UAE (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 94 Activists Go on Trial

January protest on behalf of 94 detained activists in the UAE (Photo: AP)

See also Syria Live Coverage: The Regime's Shelling of Homs
Sunday's Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Minister of Finance Tries to Resign Amid Financial Crisis

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1635 GMT: Yemen A suicide bomber today killed "at least 10 members of a pro-government militia".

A local commander told Reuters that 15 others were wounded, some seriously, in the attack which struck a local office of the Popular Committees in Lawdar, a town in the southern province of Abyan.

According to Reuters, the targeted militia had "helped the Yemeni army to drive al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants out of southern strongholds in a U.S.-backed campaign last year".

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Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Activist Zainab AlKhawaja Given 3-Month Sentence

See also Syria Live Coverage: Foreign Governments Pledge Support for Opposition --- But How Much?
Thursday's Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Two Detainees in Israel Prisons End Long-Term Hunger Strikes

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Zainab AlKhawaja1720 GMT: Egypt. Employees of nongovernmental organizations say the Government is refusing to approve most of their outside grants, forcing some to lay off staff or cut salaries while preventing them from completing projects.

“It's worse, and it gets worse and worse and worse,” said Magdy Abdel Hamid, head of the Egyptian Association for Community Participation and Enhancement. “Under [former President Hosni] Mubarak there were problems, and sometimes they refused [to approve foreign-funded grants], but in general, under the Mubarak regime we were in better condition.”

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Israel (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Pressure Builds Over Settlements

Settlement at Modi'in Illit in West Bank (Photo: AP)

Syria Live Coverage: The Fighting Near Aleppo's Historic Mosque
Tuesday's Israel (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 1st Rocket Fired from Gaza Since November's War

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2004 GMT: Egypt. Ahram Online's summary of clashes in Mansoura, with dozens injured since Monday, since protesters called for a campaign of civil disobedience:

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Israel (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 1st Rocket Fired from Gaza Since November's War

Syria Live Coverage: Insurgent Attacks in Damascus
Monday's Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Israel Looks for Calm after Death of Palestinian Detainee

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2111 GMT: Saudi Arabia. Claimed footage from a sit-in protest by women and children of political detainees, burning the picture of the Minister of Interior:

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Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Israel Looks for Calm after Death of Palestinian Detainee

See also Turkey Analysis: Erdogan's "One Leader, One Nation, One Market" --- Will It Succeed?
Syria Live Coverage: Insurgents Capture Symbolic "Nuclear" Site
Sunday's Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Conflicting Claims Over Palestinian Who Died in Israeli Custody

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2126 GMT: UAE. Two days after denying entry to a British academic scheduled to present a conference paper on Bahrain, two Bahrain-based journalists --- Associated Press reporter Reem Khalifa and her husband, Mansoor al-Jamri, chief editor for the independent Al Wasat newspaper, have been turned away.

Khalifa and al-Jamri were on a private trip to Dubai. No explanations were given for the refusal of entry.

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Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Conflicting Claims Over Palestinian Who Died in Israeli Custody

See also Middle East Opinion: What "Lincoln" Shows Us About Personal Politics in the Gulf States
Syria Live Coverage: Civilian Deaths in Aleppo
Saturday's Mali (and Beyond) Live Coverage: At Least 78 Killed in Fighting in North

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Ahmad Jaradat1848 GMT: Mali. Another ten Chadian soldiers have been killed in combat with insurgents in northern Mali's mountainous border with Algeria, Chad's army said on Sunday.

On Friday, 13 Chadian soldiers were slain in fighting around what one senior commander said was an insurgent base of "significant importance". At least 93 insurgents have been killed so far, according to the Chadian military.

The casualties are the heaviest suffer by African troops since a French-Malian offensive cleared insurgents from towns and cities earlier this month.

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Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Parliamentary Elections set for April-June

See also Syria Live Coverage: At Least 53 Killed by Bombs in Damascus
Thursday's Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protests Continue in Port Said

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1526 GMT:Iraq. Thousands of protesters have continued to demonstrations in Ramadi against the Government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Rallies after Friday Prayers, with the theme "Iraq or Maliki" also took place in the capital city of Baghdad, the northern city of Mosul, and the central city of Fallujah.

Protests, largely made up of Sunnis, have been ongoing for weeks, with demands for the release of prisoners, an end to Government anti-terrorism policies, and a halt to the marginalising of minorities.

The rallies were sparked by the raid on 20 December 20 of the home and offices of Sunni Minister of Finance Rafi al-Issawi.

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Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protests Continue in Port Said

One of this week's protests in Port Said in Egypt

See also Syria Live Coverage: Multiple Bombings in Damascus
Wednesday's Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Clashes Continue as Regime Claims Arrest of "Iran-Iraq-Lebanon Terror Cell"

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1910 GMT:Egypt. President Morsi will call a Parliamentary election, to be held in three or four stages, starting in April.

"The president will issue a decree soon, it could be tonight, calling for elections to start in April," a source in his office told Reuters.

1900 GMT:Morocco. Reporters Without Borders has condemned the 10-month prison sentence handed down last week to citizen journalist Mohamed Attaoui on the charge of “working as a local official despite being suspended”.

Attaoui was arrested on 21 January in town of Tounfite north-central Morocco while photographing homes that are unfit for habitation for a report he intended to publish.

The president and general secretary of the Tounfite Group, a grass-roots association to which Attaoui belongs, were also arrested and have been sentenced to a year and eight months in prison, respectively.

Following his arrest, Attaoui was placed in solitary confinement and was not allowed a visit from his wife until 18 February.

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Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Clashes Continue as Regime Claims Arrest of "Iran-Iraq-Lebanon Terror Cell"

"Third-day" funeral of 16-year-old Hassan AlJazeeri, killed by police on Thursday night

See also Syria Live Coverage: A "Humanitarian Tragedy"
Tuesday's Tunisia (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Plan for New Government Collapses

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1755 GMT: Saudi Arabia. Thirty Saudi women have become the first female members of the Shura Council, as they were sworn in before King Abdullah at his palace in the capital Riyadh.

The women are among 160 members of the advisory body.

"The development we are working at must be gradual," King Abdullah said. He recommended that the Council show "realism" in its discussions and allow "reason to prevail in issues [with which] it has to deal".

On 11 January, the King appointed the women, who include university graduates, human rights activists, and two princesses.

1749 GMT: Palestine. The Forum of Palestinian journalists has criticised Israeli forces for detaining three Palestinian journalists on Tuesday in Bethlehem.

The three men are Mamdouh Hamamreh, a reporter for the Al-Quds satellite channel; Samer Hamad, a cameraman for Palmedia news agency, and Abdul-Rahman Younos, a reporter for Al-Quds.com.

The arrests follow the claimed abduction of Mohamed Saba’na, a political caricaturist for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper, after his return from a ocnference in Jordan.

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Tunisia (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Plan for New Government Collapses

Tunisia PM Hamadi Jebali2123 GMT: Bahrain. Meanwhile, the regime claims that their police were attacked by rioters and vandals, some of whom threw molotov cocktails:

(14) صور لأعمال الشغب والتخريب على شارع البديع في ختام عزاء متوفى بالديه twitter.com/moi_bahrain/st…

— Ministry of Interior (@moi_bahrain) February 19, 2013

2110 GMT: Bahrain. The Bahraini government is saying that it has arrested 8 members of a terror cell suspected of plotting against the government. Here is part of the press release, which can be read in full here:

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