Yemen, Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Surprise Return of Presidents and Protests

Sanabis in Bahrain, blanketed in tear gas today

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2145 GMT: We have taken a Saturday night break to recharge. Apologies for limited service --- we will be at 0600 GMT on Sunday with a full round-up of developments across North Africa and the Middle East and a special feature on Bahrain.

Meanwhile, the latest from Bahrain --- EA sources say Sanabis is a "closed" village with entrances blocked, adding, "It is too dangerous to go out."

In what appears to be a troubling development, there have been a number of house fires in villages where protests have been occurring (see 1110 GMT). What is even more troubling, again from EA sources, are claims that security forces have been setting fires to force out protesters who can be identified and arrested. One source writes, "Police thugs attacking protests in Sanabis who where trying to Extinguish a building on a fire, they attacked us with flashbangs and teargas."

Shaky video of a fire in Sanabis and disorder nearby:

A photograph of Sanabis this evening:

1645 GMT: Dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar has called President Saleh a "sick, vengeful soul", comparing him to the Roman emperor Nero who burned down his own city.

Al-Ahmar said Saleh, who returned to Yemen on Friday, appears set on driving the country to civil war and has called on the international community to curb the President.

At least 40 people have reportedly been killed since last night, with battles between Saleh's forces and those of al-Ahmar and an opposition tribal leader.

1615 GMT: EA sources report that clashes continue in Sanabis in Bahrain --- "smell of tear gas all over the village". A video confirming the news:

Meanwhile, the February 14 Movement has called for another "Chain of Dignity" demonstration, in which protesters drive slowly to back up road traffic, for 26-28 September.

1610 GMT: A protest today in Inkhil in southern Syria:

1605 GMT: An activist has posted the names of 80 victims among 153 claimed deaths from the violence in Yemen since Sunday.

1505 GMT:Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights has sent the message that authorities have reacted swiftly with protesters seized yesterday in Manama, ordering the detention of 38 women protesters for 45 days and 7 female juveniles for three days.

1455 GMT: The latest from an EA source in Sanabis, "Walked along the villages roads until I saw a small protest, a few hundred who were chanting for almost 20 minutes. We got attached by police force with tear gas and rubber bullets. We had to retreat. Getting news that there are similar protests in different areas of the village."

1450 GMT: Claimed footage of an anti-regime protest in al-Soura in Daraa Province in southern Syria this morning:

1440 GMT: In Egypt, hundreds of teachers demonstrated in Luxor early Saturday, demanding the removal of supporters of the ousted Mubarak regime from the Ministry of Education. They also called for elections in the near-future at the teachers’ syndicate.

At the same time, "tens of thousands" of striking teachers and their supporters marched on Cabinet headquarters in downtown Cairo, totally blocking Kasr El-Aini street, a main city centre thoroughfare where Parliament is located.

Egypt’s teachers have been on a national strike for a week, demanding that the government implement a monthly minimum wage, release a 200% productivity bonus promised to public sector workers, and discontinue merit tests.

The Egyptian Cabinet has scheduled an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the teachers' demands, as well as issues raised by doctors and a proposed electoral law.

1430 GMT: Radio France International reports the French Ambassador to Syria, Eric Chevallier, was accosted by plainclothesmen (shabiha) with metal bars and pro-Assad supporters this morning. Chevallier was walking in Damascus’ Old City, after a meeting with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ignace IV, when stones and eggs were thrown at him.

1410 GMT: The latest from Bahrain....

Security forces continue to try and "lock down" villages, sometimes using tear gas and sound grenades, with protesters using wooden shields protect themselves from police fire. A photograph of police closing off the entrance to the village of Jidhafs:

And the blocking off of the entrance to Sanabis:

1400 GMT: The funeral of Safwan Al-Mazloum, killed by security forces, in the Bayada section of Homs today:

1300 GMT: An EA source from Sanabis in Bahrain, "Am still hearing sounds of shooting. The place is packed with police jeeps. I can hear the helicopter flying around."

A video of clashes in the village has just been uploaded.

1250 GMT: In Egypt, the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, testified for one hour in the prosecution of former President Hosni Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal, former Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly, and six of Mubarak's aides. The trial was then adjourned to 30 October.

Security forces prevented most of the plaintiffs’ lawyers from attending the session, sources said. Only a few were allowed access, and the court prevented full questioning. Many of the lawyers later announced a sit-in at the courthouse.

The plaintiffs' lawyers also challenged the court, demanding a change of Ahmed Rifaat, the presiding judge. The court will examine the request on 30 October.

Meanwhile, the trial of two policemen accused of beating to death Egyptian activist Khaled Said, an incident which helped spark the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak, was adjourned on Saturday.

The judge scheduled a hearing for 22 October, so lawyers could study a forensic report submitted by a team of medical experts who examined Said's body. The judge also ordered a news blackout from the next court session until a verdict was reached.

Police sergeant Awad Suleiman and policeman Mahmoud Salah are charged with illegally arresting and physically torturing Said, facing a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

1240 GMT: Claimed footage of Syrian security forces in al-Jiza in Daraa Province in the south:

1230 GMT: In Yemen, the forces of President Saleh have killed at least 11 soldiers and wounded more than 100 in an assault, with mortar fire, on the dissenting 1st Armoured Division of General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, according to one of the opposition officers

An opposition officer also said Saleh's forces were attempting to clear the protest camp in Change Square in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, where between 16 and 18 people were killed and more than 50 injured in regime attacks.

Protesters distributed plastic helmets in a desperate effort to protect themselves from the bullets of pro-Saleh snipers on the rooftops of nearby houses.

1220 GMT: An EA source reports, "Clashes started now in Sanabis. Sounds of shooting outside the house. Can't get out yet, the place is packed with police."

1210 GMT: Human Rights Watch has called on universities in Bahrain to immediately reinstate all students, faculty, and staff who have been dismissed for criticising the Government and ruling family or attending demonstrations. HRW also called on the University of Bahrain to stop requiring students to sign oaths of loyalty to the ruling Al Khalifa family and the Government as a condition for enrollment.

HRW claims the University of Bahrain dismissed at least 100 faculty and staff between April and August, in most cases for attending demonstrations or posting links on social media. It added that university and Ministry of Education officials or police have interrogated hundreds of students, and more than 500 were suspended for a semester or expelled.

1130 GMT: Bahraini police, urging viewers to turn in protesters, have released this 5-minute of edited footage from the City Center Mall on Friday. What is interesting is that, while the video shows people marching and chanting, it does not show them --- as regime supporters claimed --- attacking storefronts or shoppers.

1125 GMT: A doctor says that 30 fighters of the National Transitional Council have been killed in the effort to take the Qaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, southeast of the Libyan capital Tripoli. A commander said another 50 had been wounded.

NTC fighters launched an assault on the city on 10 September, but pulled back that night after fierce resistance.

1120 GMT: EA sources confirm reports of numerous checkpoints and blocked roads in Bahrain. One writes, "I'm on my way to Sanabis now, hoping to get in."

1110 GMT: In a controversial incident on Friday, a house in Sanabis in Bahrain caught fire, reportedly causing several injuries to several people. The State news agency claimed that "rioters" had exploded a gas canister. Opposition sources say the police set off the fire when sound grenades thrown into the house exploded cooking gas.

This is footage of the house as it begins to smolder, just after police chase several men out of the property.

1050 GMT: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has claimed that nine people were arrested in al-Marqab village naear the coastal city of Baniyas after a raid by security forces today.

The European Union has imposed sanctions on Syria's main mobile phone operator Syriatel, the country's largest private company Cham Holding, and several construction and investment firms.

Europeans are banned from doing business with the companies, as well as a television station, Addounia TV, and three firms linked to the Syrian military. The Ministers of Justice and Information were also added to the list of individuals subject to an EU travel ban and asset freeze.

1045 GMT: Claimed footage of a rally in Horan in southern Syria today, "Hey, Allah, we kneel only to God":

1040 GMT: Claimed footage of Bahraini police throwing a tear gas canister inside a home in Al Musalla on Friday:

1020 GMT: Hannah Allam of McClatchy writes about the tensions within the Libyan system after the downfall of Muammar Qaddafi:

After a hectic morning patching up battered revolutionary fighters from Libya's front lines, more than 100 employees of Hawari General Hospital [in Benghazi] massed outside the administration's offices on a recent afternoon and staged an uprising of their own.

Doctors, nurses, lab technicians, clerks and custodial staff all chanted, "Leave!" until the targeted officials, holdovers from the regime of fugitive former leader Moammar Gadhafi, were escorted from the premises by security guards. The administrators' offices were padlocked, and the protesters declared victory.

