Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 90 Die as Obama and Putin Talk About Conflict
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 20:102145 GMT: Egypt. Rumours have circulated for hours that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak suffered a stroke today. Now a Ministry of Interior spokesman has confirmed the report, while State news agency MENA says Mubarak is "clinically dead" after he was moved from prison to a military hospital.
MENA said Mubarak's heart stopped and a defibrillator was used to restart it.
1925 GMT: Egypt. The massive crowd in Cairo's Tahrir Square tonight, protesting military rule:
1910 GMT: Bahrain. An unnamed blogger, accused of posting on-line abusive remarks about the Prophet Mohammad's wife, has been remanded in custody for another 45 days.
The defendant, 19, was arrested last week. He reportedly said he was retaliating for insults by online users about Shiite figures.
1742 GMT: Bahrain. A march in Karranah last night in solidarity with political prisoners:
1740 GMT: Egypt. The scene in Tahrir Square in Cairo tonight as protesters gather to challenge the military rulers:
1642 GMT: Syria. British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that the Russian ship halted today off the coast of Scotland, as it was en route to Syria with attack helicopters, has changed course and returned to Russia.
The MV Alaed was stopped when The Standard Club of London withdrew insurance cover (see 1334 GMT).
1601 GMT: Syria. Funeral procession today in the Sekkari section of Aleppo for a victim of the security forces:
1548 GMT: Bahrain. The Guardian features an interview with 11-year-old Ali Hassan, who was arrested last month and held for almost a month behind bars, on the eve of his trial for participation in an illegal assembly.
Hassan says by phone from Bilad Alqadeem:
I went to the street with two of my friends to play. It was around 3pm. While we were playing there, some police forces came towards us which made us panic. My friends managed to run away … but I was so scared by the guns they were carrying that I couldn't move...and I was arrested....
I was crying all the time. I told them I'd confess to anything to go back home.
He descirbed his time in jail, sharing a room with three other children: "It's like putting a bear in a box, I felt just like that. I never want to go back to that place again."
1334 GMT: Syria. A British insurer has halted a cargo vessel, allegedly carrying refurbished Russian-made attack helicopters, from completing a journey to Syria.
The MV Alaed had its insurance withdrawn by The Standard Club in London while it was about 80 kilometres (50 miles) off Scotland's north coast, near the Western Isles.
The insurer said it had sought more information on the boat's cargo.
On 14 June, British Foreign Secretary William Hague told his counterpart Sergei Lavrov that all defence shipments to Syria must stop; however, the insurer said the the cover was withdrawn because the owners of the ship had "broken internal rules" of a mutual insurance association, not from instructions by the British Government.
1149 GMT: Egypt. The Egyptian site Al-Masry Al-Youm has posted an unofficial count of the Presidential election, with the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi winning with 51.13%.
The tally gives Morsi 12,322,549 votes vs. 12,201,549 for Ahmed Shafiq, former Vice President in the Mubarak regime.
The Muslim Brotherhood, in a press conference this morning, declared that its candidate had won with 52% of the vote --- 13,238,298 vs. 12,351,184 for Shafiq..
The official declaration of the result is expected Thursday.
1136 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees of Syria report that 18 people have been killed today.
Reuters profiles the situation in Homs:
The view from the rooftops makes the balance of power clear. In some neighbourhoods, cars and people scurry about. In others, only the scarred shells of empty homes remain.After months of fierce military assaults and rebel ambushes in Homs, the centre of Syria's 15-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad has effectively become two cities.
Along the scorched and crumbling skyline is a well-preserved archipelago of districts, home to Syria's minority Alawite sect, the offshoot of Shi'ite Islam to which Assad belongs.
Alawites have mostly sided with Assad and have barricaded themselves in Homs - protected by the Syrian army that has now made their neighbourhoods a second home.
"We're always nervous, but we will stay and survive," says Abu Ali, a 60-year old sitting in his mini market in the Alawite neighbourhood of Zahra.
"It is the Sunni areas that are empty - at least the ones that asked for 'freedom'," he said, referring to districts that backed the mainly Sunni Muslim uprising against Assad.
The rebellious districts that once belonged to Sunni Muslims are ghost towns. Only about three of the 16 Sunni districts have not been pummelled by military assaults.
Many Alawites say they feel they have no choice but to back Assad, fearing retaliatory slaughter for religious affiliation with the president as the revolt becomes increasingly sectarian.
0936 GMT: Libya. About 20 armed gunmen stormed the Tunisian consulate in Benghazi on Monday to protest against a Tunis art exhibition iwhich they said insulted Islam.
The group, carrying Kalashnikovs, burned the Tunisian flag inside the building. Security officers negotiated with the men until they were convinced to leave. No shots were fired and no one was injured.
