Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Waiting for a Presidential Outcome

2103 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordinating Committees, today's death toll has risen to 51, with at least 40 killed in Houla, Homs (see previous updates).

2054 GMT: Egypt. It was messy, it was long awaited, it was ovedue, it's going to be disappointing to some, but it's hard to argue that it isn't historic. There are the results of the first presidential election in Egypt:

1. Mursi 5,553,097 (25.30 per cent)

2. Shafiq 5,210,978 (23.74 per cent)

3. Sabbahi 4,739,983 (21.60 per cent)

4. Abul-Fotouh 3,936,264 (17.93 per cent)

5. Moussa 2,407,837 (10.97 per cent)

As we predicted earlier, the results will trigger a runoff election between the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander and Mubarak's last Prime Minister.

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Egypt Opinion: A Reminder After the Presidential Vote "The Revolution Lives"

Democracy is here to stay. It may seem like it's not working right now, but it's the first semi-free presidential election ever. Give this democracy time to take up roots, to dominate, to become the only way of governance acceptable to all. 

In time, the frightened generation of cowering acceptance will wither away. The children of today will become parents and when the time comes, all of them --- not just some of them --- will join hands with the children they have raised to respect reform, human rights, and democracy. They will continue to go to the polls, not to enshrine the obsolete faces of power but to improve the future beyond those faces.

Respect, Tahriris, respect.

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Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: An Election in Cairo, Conflict Beyond Damascus

1924 GMT: Syria. Speaking of gasoline, scenes like the one below, reportedly taken today in Kanaker, Damascus, are increasingly common. The prices of refined gasoline and diesel have skyrocketed, and widespread shortages are reported. The government claims that the shortages are the result of sanctions, but as Robert Ford points out (in the previous update) refined oil was exempt from foreign sanctions in order to avoid this problem. These shortages are the result of the military using up all the fuel.

1835 GMT: Syria. The Syrian government claims that foreign economic sanctions have cost the country $4 billion, a number which is low, according to many other estimates:

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Starting 2012 With a Bang

Bahraini police, after speaking to activist Nabeel Rajab, attack the protest march in Manama on Friday night

See also Syria Video: Amidst the Violence, A #SecurityFail Comedy Moment
Friday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Calling for International Intervention?

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1930 GMT: Security camera footage showing the moment of yesterday's blast in Damascus has been obtained by the Al Alam News Network (and uploaded to YouTube via a third party). The commentators note that the explosion can be seen under the highway overpass, next to a car belonging to the security forces. See our liveblog yesterday for a map pinpointing the exact location of the blast.

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Egypt Feature: "The Struggle is Far from Over" (Worth)

Tahrir Square, Cairo, 27 May 2011Three months after the revolution, Egypt is in the agony of self-discovery. As other Arab revolutions founder or lapse into civil wars, Egypt has achieved far more than its young rebels ever hoped for. First, they forced out Mubarak in only 18 days. Then, with renewed protests in Tahrir Square and elsewhere, they rid themselves of his loyalists, including Ahmed Shafiq, the prime minister.

Nominally, Egypt is being ruled by a panel of military generals, who have governed in an uneasy dialogue with the revolution’s self-appointed leaders, making concession after concession to popular demands. But protesters continue to call for deeper reforms, and workers are striking throughout the country, demanding better pay and the removal of Mubarak-era bosses. Meanwhile, many Egyptians seem eager to carry the revolutionary energy of Tahrir Square into everyday life. “I was part of the regime — I used to take bribes,” intones a man in a new public-service TV ad campaign. “But Egypt is changing, and I am changing.” Sitting in traffic, I saw bumper stickers proclaiming: “As of today, I won’t run traffic lights,” and “I will change.” Posters have appeared on walls across Cairo urging Egyptians to stop littering, stop cheating, stop putting up with police abuse and sectarian slurs.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Holding the Lines

2115 GMT: Brigadier General Mansour Mohammed Abu Hajar, head of the Libyan Army's armoured vehicles and infantry division in Benghazi, said this afternoon that he and the division's personnel had joined the opposition: "[We] announce our joining of this blessed revolution, which we hope God Almighty will grant success and victory. We denounce the killing and the extermination of defenceless youths by the security brigades and hired mercenaries. I and all the division's personnel put ourselves at the disposal of this glorious revolution."

2110 GMT: In Yemen, tens of thousands of people have marched on the streets of the capital Sanaa, demanding the fall of the President Ali Abullah Saleh.

Saleh had asked on Monday for discussions for a new unity government, but he later turned from conciliation to allegation, warning that Yemen could be split into four parts and accusing the US and Israel of being behind the protests.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Into the Abyss?

2255 GMT: We are going to take an overnight break and resume early Thursday morning. Coverage continues on the Live Feed from Al Jazeera English.

2210 GMT: Barack Obama has just made his statement on Libya, "We strongly condemn violence in Libya...express our condolences...bloodshed outrageous...violence must stop." He continued, "These are human rights. They are not negotiable. It's important for the international community to speak with one voice."

Obama did make an advance beyond Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's silence (see 2023 GMT) on action: he said he had asked his administration for a full range of options to respond to this crisis --- with allies or other institutions.

Those last words are importantly, as they indicate that the US President is wary of moving unilaterally.

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Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Normal Day?

2050 GMT: Former President Mubarak's portrait is taken down in the Cabinet Room:

Photo: Associated Press

2035 GMT: The State Department has demanded "restraint" in the Algerian regime's handling of demonstrations.

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Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: One More Push

2115 GMT: Clashes between opposition members in Algeria, celebrating the fall of Egypt's President Mubarak, and police who surrounded the headquarters of Rally for Constitutional Democracy, have left an "unknown number" arrested and injured. 

2110 GMT: In a phone call with a former Israeli government minister yesterday, former President Mubarak called the US policy in Middle East misguided and said that Egyptians were not ready for democracy. He warned that the Middle East would fall to extremism and fundamentalist Islamism with his departure. 

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Egypt Snap Analysis: Into the Week of Revolution

Al Jazeera English summarises Friday in eight words: "No Sign of an End to the Confrontation".

The anti-regime movement appears to have consolidated its immediate position. After Thursday's deadly attacks by pro-Mubarak forces, Friday passed relatively peacefully. The anti-regime demonstrators established a cordon of barriers around Tahrir Square in Cairo, the centre of the resistance to President Mubarak, and these plus the bolstered presence of the Army kept pro-Mubarak groups at bay. There was still fighting in the side streets, but only a couple of dozen injuries were reported by Friday night.

Inside Tahrir Square, more than a million (how many millions?) people --- after lining up for hours to get through security checkpoints set up by the protesters --- were in the Square, offering dramatic images of mass chanting and a Friday Prayer that awed even the most jaded of observers.

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