Syria, Yemen, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Just Another Friday?

1838 GMT: Activists have compiled a list of 68 people killed in Syria protests today, including casualties in Moadamia (8), Homs (15), Douma (8), Izraa (15), Zamalka (5), Harasta (3), and Barzeh (2).

1835 GMT: Thanks to James Miller for taking the LiveBlog through the afternoon.

A doctor from Madamia, a Damascus suburb, has said:

There are four people killed and about 50 wounded and we cannot take them to the public or private hospitals. At Daraya hospital security were shooting and arresting people. So I have been treating people inside homes. It is very hard to treat the wounds because many have been shot in the head.

I can tell you now, the situation in Madamia will never be calm. Today is an historical day for the country. There is now a new strategy to kill all the protesters, not even arrest them.

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Bahrain, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Deaths and Disappearances

2030 GMT: My thanks to James Miller for taking you through the afternoon and early evening on the LiveBlog. With news slowing today, we are already looking forward to a lively Friday, with the prospect of mass protests in countries such as Syria and Yemen.

We will be back at 0600 GMT.

2030 GMT: Syrian activist Suhair Atassi writes that the Army has entered with tanks into Tahrir Square (formerly Clock Square) in Homs.

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Another Centre of Protest?

2045 GMT: The opposition party Wefaq has issued a statement that security forces arrived at two medical centers, Ibn Sina and al-Razi, and seized an unknown number of people.

"They detained doctors, nurses and other staff and brought them to an unknown location. We are worried what happened to them," said Wefaq politician Mattar Ibrahim Mattar. "I cannot reach by phone my brother who works in Razi."

An activist who works for the government said he saw more than a dozen members of the security forces surrounding al-Razi medical center while arrests were made inside.

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Speech and a City Demolished

1920 GMT: Doctors say Yemeni security forces wounded at least 10 people when they fired on a protest march in Sanaa today.

About 200 more demonstrators were overcome by tear gas when they marched outside their normal protest zone in the streets near Sanaa University.

"We neared the Sanaa Trade Center when police confronted us with tear gas, and suddenly opened heavy gunfire on us from all directions," said Sabry Mohammed, a protester. "A state of terror set in among the demonstrators, and some of them fled into side streets."

1915 GMT: State TV reports that Oman plans to spend 1 billion rials ($2.6 billion) to "satisfy the demands" of protesters seeking jobs and political reforms.

Earlier this spring, up to seven people died in a series of demonstrations against the regime of Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Dozens of protesters have continued to camp in tents near the country's Shura Council in the capital Muscat.

The Sultan's office did not specify how the money would be spent.

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: How Serious is This? (Continued)

1900 GMT: C.J. Chivers of The New York Times, who has been reporting from Misurata in Libya, posts this photograph of the war-torn city:

And for comparsion, this was Misurata in August 2010:

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Let's Make It All About Iran

Presidents Assad and Ahmadinejad2040 GMT: Reuters reports a protest of about 300 people in the Druze city of Sweida in Syria. Police with sticks dispersed the demonstrators.

2020 GMT: An opposition fighter describes today's bombardment by regime forces of Misurata:

The port area was heavily shelled today and the destruction there is huge. I was there and saw for myself. Over 200 Grad missiles fell on the port area, including residential neighborhoods near the port. They shelled this area because the port is Misurata's only window to the outside world.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Cease-Fire?

2115 GMT: The New York Times summarises the context of the three-year sentence handed down today to blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad by an Egyptian military court.

And this is the post in March that got Nabil Sanad into trouble, as he queried whether the Egyptian military --- which he accused of torturing protesters --- was really on the side of the people.

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Yemen: How the Protests Stopped Up to $1 Billion in US Arms to Regime

The U.S. was on the verge of launching a record assistance package to Yemen when an outbreak of protests against its president led Washington to freeze the deal, officials say, marking a sharper turn in U.S. policy there than the administration has previously acknowledged.

The first installment of the aid package, worth a potential $1 billion or more over several years, was set to be rolled out in February, marking the White House's largest bid at securing President Ali Abdullah Saleh's allegiance in its battle against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group behind the failed underwear bombing in 2009 and the foiled air-cargo bombing plot in October.

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Yemen Portrait: The Protests, the President, and His Supporters in Washington (Filkins)

A Western diplomat in Yemen said, “O.K., fine, Saleh goes. Then what do you do? There is no institutional capacity—in the bureaucracy, in the military, or in any other institutions in this society—to really step in and pick up the pieces and manage a transition.” A failed state in Yemen, coupled with an already anarchic situation in Somalia, could provide Islamist militants with hundreds of miles of unguarded coastline, disrupting the shipping lanes that run from the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean.

The senior Administration official put it bluntly: “Our goal is to help prevent a coup or a usurpation of power by Muslim Brotherhood types or by Al Qaeda.”

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Libya, Yemen (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Just Another Day of Many Thousand Protesters

2020 GMT: Der Spiegel reports on a possible shift in the German position on Libya, with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle saying military support of humanitarian action, such as relief operations, is possible.

Germany abstained on the UN Security Council resolution for a no-fly zone and measures to protect civilians.

1755 GMT: Four journalists --- James Foley of Global Post, Claire Morgana Gillis, an American freelance journalist; Manu Brabo, a Spanish photographer, and Anton Hammerl, a South African photographer -- have been seized by regime forces near Brega in east Libya.

1750 GMT: Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan has said Ankara is holding talks with both sides in Libya, seeking a "roadmap" to achieve a cease-fire.

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