Salafist Muslims in Tunisia have protested the Tunis exhibition this month, occupying the area and clashing with security forces in the streets. The capital was briefly put under curfew.
0926 GMT: Syria. Iranian State media assert, from "informed sources", that "the Iranian, Russian, Chinese and Syrian armies are due to stage joint amphibious exercises along the Syrian costs in coming weeks".IRNA and Fars both write that 90,000 ground, air, and sea forces from the four countries, as well as 400 aircraft, 1000 tanks, and air defense and missile units, will take part. They claim that Egypt has agreed to grant passage to 12 Chinese warships through the Suez Canal and that Russian atomic submarines, warships, aircraft carriers, and mine-clearing destroyers will also arrive in Syria.
(Cross-posted from EA's Iran Live Coverage)
0851 GMT: Bahrain. The trial of Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, has been adjourned once again.
Rajab was detained on 5 May and, after a brief release, again put behind bars on allegations of participation in illegal marches and the sending of threatening and insulting messages via Twitter.
Said Yousif of the BCHR reported that he was blocked by officials from attending the hearing.
0845 GMT: Turkey. Eight soldiers have been killed and 15 wounded on Tuesday in fighting with the Kurdish insurgency PKK in Hakkari Province in the southeast of the country.
The Governor's office said Turkish troops subsequently killed 10 PKK fighters.
Security sources said insurgents were believed to have crossed from northern Iraq to carry out the attacks and then retreated across the border.
0835 GMT: Kuwait. The Kuwait Times reports on Monday's order by the Emir suspending Parliament for a month "in a bid to give time for the government and MPs to prepare strong grounds for cooperation".
The newspaper notes that the "environment for cooperation between the government and MPs which has passed through turmoil since the Feb 2 snap elections in which the opposition scored a massive victory to control a comfortable majority in the house" and that"tension between the government and the Assembly has escalated in the past few days after the opposition forced the Finance and Social Affairs] ministers to resign from the Cabinet that was formed just four months ago".
Parliament was due to debate today a motion to question the Minister of Interior.
0825 GMT: Syria. Deborah Amos of National Public Radio introduces Reverend Paolo Dall'Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest expelled on Saturday after 30 years in the country. He declares:
I am very moved by the face of many youth that have been suffering enormously to achieve their desire of freedom and dignity. There are so many young persons that are put in jail and tortured, just because they have expressed, nonviolently, their opinions.
Austin Tice of McClatchy profiles the establishment of "revolutionary courts" in insurgent-held areas:
Two months ago, Syrian rebel fighters arrested Ahmed Dayob over allegations of rape and murder-for-hire for the Syrian army.
The Syrian government long ago lost control of this area in the country’s northwest, and has proved incapable of more than temporary incursions into the surrounding towns and rebel-held countryside. The remaining police officers have defected to the Free Syrian Army, the umbrella rebel fighting force.
While there’s no formal government structure left here, mundane civil problems such as legal cases haven’t ceased during the uprising against President Bashar Assad. With the prospect of a protracted civil war, local leaders recognized the necessity of some sort of governing. That’s why, when Dayob was arrested, he was handed over to the custody of a revolutionary court.
The seven-month-old court, which is responsible for affairs in the northern part of Hama province and portions of Idlib, is one way Syrian rebels and their supporters are pressing their authority in the parts of the country that have fallen out of Assad’s control.
0815 GMT: Syria. A child reads a schoolbook amid the rubble in front of a house in Talbiseh in Homs Province --- the town has been repeatedly shelled by regime forces:
0605 GMT: Egypt. Al Jazeera English summarises the moves of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to claim power to make laws and set the budget, amid the suspension of Parliament and the election of a President. This passage stands out from a statement by a SCAF spokesman, "The upcoming President will occupy the office for a short period of time, whether or not he agrees," because of the drafting of a new Constitution.
0555 GMT: Syria. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, meeting at the G20 summit in Mexico, have offered an assurance of "many common points" in an approach to the conflict.
The two leaders called "for an immediate cessation of all violence" and continued, "We are united in the belief that the Syrian people should have the opportunity to independently and democratically choose their own future."
There was little detail in the statement, however, to answer questions about the issue of international intervention and to meet flashpoints such as Monday's news that Russia is sending two warships to its base in Tartus on the Syrian coast.
Meanwhile, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria reported that 90 people died at the hands of security forces, as President Assad's military continued the shelling of Damascus suburbs, Homs, and other towns and cities.
Following the call of the head of United Nations monitors, Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, for the safe evacuation of the elderly, women, children, and injured from besieged areas, the Foreign Ministry declared that the regime is "ready to extract the citizens besieged by armed groups without preconditions". It continued:
Contacts have been made with the leadership of the international monitors in cooperation with the Syrian local authorities in Homs to bring the civilians out, but the efforts of the UN monitors' mission failed in achieving this goal because of the armed terrorist groups' obstructions.
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