Lebanon (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The US Goes After Hezbollah

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses a Beirut crowd via video link on Ssturday (Photo: Bilal Hussein/AP)

See also Syria Live Coverage: Hezbollah Emerges in the Conflict
Sunday's Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Thousands March as Clashes Continue

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1503 GMT: Libya. Police chief Abdel-Salam el-Barghathi has said four detained foreigners have been accused of espionage in addition to proselytising Christianity.

The group --- a Swedish-American, a South Korean, a South African, and an Egyptian --- was arrested last week in the eastern city of Benghazi with tens of thousands of copies of literature about Christianity in their possession.

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Syria Live Coverage: Hezbollah Emerges in the Conflict

2336 GMT: Scud Strikes - Aleppo City. This video, one of several similar, reportedly shows part of one of the buildings that collapsed in the Jabal Badro district of Aleppo, reportedly after the fall of at least one SCUD missile:

2315 GMT: Scud Strikes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has released a statement about tonight's alleged SCUD attacks:

8 civilians, including a child, were killed by the bombardment on Jabal Badro, in the Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood of Aleppo. It is thought that the bombs were a surface-to-surface missile. the number of dead is likely to rise due to the large amount of casualties and that there are several people still under the rubble of destroyed buildings. An SOHR activist in the Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood witnessed the desperate cries of a man who had 15 of his family members under the rubble of their house; he also reported witnessing the body of a child being pulled out of a building, the head was detached from the body. Violent clashes are taking place by the police branch in the Zebdiya neighbourhood, also clashes in Bustan al-Qasr. The Jazmatiya neighbourhood was bombarded by the airforce.

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Syria Live Coverage: Insurgents Take Another Major Airbase Near Aleppo

Video from Thursday showing insurgents firing RPGs on the as-Safira airbase in Aleppo Province

See also Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Thousands March as Clashes Continue
Saturday's Syria Live Coverage: "Assad Must Be Held Accountable for His Crimes"

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1731 GMT: Defections? An opposition activist tells Al Jazeera that 650 regime soldiers, including 50 officers, have defected in Damascus Province.

1725 GMT: Hezbollah v. Insurgents? At least one Hezbollah fighter and five Syrian insurgents have been killed in clashes in Syrian territory on the border with Lebanon.

Hadi al-Abdallah of the Syrian Revolution General Commission said fighting broke out on Saturday after Hezbollah, in control of eight Syrian border villages, tried to expand into three adjacent Sunni villages held by the Free Syrian Army.

"The Hezbollah force moved on foot and was supported by multiple rocket launchers. The Free Syrian Army had to call in two tanks that had been captured from the Assad army to repel the attack," Abdallah said.

Earlier today a Hezbollah official said two Lebanese men had been killed and 14 wounded while acting in "self-defence" against Syrian insurgents.

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EA Video Analysis: Two Lessons from The Israeli Airstrikes Inside Syria

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Five minutes to take apart Wednesday's Israeli airstrikes inside and to draw two lessons:

1. "The less important is that the Israelis are not going to alter the course of the Syrian conflict --- that is between the Assad regime and the insurgents, and the President is still on his way out."

2. "The significance of the Israeli attack is its impact on the regional situation beyond Syria, and specifically on Lebanon."

Algeria (and Beyond) Coverage: At Least 30 Hostages Killed in Rescue Attempt

See also Syria Live Coverage: Another Mass Killing, Another Dispute of Responsibility
Thursday's Mali (and Beyond) Live Coverage: France Prepares Ground Operations While Insurgents Seize 41 Foreigners in Algeria

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2124 GMT: Algeria. An Algerian hostage, who escaped during the army assault on the In Amenas gas plant, has spoken of casualties:

There were so many deaths. I was shocked. I can't say the exact number. Foreign hostages died, Algerian hostages died and there were deaths among the terrorists.

The hostage said one of the leaders of the assailants was killed. Some of the attackers are still in the central working area of the gas facility. People from the area warned, "It's very difficult for the army to stage an assault because everything could explode. It's dangerous."

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Syria Live Coverage: The Fight Near Damascus

Marianne Gasser of the Red Cross on the situation with health care (see also 1150 GMT)

See also Syria 1st-Hand: Coffee with the Mayor of A Christian Village
Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Israeli Military Overruns Village of Bab al-Shams
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Insurgents Advance While Brahimi Stalls

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1805 GMT: Casualties. The Local Coordination Committees report 102 people killed today, including 13 children and four women. Forty of the deaths are in Damascus and its suburbs and 28 in Aleppo Province.

1655 GMT: Regime Attacks. Opposition activists claim the Syrian military killed at least 26 people, half of them children, in a bombardment of insurgent-held Damascus suburbs on Sunday.

