Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Protests and Battles

2100 GMT: Developments in Syria tonight....

The Syrian Minister of Interior says protests amount to "armed insurrection" and has called on citizens to "report terrorists".

The statement comes after more than 5,000 anti-regime protesters took over the main square of Homs, Syria's third-largest city, vowing to occupy the site until President Assad steps down. More than 10,000 mourners had marched in funeral processions for some of those killed in clashes on Sunday.

A video of protest this evening:

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Egypt Special: An Up-to-Date Review of the Uprising, the Battle over the Constitution, and September's Elections

On 25 January, protest movements approached Tahrir Square in Cairo with a unified demand: the downfall of the regime. Eighteen days later, President Hosni Mubarak resigned from his post after 30 years in power.

The celebrations came to an abrupt end, however, when the Supreme Military Council took power, ostensibly as an interim replacement until forthcoming Parliamentary and Presidential elections. As "Sandmonkey", an Egyptian blogger and activist, highlighted, "It was time for the revolutionaries to play politics."

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The Real Net Effect: Egypt, Facebook, & Protest...In 2008 (Faris)

Certainly no one could have expected a 27-year-old human resources coordinator to catalyze an event that would grip the national consciousness for the better part of a week. It perhaps seemed even less likely that Facebook, a social networking scheme hatched by Harvard undergraduates just a few years ago and still associated largely with American college students, would be the chosen platform for this massive action. After all, Egyptian blogs can claim some significant victories vis-à-vis the state in the past few years, including exposing police torture and cases of sexual harassment, and a number of articles have been written about the growing power of bloggers. But when examined against developments in the scale-free Egyptian blogosphere and the innovations in network theory, the choice of Facebook makes much more sense.

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Egypt Video: Taking Mubarak's Sons Alaa and Gamal to Prison

Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, the sons of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are taken to prison under a 15-day detention order while charges of corruption are investigated (an order against their father followed hours later).

Protesters call for the execution of the two Mubaraks, chanting: "Thieves!", and accuse Hosni Mubarak of being an American agent. They demand that Alaa and Gamal Mubarak be taken to prison in a police car, not a private vehicle.

Israel-Gaza Analysis: Why the Talk is Now of a Cease-Fire

So now it is said that the exchange of hostilities between factions in Gaza and the State of Israel will not bring another war. After the concern of recent days that West Jerusalem might repeat the attack of 2008/9, Operation Cast Lead, suddenly the talk  from Hamas and then from Israel was of a cease-fire.

So what happened? 

The surface reading had been that an escalation of tension on the Gaza border was useful for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as this took attention away from any need for concessions in talks on the other Palestinian front --- the West Bank --- ahead of Israeli elections. Indeed, even Washington's statement that it was“deeply concerned” about the construction of another 942 housing units of Israeli settlements in the West Bank could be put aside.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Grimness of Battle

2125 GMT: South African President Jacob Zuma says Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has accepted the terms of an African Union "road map", whichcalls for a ceasefire, protection of African migrant workers, and consideration of "the demands of the Libyan people" through a transition of power.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera is reporting that regime forces were "completely obliterated" in their assault on Ajdabiya in the east, with coalition aircraft inflicting heavy losses.

2120 GMT: Associated Press photographer Altaf Qadri has been located after going missing on Saturday near Brega in Libya (see 1610 GMT).

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Egypt, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Turn in the Protests

1955 GMT: C.J. Chivers of The New York Times summarises the day's fighting near the opposition-held Ajdabiya in east Libya:

Colonel Qaddafi’s forces began the attack late on Saturday morning with barrages of rocket or artillery fire onto the city’s center. Then, as the smoke rose and confusion reigned, they sent a contingent of ground troops into the city , where a gun battle broke out.

The loyalists’ assault was more determined and organized than the ambushes and exchanges of rocket and artillery fire of recent days. Barrage after barrage of incoming fire thudded and exploded in the city, and loyalist troops advanced behind it. Thick smoke rose and drifted from central parts of Ajdabiya, and by noon, doctors were evacuating the city’s hospital as explosions shook the streets.

Many of the rebels fled once again, streaming north up the highway toward Benghazi, horns honking. One rebel shouted at vehicles as they passed: “Qaddafi’s forces are coming! Go! Go! Go!”

But at least a small cadre of lightly armed local residents remained to fight, stopping the advancing loyalists on the central Istanbul Street.

“We killed 10 of them,” said Said Halum, who stood in the morgue in the late afternoon over the body of his brother, Abdul Ghadir, who had been shot between the eyes. “Our group split into two groups on Istanbul Street and fought them. The firing was very heavy.”

As the gun battle within the city raged, the main rebel force rallied about 10 miles north and by evening was flowing back into the city, where they briefly re-established a degree of control of Ajdabiya’s eastern and central areas.

Gunfire started to ebb in these areas in the evening, but skirmishes could be heard at the city’s southern and western side, and then the barrages started again, prompting many rebels to flee again.

NATO airstrikes came into play in the battle --- at least one large mushroom cloud rose from the city’s western side at about 1:25 p.m. as pro-Qaddafi forces were barraging the city. But again the allied air campaign was unable to keep the colonel’s military from pressing the rebels, as has been the case throughout a week of fighting that saw the ragged opposition forces losing key footholds on the main coastal road, including the city of Brega.

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Egypt Video: Before and After Troops Broke Up Tahrir's Protests

Army withdraw after the clear-out of Tahrir Square

Tahrir Square this morning

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Egypt Analysis: Losing Human Rights in the Transition (El Amrani)

Mohammad Hossein Tantawi, Head of Supreme Military CouncilOne of the big questions for the future of Egypt is how to change the culture of police enforcement, security agencies and the army when it comes to accountability, respect of the rule of law, human rights practice and more generally attitudes towards public freedoms. It was always unrealistic to expect to change this overnight, and there are several problems to tackle --- to start with: 

• deeply ingrained institutional practices (sometimes codified in laws, regulations and procedures that have their origins in the days of British rule in Egypt, as well as the security state established by Nasser);  
• the need for a shift away from a culture of entitlement, paternalism, sexism, and authoritarianism;
• a structural adjustment to end a micro-economy of corruption that made police officers, for instance, resort to accepting bribes because their basic salaries are low and they were practically encouraged to be on the take to compensate. This of course benefited more senior officers who were engaged in more serious corruption (and were paid adequately) and shielded them from criticism, since everyone was on the take. 

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North Africa-Middle East-Iran-Everywhere Video: United We Rise

Brought to you by Charlie Chaplin, Peop1e, and those in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Oman, Morocco, Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, Algeria, Iran, Jordan, Somalia, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia seeking rights, justice, and reforms -- "United We Rise":

(Hat tip to @paparatti)