Minister of Housing Ahmed El-Maghraby were found innocent of misusing public funds. Former Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali, tried in absentia, and Palm Hills Development Chairman Yasseen Mansour were also cleared.

El Fiqi faces further charges, while Boutros-Ghali and Maghraby have been sentenced to terms in prison for other crimes.

The prosecutor indicted El Fiqi and Boutros-Ghali in March on charges of profiteering and wasting public funds after investigations showed El-Fiqqi received LE 36 million ($6.04 million) from the Ministr of Finance for parliamentary election media campaigns and to promote Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party.

In another ruling, former Minister of Trade Rachid Mohamed Rachid was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for squandering public funds.

Rachid was given another five-year term last month for profiteering and misuse of funds.

1220 GMT: Claimed footage, uploaded this morning, of protesters running from gunfire in Homs:

1210 GMT: Claimed video of Colonel Ryad Mousa, a senior officer in the Syrian Air Force, defecting and joining the "Free Officers' Movement":

1150 GMT: Back from a break to find Lebanon-based activist Omar Idilbi claiming that regime troops are on the move again in northern Syria, heading towards mountainous areas near the Turkish border.

0800 GMT: The Libyan regime has denied accusations that it executed detainees as punishment for their families' failure to join a rally in Tripoli in support of Muammar Qaddafi.

A regime statement, saying that the AFP news agency was "putting its credibility at stake", asserted, "This report is baseless and no newspaper or news agency reported anything of the kind. There has been no resort to violence against the population and a million people took part in the rally.

0650 GMT: Al Jazeera English reports on the nightly shelling of the Yemeni city of Taiz by regime forces, with gunmen also attacking protesters in the main square last evening.

A security official said one person had been killed and three others wounded in the attack.

Activist Mahmoud Taha said the shelling had hit several districts, and armed tribesmen had responded by attacking several army vehicles.

0610 GMT: CNN interviews General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who broke away from the Yemeni regime in March: "The country right now is living through a complete political stalemate -- a constitutional stalemate and the people are watching. The people are waiting to see what will happen. Negative reactions might happen but we hope that God will keep us far from civil war and other problems."

0600 GMT: An Irish delegation is planning to visit Bahrain next week to press the regime to release detained doctors and nurses.

The group includes Marian Harkin of the European Parliament, former Minister for Foreign Affairs David Andrews, and Senator Averil Power, as wll as orthopaedic surgeon Professor Damien McCormack.

Almost 50 medical staff have been charged with actions against the regime during the uprising that began on 14 February; trials began last month. While many have been released on bail, 14 are still in prison.

0555 GMT: Protests broke out in Suez in Egypt yesterday after a court released police charged with killing protesters during the uprising against the Mubarak regime.

0500 GMT: We opened yesterday in Hama, and we closed there as well. The Assad regime, seeking to demonstrate once more that it has not "lost" Syria's 4th-largest city --- located along the Damascus-to-Aleppo route --- moved in security forces and troops.

Dozens of residents were arrested, but others proclaimed defiance and a retreat by the regime's men. One resident said, "People here are ready with rocks."

Meanwhile, defiance in other parts of Syria overnight --- first, a demonstration in the Hajar Aswad section of Damascus, where two people were killed and eight wounded the previous night during a protest:

In the Qaboun section of Damascus:

And in Idlib in the northwest: