After Bahraini police attack funeral procession for Ahmed Ismael Hassan (see 1445 GMT), youth respond by throwing Molotov cocktails at armoured vehicles
See also Bahrain Feature: The Killing of Ahmed Ismail Hassan
Libya Feature: With the "Islamists" in a New Country
Syria Flashback: The Schoolboys Who Sparked an Uprising
Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers
Friday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: No Sleep Until....
2150 GMT: The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria report that 65 people have died today across the country, including six children and 10 defected soldiers. Twenty-seven of the deaths were in Daraa Province, including 18 claimed executions; 19 perished in Homs Province, and 12 in Idlib Province.
2145 GMT: Human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, detained earlier this evening in the Bahraini capital Manama, has been released:
Rajab facing a policeman before he was detained (Photo: EPA):
2045 GMT: Bahrain's Ministry of Interior has confirmed that activist Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights has been detained on charges of calling for and taking part in an illegal gathering.
The opposition society Al Wefaq is also spreading the news.
2040 GMT: Minister of Health Fatma al-Hamroush has said that six days of clashes between militias in Sabha in southern Libya have killed 147 people and wounded 395, with 180 of them transported to the capital Tripoli for emergency treatment.
The fighting began after a member of the Tabu tribe shot a member of the Arab Abu Seif tribe in a dispute over a car. A delegation of Tabu elders and armed men going to participate in reconciliation talks was then reportedly ambushed. The two groups exchanged fire with automatic rifles, mortars, and rockets.
A Tabu tribal spokesman claimed about 70 Tabu homes were burnt and 100 families were forced to flee the city.
2025 GMT: A Palestinian boy confronts Israeli soldiers in the West Bank today:
2015 GMT: The cousin of Ahmed Ismael Hassan, slain overnight by gunfire from a Land Cruiser, has said that the victim was taking pictures of a demonstration when he was shot. That claim is given additional impact by this video of police firing several times on a cameraman in Sitra:
1915 GMT: Activists Zainab AlKhawaja and lawyer Mohamed Al Jishi have both confirmed earlier reports that Nabeel Rajab has been arrested in the Bahraini capital Manama. He is currently being held at Hoora police station.
Rajab was in Manama to join a protest calling for the release of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja. The last tweet Nabeel sent before his arrest read (translated by Zainab):
"Its been our fate to be ruled by a greedy and oppressive regime, but its our duty to resist that regime".
The "Manama March" continued despite Rajab's arrest. One activist described it:
Today's #manamamarch was very effective, the security forces went crazy as we didn't stop chanting "Free, Free Khawaja" #Bahrain
— Hind المبرقعة (@bahrainiac14) March 31, 2012
1600 GMT: Tunisia's Religious Affairs Minister Nourredine al-Khademi has said the country will evaluate hundreds of mosques now led by Salafists.
"This is a priority area for my administration," said the minister, who estimated that about 400 of Tunisia's more than 5,000 mosques were now head by Salafists and their conservative approach to Islam. He said, "Serious problems concern about 50 mosques, no more," where the original imams and worshippers had been forced out.
Khademi added, "Hundreds of other places of worship are experiencing administrative problems: no imam or muezzin, no administrator."
Khademi said his ministry will make an inventory of Tunisia's mosques. A 20-member "Committee of Wise Men", including imams, Islamic university lecturers, and humanities teachers and chaired by the minister, will compile the inventory.
Khademi continued, "We are also looking at the recruitment of imams, who now have to hold at least a master's degree, preferably in Islamic studies, have a general education in the humanities, an openness to other religions, and be known for their morality in their neighborhood."
1550 GMT: Photojournalist Mazen Mahdi updates from Bahrain, "Police patrolling Salmabad inner streets with APCs help. Sporadic limited tear-gassing now after some three hours of clashes."
1515 GMT: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Riyadh for talks about the Syrian crisis. However, if she was hoping to dissuade the Saudis from sending arms to the insurgents, it looks like she has been rebuffed --- the Saudi Foreign Minister said, "Do we let killing go on or help them defend themselves? The people who need help are Syrians fighting for their livelihood."
1505 GMT: The Bahraini Ministry of Interior, in the name of Chief of Public Security Major-General Tariq Al Hassan, has put out a new statement on the death of Ahmed Ismael Hassan.
The statement says that Ismael Hassan passed away from "a serious injury to his right thigh" with a single bullet cutting the femoral artery, and that "the Public Prosecution was notified and they launched an investigation".
Tariq Al Hassan also "cautioned anyone who may be spreading false information that rumors and provocations may hinder the investigation", and he "urged everyone to rely on reputable information channels for the details of the case over the next several days and not to believe everything they see on social media networks".
