Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Open Protest, Open Repression

2021 GMT: Al Jazeera reports that 11 civilians have died today, and the Syrian opposition has asked for international support to stop the killing:

The appeal, issued by the Turkey-based Syrian National Council, came as activists reported that at least 11 people were killed across the country on Monday, including two children, in an ongoing crackdown on anti-government protesters by security forces.

Activists said that at least eight of the dead were in Homs where hundreds of residents protested against the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, adding that government troops stormed several areas and made house-to-house arrests.

Heavy artillery clashes erupted between regime forces and presumed army defectors in Homs, activists reported, saying it was the fifth day of a "brutal siege on the brave city".

2030 GMT: Activists share this video, reportedly showing women protesting today in Douma, Syria, before the military fires shots into the air to scare them away:

2021 GMT: It might be a long night in Bahrain. An actist posts this report within the last 10 minutes, though we have no confirmation of the details:

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Launch of an Opposition?

A woman with a Bahrain flag and then other protesters defy security forces, who respond by firing tear gas

See also Syria Video Special: The Protests of Eid Al-Adha

Syria 1st-Hand: A Motorcycle Ride to Homs
Syria Video and Transcript: The Speech by Opposition Leader Ghalioun
Saturday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Running Down a Protest

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2040 GMT: A special video from Syria today, with tens of thousands of people turning out for a protest rally in Jebel el Zawiya in the northwest:

1720 GMT: Activists have raised today's death toll at the hands of Syrian security forces to 11 --- nine in Homs, one in Hama, and one in Idlib Province.

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Running Down a Protest

Montage of protest and the response by security forces on Friday in Bahrain

See also Egypt Letter: Alaa Abd-El Fattah Blogs from Jail "These Are My Limits"
Egypt Feature: Activists Try to Bridge Digital Divide by Taking "Tweets to the Streets"
Syria Video Special: Another Friday of Protests
Friday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: And There Will Be Marches....

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2030 GMT: An anti-regime demonstration in the Midan district of the Syrian capital Damascus tonight:

1910 GMT: Burhan Ghalioun, the head of the opposition Syrian National Council, has addressed the Syrian people in a televised address tonight. A summary, provided on Twitter:

This crisis has unified efforts of all Syrians....Syria will no longer be like a farm owned by a single family....A new constitution will give rights to minorities, especially Kurds....Power will be in the hands of people, they decide who rule them.

Every drop of blood is one more step on the way to freedom....Those who use violence against their own people are traitors who will fall and lose.

The Syrian National Council is your way to make your voices heard around the world. We are honored by your support....We will not negotiate or compromise.

Regime attempts to buy time will not help them....We have asked the Arab League and UN to protect civilians in Syria....We salute the Free Syrian Army who defended their brothers and their peaceful protests....Syrians will not forget the sacrifices of those who defended the uprising.

We tell people who are undecided, this revolution is yours....Syrians will not forget those who supported their revolutions....The regime of tyranny has fallen, but they are still trying to cling to power.

New Syria is being built today....The future Syria will be coming soon, free, democratic, and without slavery....Long live free Syria.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: And There Will Be Marches....

2118 GMT: The cynics said that the Syrian President was trying to buy time when he signed a deal two days ago with the Arab League. Today, the Syrian people tested the claims made by the regime, taking to the streets in nearly every major city and in every region across the country.

And now we have our answer from the regime: as many as 25 civilians are dead.

For two days, the video evidence, verified by shots of newspapers, protest signs, landmarks, and comparison against eyewitness accounts, has pointed towards a single conclusion. The Syrian military regime, led by Bashar al Assad, has no interest in negotiating, reforming, or ceding power. Today the regime sent two messages, as it showed that if you surrender then you may be spared, but if you continue to resist, we will shoot.

The first message was sent via State TV (SANA), but the regime has so little credibility that the US State Department advised Syrians not to take up Assad's offer of amnesty. The second message was sent with weapons, troops and tanks --- the instruments that the regime has used all along.

So, we have a return to a tag line we've written many times since March. The protesters, undeterred by violence, refuse to give in, the people want the "fall of the regime," and the regime, thus far, refuses to fall. So...what happens next?

