EA WorldView

1425 GMT: Egypt. Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ossama Kamal has said that the Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry will be unable to provide power plants with enough fuel in forthcoming months.

Kamal, in a meeting with the Egyptian Cabinet, said, “There is a 25% in fuel insufficiency for power plants in the country."

In an attempt to reduce the shortage, the Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry announced a bid to import 500 million cubic feet of fuel daily to meet the needs of power plants.

“Egypt has a dire need to import 750 million cubic feet of gas daily to meet needs of power plants and factories,” officials from the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) said. “A total of 5.75 billion cubic feet of gas is being produced on a daily basis, but what is actually consumed is 6.5 billion cubic feet daily."

1415 GMT: Yemen. The National Dialogue Conference, a key component of the transition plan of November 2011 that removed President Ali Abdullah Saleh, is launched today.

The talks, scheduled to run six months, aim to draft a new Constitution and prepare for general elections in February 2014. They bring together 565 representatives of various political groups -- from secessionists in the south to Zaidi insurgents in the north, in addition to civil society representatives.

The discussions are being boycotted by hardline southern factions who staged a general strike and protests in the port city of Aden on Sunday.

Danya Greenfield summarises the situation for Foreign Policy magazine:

The good news about the internationally-backed agreement is that Saleh was finally forced from the presidency after more than 30 years of autocratic rule and the fighting stopped. The bad news is that it did not address any of the underlying issues that have plagued Yemen since before the uprising and have only been exacerbated in the time since. The National Dialogue, thus, is positioned to tackle the thorniest issues including calls for Southern independence, the restive Houthi movement in the north, the question of federalism and decentralization, constitutional reform, empowering women and youth, and other issues.

The National Dialogue itself has been controversial, plagued by would-be spoilers and bitter complaints about the structure of the dialogue and the flawed process that created it. Since Saturday, when the final list of participants was announced by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, several high-profile figures have withdrawn their names, including Nobel prize-winner Tawakkol Karman and the influential tribal leader Hamid al-Ahmar, and the Joint Meetings Party (JMP) coalition released a statement expressing deep disappointment with Hadi's selection of participants lacking proper qualifications and independence. Demonstrations are underway in Sanaa, protesting insufficient youth inclusion and the government's inaction in dealing with human rights abuses during and after the revolution. The government has called up 60,000 troops to ensure security for the dialogue in the capital; while the streets are generally quiet now, checkpoints have been established on nearly every street and the city's residents are holding their breath.

Yet despite opposition to the dialogue, it is clear that the status quo is unsustainable. The oft-repeated mantra among many Yemenis is that the question is one of dialogue or civil war. Given the stark choice, there is consensus that the dialogue will proceed.

1115 GMT: Mali. AFP posts a video claiming a "return to normal" in the north of the country, a month after French and Malian forces drove insurgents out of towns and cities:

0950 GMT: Saudi Arabia. Prominent cleric Salman Al-Oadah has posted an open letter calling on the Government to take serious steps toward instituting reform, stamp out corruption, and release political detainees "before violence is kindled".

Al-Qadah warned, "Negative feelings have been accumulating for a long time....When tempers are high, religious, political, and cultural symbols lose their value. The mob in the street takes control."

Al-Oadah, a conservative preacher with a mass following on Twitter, was imprisoned from 1994 until 1999 because of his calls for political change and creation of an opposition group.

Scores of protesters have been detained by the regime, with recent demonstrations and detentions expanding from the Eastern Province --- the most prominent site of dissent --- to Buraidah in central Saudi Arabia.

Last week activists Mohammed al-Qahtani and Abdullah al-Hamed were given 10-year and 11-year sentences, respectively, for founding an unlicensed organisation for political rights.

Al-Oadah said in his letter, "No one should be left in detention except for those who have clear and legitimate evidence brought against them."

0850 GMT: Egypt. Dozens of people were arrested in Cairo after clashes erupted between security forces and protesters outside the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters on Sunday.

Police fired tear gas at the protesters, demonstrating against an alleged assault on journalists by Brotherhood members on Saturday evening.

"We came to defend Egypt, Egypt which is resembled in journalists and political activists, who went down today not for any political interests," Mossad el-Masry, a spokesman for the 6 April Youth Movement, said. "Today we send a message to the [opposition] National Salvation Front: you are sitting in your chairs while people are dying on the street. A message to all those sitting on their seats: our girls and our brothers and sisters are being beaten and tortured."

The journalists said that, after a group of activists sprayed anti-Brotherhood graffiti on the ground outside the group's Cairo headquarters, Brotherhood guards attacked them with sticks and chains.

A Brotherhood spokesman said in a statement that guards outside the building were provoked and insulted by the activists and journalists.