Latest Syria Video: The Weekend Protests

Tear Gas, Burning Tyres, & Protest in Daraa on Friday;

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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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Syria Feature: Waiting for Death --- I Will Not Carry Flowers to My Grave (Yazbek)

Photo: API no longer fear Death. I wait for him calmly with my cigarette and my coffee. I think that I can stare into the eyes of a sniper on the roof of a building. I stare without batting an eyelid. I go out onto the streets and stare at the roofs of the buildings, calmly, and walk. I cross the pavements and a square in the city. I think, where could the sniper be now? I think that I will write a novel about a sniper watching a woman walking calmly on the street. I think about them both, as two lonely heroes in a city of ghosts. Scenes that resemble the streets of Saramago in the film “Blindness.”

I return to the capital, and I know that this place is no longer as it once was. Fear is no longer like breathing! Life here has changed forever in a single moment.

I return, and I know that I will not despair of struggling for justice, even if my chest is opened for Death. As I said, I got used to it, no more and no less: I wait for him, and I will not carry flowers to my grave.

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Libya, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Getting Organised?

2110 GMT: Bahrain State TV is reporting that the Bahraini regime has shut down Al-Wasat, the only independent newspaper in the country.

In preparation for the move, State television has been broadcasting all night on the supposed plagiarism and distortions of Al-Wasat.

2005 GMT: In Libya, the opposition National Transitional Council has named a "crisis team" to political and military positions.

On the political side, Mahmoud Jebril will head the group taking its direction from the NTC. Omar Hariri is in charge of the military department, with General Abdel Fattah Younes al Abidi, Muammar Qaddafi's former ally and Minister of Interior, as Chief of Staff.

The economics and finance portfolio is held by Ali Tarhouni, a U.S.-based academic who returned to Libya to help the uprising. Appointments were also announced for a new National Oil company and a Central Bank.

Other positions filled included foreign affairs, infrastructure, information, and justice.

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Latest Syria Video: The Friday Protests

Gunfire, clashes, & beatings:

Idlib in northwest:

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Syria Video: Woman Disrupts Assad's Post-Speech Celebrations

An interesting incident, captured on Syrian State TV: after President Bashar al-Assad enjoys some post-speech glory on Wednesday, waving to regime supporters and then getting into his car, a woman approaches the automobile and tries to shout at him through the window. A mass of security agents surround her, while State TV cuts away to long-distance shots of Damascus:

See also Syria Transcript: President Assad's Speech "An Unprecedented National Unity"

Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Rallying

1930 GMT: Our live blog coverage ends here. We will be back tomorrow morning.

1920 GMT: Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, a former foreign minister of Nicaragua, has been named by Qaddafi as Libya’s ambassador to the UN.

1900 GMT: CNN reports a rebel spokesman in Benghazi, Libya saying that fighters are executing a "tactical withdrawal" from territory they previously controlled. It is reported that rebels withdrew towards Brega, prepared to defend Ajdabiya. Other sources report that rebels are leaving their places in Ajdabiya to defend Benghazi!

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The Latest from Iran (30 March): Life After the Party

1452 GMT: Three Kuwaiti soldiers, two Iranians and one Kuwaiti national, have been sentenced to death for spying for the Iranian regime. The three soldiers, and several other civilians, were arrested in May 2010 and accused of passing information about Kuwaiti and U.S. military operations to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

Two civilians, a Syrian and another Arab, were given life sentences, and two Iranians were aquitted. 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehman Parast, has denied any Iranian involvement with a spy network in Kuwait.

1444 GMT: Human Rights - Mohsen Dogmechi, political prisoner incarcerated at Rajai Shahr prison, has died from cancer and "lack of medical care. According to A Street Journalist, Dogmechi was refused medical help despite the urging of several doctors that Dogmechi be transferred to a hospital for chemotherapy. 

1434 GMT: Bahrain's opposition leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, sends a clear message to the Iranian regime today. "We urge Iran not to meddle in Bahraini internal affairs." 

1415 GMT: James Miller reports for duty, and finds many interesting developments in Iran.

GVF is reporting that Mir Esmail Mousavi, father of Presidential Candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, has died after a long illness. He was 97. 

This is a death that will likely have political repercussions. Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rashnavard have been held under house arrest since February 14, without formal charges, and was not at his fathers side during his death. It is also unknown whether or not the Iranian security forces will allow Mousavi or his wife to attend funeral services.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Not So Fast

2100 GMT: Tonight's take-away from the 40-nation gathering in London to discuss Libya is US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's indication that arms supplies to the opposition may be under consideration: "It is our interpretation that [United Nations resolution] 1973 [authorising the no-fly one and measures to protect civilians] amended or overrode the absolute prohibition of arms to anyone in Libya so that there could be legitimate transfer of arms if a country were to choose to do that. We have not made that decision at this time."

2025 GMT: CNN's Ben Wedeman quotes an eyewitness that residents of Brega are fleeing east after the Libyan army regained control of Ras Lanuf, the next town to the west, tonight.

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Libya, Syria, and Yemen: Scott Lucas on BBC Radio Wales

Former British diplomat Paul Whiteway and I appeared on BBC Radio Wales this morning to discuss the latest situation on the ground in Libya and the development of NATO and US approaches, including the move beyond the "no-fly zone" and protection of civilians " to the support of the opposition and "regime change".

We also had a moment to consider Syria and Yemen, where --- in a statement missed by the media --- US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appears to have given support to President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The item starts just before the 2:07.00 mark.