1445 GMT: Developments in Bahrain after the overnight killing of Ahmed Ismael Hassan....
Police have reportedly attacked Ismael Hassan's funeral procession. Photojournalist Mazen Mahdi offered this account:
Police showed up in force near graveyard....[They] have ordered us out from inner village but not totally out [of] village "for our safety". Salmabad blanketed with tear gas and pepper.Clashes with angry mourners on-going....APCs deployed also."
Mazen concluded, "Don't know what qualifies as war zone but Salmabad could qualify now as one, most likely."
Mourners chanting, "Down with the tyrant":
The security presence in Salmabad:
1435 GMT: British Foreign Security William Hague has said he is "very concered" about reports that Ali Mahmoud Othman, the head of the Homs Media Centre has been detained and abused by the Syrian regime.
There are reports that Mr Othman has already been tortured and maltreated.
I call on the Syrian authorities to release Mr Othman and other political prisoners immediately. The Syrian regime will be held responsible for Mr Othman's safety and his treatment and I will raise his case in Istanbul at the Friends of Syria meeting tomorrow.
Hague also said, "The Syrian regime must immediately implement the six-point plan of UN and Arab League Special Envoy Kofi Annan, including a cessation of all hostilities, a genuine Syrian-led political transition, provision of humanitarian assistance and freedom of access for the media, and the release of political prisoners."
1425 GMT: A mass funeral procession in the Kafarsouseh section of the Syrian capital Damascus:
1345 GMT: The insurgent group Ansar al-Sharia claims that it killed 30 conscripts as it seized an army checkpoint in southern Yemen today.
A local official said 10 soldiers had been slain. Fighting continued between the militants and army reinforcements sent from the port city of Aden to try to recapture the checkpoint.
1340 GMT: A man filming in the Damascus suburb of Douma on Friday is hit by fire from a tank-mounted machine gun:
1330 GMT: Back from an academic break to find Bahrain's Ministry of Interior reacting to last night's shooting of Ahmad Ismael Hassan: "The person who was received by the International Hospital died of injury in top of the right thigh, Public Prosecution starts investigation."
1050 GMT: A Google Map of Friday's events in Syria has been posted, with 645 protests in 497 locations.
1025 GMT: Reports are circulating that detained Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, on the 52nd day of his hunger strike (see 0515 GMT), was transferred to the hospital last night, but that his family have not been able to visit.
1020 GMT: Claimed footage of a Bahraini policeman casually throwing a brick at a car:
1015 GMT: Activists have posted a video, claiming it was leaked from the Syrian army, of a tank firing at buildings in the Bab Amr neighbourhood of Homs from the University Bridge --- the cameraman says, “God, Syria, Bashar” and saluting the army:
0915 GMT: We have followed up this morning's opening item with a feature, written by an EA correspondent in Bahrain, "The Killing of Ahmed Ismail Hassan":
0705 GMT: AFP summarises the situation of more than 17,000 Syrians who have fled across the border into Turkey. It notes:
The [Turkish] government has set up nine locations including eight tented camps and a "container city" in Kilis, some 150 kilometers east of the Hatay camps, to deal with the influx.
Inhabitants of some camps in Hatay province have already been transferred to Kilis, where the prefabricated homes will initially receive 10,000 people.
East of Kiflis in Sanliurfa province, near the halfway point of Turkey's 910-kilometer border with Syria, another massive camp is under construction that can house up to 20,000 people.
0635 GMT: United Arab Emirates authorities have closed, without explanation, the US-funded Dubai office of the National Democratic Institute.
On Thursday, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation said it was closing its Abu Dhabi office after officials ordered the shutdown. The German foundation's chairman, Hans-Gert Poettering, said no “comprehensible reasons” were given for the unexpected, sudden decision.
The National Democratic Institute is one of ten non-government organisations affected by a crackdown in Egypt since December, with its offices raided and some of its staff arrested.
0625 GMT: The Local Co-ordinating Committees of Syria reports that 51 people died across the country on Friday. Notable among the toll were casualties in Deir ez Zor Province in the northeast, including 15 in Qorieh. Twelve people were slain in Homs.
0515 GMT: We open with overnight news from Bahrain, where 18-year-old Ahmed Ismael was shot in the upper right thigh by men fired from a Land Cruiser. The teenager died a few hours later.
Activists claim, from eyewitnesses, that the shooter was a police officer, known for his attacks on protesters, in an unmarked vehicle of the security forces.
A graphic photograph of Ismael, being given first aid in a nearby house in Salmanad before he was taken to hospital, has been posted.
In a night of clashes, other demonstrators were injured, including a 15-year-old with a head wound and a man with a fractured leg.
Meanwhile, activists have announced a protest at 4:30 p.m. (1330 GMT) in support of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, the detained head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. Alkhawaja, sentenced to life in prison last year for his dissent, is on the 52nd day of a hunger strike.