Bahrain (and Beyond) Live: Protests Build Again Before Grand Prix

Police fear tear gas into a market in Sanabis on Thursday

See also Syria Live: Assessing the Insurgency
Saturday's Egypt (and Beyond) Live: Mubarak Retrial Opens

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1605 GMT: Iraq. Two more Sunni Muslim election candidates have been killed less than a week before local votes.

At least 13 candidates, most of them Sunni, have been slain.

Saturday's election to select provincial council members is seen as a measure pf strength of the largely-Shia national government before the Parliamentary elections in 2014.

No group claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks in Baiji town, 180 kilometres (112 miles) north of Baghdad.

Another Sunni candidate escaped a roadside bomb in Balad Ruz, 90 km (55 miles) northeast of the capital, on Sunday.

0945 GMT: Egypt. Central Bank Governor Hisham Ramez has said that Cairo has not asked the International Monetary Fund to increase a proposed $4.8 billion loan.

Reports earlier in April indicated that the Egyptian Government would seek more money, amid discussions which have dragged on for months with the IMF.

The urgency of the talks has increased as Egypt's financial situation has worsened, with foreign reserves covering less than three months of imports.

Meanwhile, Libya's Central Bank Governor said Tripoli has deposited $2 billion in the Central Bank, deducting it from investments in Egypt.

Saddeq Omar Elkabber said the amount was a "central bank deposit not a loan".

0835 GMT: Lebanon. Hackers have broken into a leading news site, taking over the front page with the names of the so-called "secret witnesses" in the trial of those accsued of the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

The hackers broke into the Web site of the newspaper Al Mustaqbal, owned by Hariri's family, and listed personal data for 167 Lebanese men, including their names, passport pictures, their places and years of birth, cities of residence and professions.

Earlier this year, another Lebanese newspaper published the names of 32 witnesses in the trial, which is supposed to begin this year after repeated delays in the investgations of the United Nations-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

A spokesman for the Tribunal said, "It is part of the continuing campaign to undermine the tribunal and intimidating all of the witnesses."

The spokesman said the prosecution had prepared a still undisclosed list of 500 potential witnesses. But he declined to say whether the published names were among them.

0735 GMT: Palestine. The opening paragraphs of a story in Haaretz tip off Israeli concern about Ssturday's resignation of West Bank Prime Minister Salam Fayyad:

[This] is a dramatic development. Its ramifications won't just reverberate in the part of the West Bank under Palestinian control, but also affect Israel and the Obama administration's efforts to renew the peace process, as well as, the European Union's policy towards the Palestinians.

For Israel's government and defense establishment, the U.S., and the EU [European Union], which both regularly provide economic aid to the Palestinian Authority, Fayyad was the go-to man. The former International Monetary Fund economist was educated in the U.S. and was a symbol of good governance and the war on corruption. His plan to build Palestinian state institutions from the bottom up received much international support.

But it was this success that itself bore within it the seeds of his demise.

0555 GMT: Bahrain. Thousands of people demonstrated in locations near the capital Manama on Saturday urging democratic reforms, as part of a growing campaign before next week's Formula One Grand Prix.

Police used tear gas and sound bombs to break up a gathering of several hundred people in Sanabis.

Further south, a 14-year-old boy was severely wounded in the face and two people arrested when police fired buckshot and tear gas at demonstrators, according to the leading opposition group Al Wefaq.

In Bilad al Qadeem, several thousand people demonstrated peacefully, chanting, "No to dictatorship" and "Down with the regime," witnesses said.

Under the banner "Democracy is our right," the opposition is organising a week of protests, that began on Friday, to coincide with the 19-22 April Grand Prix.

Al Wefaq has said it does not intend to hold up the race but will promote its aims through the increased media presence.

The February 14 coalition has also been protesting, including a Thursday night demonstration in the village of Khamis that was broken up by police.

This week Human Rights Watch reported that police have been rounding up pro-democracy activists to head off the protests.