But the celebration was premature, and the hospital revolt has become a case study of the obstacles Libyans face as they try to cleanse their institutions of Gadhafi's legacy. The rebel National Transitional Council touts reconciliation, but so far it has provided no guidance on how deep purges of regime bureaucrats should go, or by what criteria individuals are to be forgiven or cast out. Even some of the council's top members face accusations of belonging to "the fifth column," Libyans' catchall name for anyone suspected of trying to preserve vestiges of the old order.

Without a clear policy, the hospital is on its own to decide what steps to take.

0850 GMT: Bahrainis lining up this morning to vote in Parliamentary by-elections:

0845 GMT: The opposition party Al-Islam has claimed, "At least 18 people were killed and 35 others wounded in the government's heavy shelling (that) targeted strongholds and the residential compound of dissident powerful tribal leader Sadeq al- Ahmar in the north Sanaa district of Hasaba."

A reporters for the Chinese news agency Xinhua said heavy fire from machine guns and mortars was exchanged in Hasaba Friday evening between forces supporting President Saleh and the armed tribesmen of al-Ahmar, backed by dissident military units commanded by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar.

Yemen's Ministry of Defense accused al-Ahmar and the defected forces of shelling the regime's military camps and the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior in Hasaba, "breaching the ceasefire called by President Saleh".

Al-Sahwa.net, the outlet of the Al-Islam party, quoted Sadiq al-Ahmar, "I'm still committed to the truce, but if Ali Saleh continues his aggressions, then my patience will fade."

0835 GMT: In contrast to the photograph at 0550 GMT, this is the regime's image, via Manama Press, of the arrest of "female vandals" in City Center Mall in Manama, Bahrain yesterday:

0645 GMT: In Libya, supporters of General Abdel Fattah Younes, who was assassinated in July, have marched through Benghazi to protest the conduct of the investigation into his death by the ruling National Transitional Council.

Younes, who was Minister of Interior in the Qaddafi regime, resigned in February to join the opposition. He eventually became commander-in-chief of the NTC's forces but died in mysterious circumstances, as he was being summoned to Benghazi to answer question about the misuse of military assets.

Meanwhile, a commander of NTC fighters says they are now two kilometres (1.2 miles) inside the eastern gate of Sirte, Muammar Qaddafi's hometown and one of his last strongholds.

The military says it is evacuating residents, "averaging between 400 to 500 cars a day", before a final assault.

0640 GMT: In Bahrain, by-elections are being held today for 14 Parliamentary seats vacated by the opposition Al Wefaq party during the protests and regime crackdown in March. The State information agency is already putting out assurances, "Traffic around the polling stations is moving normally."

0550 GMT: Friday's LiveBlog was marked by a series of dramatic videos and pictures from Bahrain, but this is the image that may stoke further protest. It claims to show women who were detained and put on the floor of the City Center Mall, their hands bound behind their backs.

Given the impact of the photo, we initially held off publication until we could be sure of its authenticity. EA sources in Bahrain have stood behind it, and now the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights is posting the image.

Claimed photograph of women detained in City Center Mall in Manama, Bahrain on Friday

0530 GMT: On Friday morning, it was Yemen's President Saleh who stole the headlines with his unexpected return to the country, more than three months after he had gone to Saudi Arabia for treatment of serious injuries suffered in a bombing. The day was marked by celebratory gunfire, mass rallies for and against the President, and the continuing conflict --- despite Saleh's call for a cease-fire, dialogue, and negotiations --- between his troops and those of opposition tribal and military forces.

By the end of the day, however, it was Bahrain holding our attention. Opposition demonstrators were not able to fulfil their dream of returning to Pearl Roundabout/Martyrs Square, the symbolic centre of the challenge to the regime from mid-February --- the closest any group got was about 300 metres (330 yards) --- but they achieved visibility. There were protests in villages around the capital Manama and in the City Center Mall, bringing the first significant attention by international media to the demonstrations in many weeks.

A sign of the impact came from the regime, as its initial dismissals that there would be any challenge were replaced by the mobilisation of security forces --- some firing tear gas and shotguns --- the detention of "rioters", and clumsy press releases that moved from saying any disruption was due to traffic accidents to declaring that "miscreants" had been arrested and people could again go shopping.

And all the while, there was the steady display in Syria. The "new normal" of mass rallies across the country was repeated, with particularly striking footage from Homs and Idlib, and reports last night said at least 15 people had been slain by security forces. Significantly, however, the limit of the challenge remained --- protests in the capital Damascus were in the suburbs and outskirts, and there was no sign of opposition in Aleppo.

The gathering in Anadan in Aleppo Province last night: