Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: What Happened to the Syrian National Initiative for a New Opposition?

Former MP Jawad Fairouz, one of 31 people whose citizenship was revoked by the Bahraini regime (see 0635 and 1125 GMT), speaks with the BBC

See also Syria Feature: Latest on Fighting Among Free Syrian Army, Kurdish Militias, and Regime Forces
Yemen Feature: How A Country Was Lost in Obama's "War Laboratory"
Syria Audio Special: Regime's Leadership Defiant as Opposition's Disintegrates --- James Miller and Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Opposition Still Seeking Leadership

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1530 GMT: Turkey. Six leading Kurdish politicians have joined hundreds of jailed militants and activists in a hunger strike, now in its 60th day.

About 700 Kurdish prisoners in dozens of facilities are calling for the leader of the PKK insurgency, Abdullah Ocalan, who is imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul, to have access to lawyers after 15 months of no contact.

Osman Baydemir, mayor of Diyarbakir in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey, said in a statement on Saturday that he had stopped eating. Five Kurdish members of the Turkish Parliament --- Sirri Sureyya Onder, co-chair of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Gultan Kisanak, Aysel Tugluk, Adil Kurt, Sabahat Tuncer --- were also on hunger strike, he said.

The hunger strikers are consuming sugared water and vitamins that will prolong their lives and the protest.

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Raising Shoes to Assad

See Also Syria Video Special: The Destruction of Deir Ez Zor

Syria Video Analysis: Assessing Propaganda and "Truth" on Both Sides
Bahrain Video: How to Confuse Security Forces --- Use a Laser Pointer
Tuesday's Libya, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Turmoil in the West, Turmoil in the East

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2030 GMT: Night videos from Syria are coming in --- some of them are too dark to feature, but they include a march in Talbiseh in the south sympathising with the victims of Homs and the burning of a picture of President Assad in Jableh on the coast.

Kafranbel in the northwest:

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: "Come On, Bashar, Leave!"

2115 GMT: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has just given a televised speech in which he declared that the "bloodshed of innocents, which has nothing to do with morals nor religion, is not acceptable" in Syria and Saudi Arabia cannot accept what is happening in Syria: "There is no justification."

Abdullah continued, "We demand a stop to the killings and bloodshed. Stop killing and start reforms".

Saudi Arabia has withdrawn its Ambassador from Damascus "for consultations".

2050 GMT: Douma outside Damascus tonight after Taraweeh prayers for Ramadan:

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Bahrain, Libya, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Protest Re-Appears

Pearl Roundabout, Bahrain1955 GMT: Last week we reported on the alleged abduction of dual American-Syrian national Amina Arraf, the author of the blog "A Gay Girl in Damascus". Doubts soon surfaced, however, not only over the kidnapping but whether Arraf was real.

This evening, Tom McMaster, who lives in Turkey, has posted an apology, admitting that he is "Amina": "While the narrative voıce may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone -- I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about."

1450 GMT: A Yemeni security official said a colonel and two soldiers were killed in clashes with insurgents in the city of Zinjibar in the south on Sunday. Two insurgents were also slain.

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Thousands Detained and the Possible Death of a Qaddafi

2200 GMT: $$$ - Switzerland is reporting that they have uncovered 360 million Swiss francs ($415.8 million) belonging to Colonel Gaddafi or members close to his inner circle. Also, according to Al Jazeera English, 

"Some 410 million Swiss francs traced to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and 60 million Swiss francs linked to former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali have also been identified, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel said."

The funds will be frozen. In the case of Egypt and Tunisia, the governments of those countires have requested the funds. In Libya, those assets are likely to remain frozen until the Gaddafi government is removed from power.

1930 GMT: Al Jazeera has been missing a reporter, Dorothy Parvaz, stationed in Syria, since Friday. She disappeared after stepping off a Qatar Airlines flight in Damascus. There is no word from the Syrian government as to what has happened to her, or where she is currently located. 

1850 GMT: Claimed footage of a demonstration in Homs tonight:

1830 GMT: Claimed footage of a women's protest in Zabadani today, calling on Syrian authorities to release detainees.

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