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Middle East Special: Will the Monarchies Survive? (Al Qassemi)

Monarchs at the Gulf Co-operation CouncilThe transformation of Arab monarchies into constitutional systems is a matter ofwhen rather than if. The alternative may be less appealing to those in power today. On a recent visit to Boston in which I met a number of Arab Gulf states students, the debate veered, as it tends to do nowadays, towards Arab constitutional monarchies. To my surprise it was a Qatari, a citizen of by far the richest county on earth often accused of political apathy who remarked to a friend and I, “I don’t agree with constitutional monarchies,” he paused, “I want nothing less than a republic.”

Without urgent non-cosmetic reform the Arab monarchies will simply be kicking the reform ball forward.

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Bahrain Feature: A New "Martyr"? The Death of Ali Hassan Al Daihi

Ali Hassan Al Daihi in HospitalIt appears tonight that Bahrain has another high-profile dispute over the death of a civilian, allegedly at the hands of riot police.

According to the opposition party Al Wefaq, the father of its Deputy Secretary General, Sheikh Hussain Al Daihi, was beaten on Wednesday night as he returned home. Ali Hassan Al Daihi, found on the floor of the house by one of his sons, said he had been assaulted --- his son tried to leave to confront the police but his dad stopped him. There was a deep wound on the back of Ali Hassan Al Daihi's head and bruises on his forehead and around his eyes. Blood was flowing from his mouth.

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US Politics Special: A Pizza-Based Foreign Policy Lesson for Herman Cain

Herman, if you must compare foreign policy to pizza-making...keep reading

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Israel and Palestine: Half and Half Pizza

It was supposed to be half and half, but someone mixed all the toppings up! Don’t try to separate them or you’ll burn your hands in the cheese. Let the toppings magically figure out how to migrate to their own side of the pizza before you get involved.

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A New Dialogue?

1850 GMT: According to a source in Bahrain, when detained teacher Jalila Al Salman was released from prison, she immediately joined a protest, organized by Al Wefaq, that was designed to press for her release. A photo gallery of the event can be found here.

1826 GMT: We have received this video, reportedly showing Syrian soldiers firing guns and rockets into the city of Hama. The video appears to be leaked, and it is very unclear when it was taken. As such, it's very hard to cross-verify this video with eyewitness reports, though there have been plenty of reports of violence over the last few weeks in Hama.

The LCCS had these reports from Hama today, though because this video is leaked, and undated, we don't know when the video was actually taken:

Hama: security forces are heavily spread in the Al-Amiriyeh neighborhood amid widespread detention campaign. Of the detainees is Amir Salha

Hama: Hayaleen: security forces raided the village in a major security force to arrest Sheikh Ammar Khaled Al-Mansour, Imam of Al-Kabeer mosque, and to terrorize the people

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Spying on the Opposition

See also Egypt Feature: Activists' Statement on Detention of Alaa Abd-El Fattah
Syria Special: The Assad Regime's PR Campaign with British Journalists
Bahrain 1st-Hand: Saturday's Opposition Rally in Al Hajar for the "Arab Uprisings"
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Deaths Return to Hama

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2220 GMT: Three Saudi filmmakers, detained earlier this month after posting a YouTube video showing poverty in the kingdom, were released today.

Firas Baqna, Khalid al-Rasheed, and Hussam al-Darwish were arrested on 19 October 19 after their documentary was shown by the London-based opposition TV channel Al-Islah.

The series is entitled "Malub Aleina (We Are Being Cheated".

2120 GMT: Yemen's international airport outside the capital Sana'a has been shut after the explosions that shook the nearby al-Daylami airbase tonight.

Flights have been diverted to Aden in the south of the country.

2110 GMT: The next hearing in the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, and his Ministers and aides has been delayed to 28 December. The postponement occurred after lawyers for alleged victims of Mubarak petitioned the court demanding that Judge Ahmed Refaat be replaced.

2000 GMT: We are overrun with footage of Syrian protests tonight --- a demonstration in Ma'arat Numan in the northwest:

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Bahrain 1st-Hand: Saturday's Opposition Rally in Al Hajar for the "Arab Uprisings"

An EA correspondent was at Saturday's mass rally, organised by leading opposition parties, in Al Hajar in Bahrain:

The theme of the protest was the "Arab Spring", with flags of all the countries of the Arab uprisings in the arena. The event started with two short anthemsperformed by a band, the first for the Egyptian Revolution and the second for all the Arab uprisings.

A short recorded speech by the detained opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif --- given on January during a protest in front of the Egyptian embassy in Bahrain --- was broadcast. This was followed by a speech by Sheikh Ali Salman, the Secretary General of the Al Wefaq party, a speech which was stronger than that given to previous gatherings....

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