Algeria (and Beyond) Coverage: Gas Plant Siege Ends with 23 Hostages, 32 Attackers Killed

See also Bahrain Propaganda 101: Regime Looking for a Few Good Women on Twitter
Israel Feature: The Settlers and the Politician Trying to Re-Make the Jewish State
Syria Live Coverage: "Darayya is Being Pounded to Dust"
Saturday's Algeria (and Beyond) Coverage: Hostage Situation Continues at Gas Plant

---

2241 GMT: Egypt. Protesters have set a courthouse in Alexandria on fire after the suspension of the trial of six senior police officers for deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising.

Young men threw rocks at police, who responded with tear gas. Two trucks that transport riot police was set ablaze.

Judge Mohammed Hammad Abdel-Hadi resigned from the case on Sunday, giving no reason. His resignation means a new trial for the officers accused of using excessive force.

Since President Hosni Mubarak was deposed in February, almost 100 police officers have been brought to trial on charges of killing and wounding protesters. All were acquitted or received suspended sentences.

Click to read more ...

Mali (and Beyond) Live Coverage: France Prepares Ground Operations While Insurgents Seize 41 Foreigners in Algeria

2126 GMT: Algeria. Algerian State Television has confirmed that at least four foreigners have been killed into today's attempted hostage rescue:

Two of the victims were Britons and the other two Filipinos, the report said after the end of the operation was announced late on Thursday.

Communication Minister Mohamed Said said earlier that troops had been forced to act after talks with the kidnappers failed.

He said many fighters had been killed in the operation at the In Amenas gas field.

Sources for Reuters report that the death toll may be much higher:

Quoting an unnamed Algerian security source, Reuters reports that 30 hostages were killed in the gas plant attack, including 7 foreigners. The report does not give the nationalities of the foreigners who died.

Eleven militants from six different countries – including one from France – also were killed, the report says. The militants' nationalities were given as 3 Egyptians, 2 Algerians, 2 Tunisians, 2 Libyans a Frenchman and a Malian.

Meanwhile, David Cameron has cancelled a planned speech, but did say that the UK needs to be "prepared for the possibility of further bad news."

1814 GMT: Algeria. A summary of the press conference at the US State Department:

Click to read more ...

Iraq Analysis: Protests, Politics, & A Prisoner Release --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24

Prisoners Freed on MondayI spoke with Monocle 24's The Daily last night about this week's release of 335 prisoners by the al-Maliki Government in an apparent concession to weeks of protests across the country, with mostly-Sunni demonstrators challenging discrimination, anti-terrorism laws, and incidents like last month's raids on the offices and house of Minister of Finance Rafa al-Issawi.

The interview moves from the specifics of the prisoner release to ask, "Will the step make any difference to the political conflict?"

My answer: Probably Not.

The interview begins at the 08:39 mark.

Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Israeli Military Overruns Village of Bab al-Shams

See also Syria Live Coverage: The Fight Near Damascus
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Insurgents Advance While Brahimi Stalls

---

1830 GMT: Israel-Palestine. A day after ordering the military to disband a new village on Palestinian territory, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he will support Jewish settlements on the site.

Netanyahu told Israel Army Radio that, while it will take time to build in the "E1" area, "we will complete the planning, and there will be construction".

Asked why the protesters were removed, Netanyahu said, "They have no reason to be there. I asked immediately to close the area so people would not gather there needlessly and generate friction and disrupt public order."

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Insurgents Advance While Brahimi Stalls

See also Egypt Feature: An Alternative Justice System in the Sinai
Syria 1st-Hand: The 11-Year-Old Fighting with the Insurgents
Friday's Syria Live Coverage: The End of the Brahimi Mission?
Friday's Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: An Activist Tries to Re-Enter the Kingdom

---

1729 GMT: Palestine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the Supreme Court to remove an injunction against his order to the military to overrun the new village of Bab al-Shams, on Palestinian territory near East Jerusalem.

Activists pitched tents to launch the new village on Friday. It is in the E1 area, where the Israeli Government is supporting the construction of new Jewish settlements.

Netanyahu ordered that the area be considered a "closed military zone", with all access cut off "to prevent gatherings".

Click to read more ...

Iraq (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protests Close Border with Jordan

See also Syria Live Coverage: A Mass Killing in Idlib Province?
Tuesday's Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Regime Shuts Away Its Political Prisoners

---

Protest in Anbar Province Last Week1925 GMT: Libya. Four people have been killed, in clashes between Toubou tribesmen and a brigade linked to the Libyan army, in the southern town of Kufra.

A military spokesman claimed the Shield Libya brigade intervened "to prevent student casualties" after a skirmish between Toubou and Zwai tribesmen escalated inside Kufra University.

Local authorities ordered that the university, which is in a Toubou area, shut for two days until order is restored.

A tribal chief called on "the army to secure Kufra, and not a group of civilian revolutionaries who have no military principles".

Kufra, a town of about 40,000 people, is located in a triangle where the borders of Egypt, Chad. and Sudan meet. Fighting last February claimed more than 130 lives and displaced half the population. Last June, 47 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Regime Shuts Away Its Political Prisoners

See also Syria Live Coverage: Has the Insurgent Advance Stalled?

---

1900 GMT: Bahrain. The European Union has reacted to the regime's re-assertion of long prison sentences on 13 political prisoners with a call for their release. Spokesman Michael Mann said, "The EU has repeatedly asked the Bahraini authorities to consider an amnesty for all those arrested last year and tried on charges relating to the expression of their political opinion."

Mann said the European Union "fully respects the independence of the Bahraini judiciary" but "remains concerned about the lack of advancement of national reconciliation". He continued, "All sides should engage in a peaceful, inclusive and constructive dialogue, abstaining from all forms of violence and intimidation."

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) Coverage: UN --- Death Toll Passes 60,000

People run from a regime airstrike on the Damascus suburb of Douma --- activists report that there were 20 deaths

See also Libya Satire: A Beginner's Guide to Democacy...and Slapstick
Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Aleppo Airport Is Briefly Closed

---

2044 GMT: Syria. An airstrike on the Jobar section of Homs today:

1726 GMT: Syria. Insurgents drive a captured regime in the Jabal al-Zawiya area:

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Regime Forces Try to Recapture Damascus Suburb

Footage from the Damascus suburb of Darayya last month

See also EA Special: 10 Predictions for 2013 --- Assad Gone, an Angry Middle East, and Little Change on "Human Rights"
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: On Verge of "Hell" or "Sacred Birth"?

---

2035 GMT: Bahrain. Claimed footage of police throwing tear gas canister near a 4 year-old child in Jirdab village:

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: On Verge of "Hell" or "Sacred Birth"?

See also Sunday's Syria Live Coverage: "220 Executed" as Regime Advances in Homs

---

1935 GMT: Syria. Brown Moses considers a video, circulating since Saturday, claiming to be of a regime soldier executed by an Islamist brigade in Harem in Idlib Province.

Harem, just over a mile from the Turkish border, was captured by insurgents last week.

1930 GMT: Syria. Claimed footage of insurgents blowing up a regime tank today:

Click to read more ...