Video footage showed women weeping over the dismembered bodies of children strewn across a field in Eastern Ghouta, near an air defence base on the edge of the town of Muleiha, 5 kilometres (3 miles) east of Damascus.

Muleiha is the last major fortification east of Damascus held by the regime.

Activist Yasmine al-Shami said residential areas around Muleiha and in the working-class suburbs of Hazzeh, Kfar Batna, and Douma were being heavily hit.

A report by the opposition Damascus Media Centre said insurgents had attacked the Muleiha base with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars for five days, with the army firing more than 600 rockets on the town in response.

A commander in Liwa al-Islam, one of several insurgent brigades fighting in the area, said the compound was well defended: "Our objective is to take it, but it will not be immediate."

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Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Morsi Defies Protesters and Warns "Infiltrators"

The protest in front of the Presidential Palace tonight

See also Syria Live Coverage: Is This the End for Assad?
Thursday's Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protests and Fighting at the Presidential Palace

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See also Syria Live Coverage: Is This the End for Assad?
Thursday's Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protests and Fighting at the Presidential Palace

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2125 GMT: Egypt. Hundreds or anti-Morsi demonstrators in Alexandria reportedly ransacked the Governorate’s headquarters, protesting the killing of protesters by "armed militias affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood".

Minutes later, a group of men wielding firearms and bladed weapons chased the demonstrators out of the building.

The headquarters of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in Zagazig was raided by protesters amid clashes in the city, including in front of President Morsi's house.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: New Opposition Leadership Named --- Now What?

See also Syria Audio Analysis: Evaluating the New Opposition Coalition --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
Sunday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: New Opposition Coalition Formed "In Principle"

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2215 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees, who resigned from the Syrian National Council last week in protest, have released a statement that they support the new Syrian National Coalition, the new organization finalized in the last 24 hours:

This entity was established independently and outside the purview of any other nation. Moreover, the National Coalition was established in accordance with the principles and objectives of the Syrian revolution and activists’ demands to:

• Oust the regime (including its symbols and pillars of support);
• Dismantle the security services;
• Unify and support the military councils of the Free Syrian Army;
• Reject dialogue or negotiation with the criminal regime; and
• Hold accountable those responsible for killing Syrians, destroying our country, and displacing our people.

The National Coalition, in adhering to and fulfilling these requirements, will serve as the legitimate representative of the revolution and the Syrian people in their quest for freedom. In turn, the National Coalition, whose legitimacy as the sole representative of the Syrian people is also affirmed by the Arab and international community, can obtain the necessary support to protect civilians, oust the criminal regime, and reach the revolution’ highest goals to transition to a state of human rights, freedom, and citizenship.

The LCC reaffirms its participation in the National Coalition. The LCC has worked hard, and will continue to spare no effort, to ensure the success of the National Coalition in its service to the revolution. We congratulate the Syrian people, who have held steadfast in their efforts to accomplish this critical step in our revolution for dignity and in Syria’s history. The LCC affirms that it will always remain true to the objectives of our revolution for dignity, and will honor the hopes and sacrifices of our great Syrian people.

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Lebanon, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Day of Rage, 19 Months of Protests and Deaths

Claimed footage of Syrian forces lining up detainees in Deir Ez Zor Province --- activists claim some of those held were later among 75 dead found in a cemetery on Friday

See also Saturday's Syria, Lebanon (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Will a Beirut Bomb Widen the War?

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2011 GMT: Morocco. Mamfakinch reports that police broke up a protest by the February 20th Movement in Casablanca today before it even began, detaining demonstrators who were gathering.

The website names four of the activists who are still held.

1947 GMT: Lebanon. Scenes from Beirut today, captured by Antoun Issa on his camera phone:

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Syria, Lebanon (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Will a Beirut Bomb Widen the War?

Activists and crew on the Estelle, the Gaza-bound ship of the Freedom Flotilla, which was boarded this morning by Israeli forces

See also Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: At Least 44 Dead in Airstrike on Ma'arat al-Numan
Israel-Palestine Live Blog (19 October): A Centre-Left Alternative to Netanyahu?

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1840 GMT: Egypt. France 24 TV says its correspondent in Cairo, Sonia Dridi, was "savagely attacked" near Tahrir Square on Friday night, shortly after a live news report.

The channel said Dridi was rescued by a colleague and other witnesses. The reporter and crew were safe "but extremely shocked".

France 24 said it would file a suit against unspecified assailants.

1720 GMT: Syria. US officials have put out the message, via The Washington Post, that they are stepping up intelligence co-operation and military consultations with Turkey over the Syrian conflict.

In particular, the officials confirmed that Washington was the source of intelligence for Ankara's grounding of a Syrian passenger jet, travelling from Moscow to Damascus, earlier this month. Turkish officials claimed the aircraft was carrying radar and electrical parts for Syria’s Russian-made anti-aircraft systems.

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