Monday, October 24, 2011 at 12:46 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2023 GMT: According to NTC officials, Muammar Qaddafi and his son Muatassim will be buried in a secret location, with Muslim clerics present, likely sometime tomorrow.
2010 GMT: A very large crowd in Dael, Daraa, forms a human "SOS," a call for help:
See also Tunisia Latest: Today's Election
There have been a series of Get Out the Vote videos for today's Tunisian elections, the first after the fall of long-time ruler Zine El Abedine Ben Ali in January. This clip offers a warning to Tunisians what could happen if they do not participate --- the return of Ben Ali:
See also Tunisia Video: What Happens If No One Votes? The Return of Ben Ali....
UPDATE 1645 GMT: The head of the electoral commission, Kamel Jendoubi, has announced that the turnout is approaching 70% and is near 80% in some districts. He said results would be declared on Tuesday.
UPDATE 1015 GMT: Two videos from today's voting --- Al Jazeera English correspondent Nazenine Moshiri outlines the system and talks to a voter:
Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the al-Nahda Party, is told to get in the queue for voting after he apparently tried to cut into the line. Some in the crowd shout "Degage (Get out)!", the chant used against former President Ben Ali during the January uprising:
Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 9:46 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Claimed footage of snipers firing on protesters today in Sana'a, Yemen
See also Syria 1st-Hand: Life with Assad's Alawites
2105 GMT: Al Jazeera English's Rula Amin reports via Twitter that at least seven people have died in Homs in Syria today.
Meanwhile, in Harasta, northeast of Damascus, an anti-regime protest chants in solidarity with those in other cities:
Friday, September 23, 2011 at 9:29 | Ali Yenidunya in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
Israel's rulers must make a choice. They must see the fact that the real security comes with the real peace. They must see that it is not possible to maintain the state of conflict in the Middle East permanently. It is necessary to show that Israel is not above the law.
The most important step to be taken in this matter is the Palestine's taking part in the UN. Turkey's support to Palestine is unconditional.
Bashar al Assad, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Libya, Palestine, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Nations This feature has been re-titled, "Turkey Feature: Erdoğan at UN --- A Blast at Israel, A Criticism of Assad, and a Warning to Cyprus", and moved to the top of EA Worldview....
Bashar al Assad, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Libya, Palestine, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Nations Part 1 of 3
One year ago, I stood at this podium and called for an independent Palestine. I believed then --- and I believe now --- that the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own. But what I also said is that genuine peace can only be realized between Israelis and Palestinians themselves. One year later, despite extensive efforts by America and others, the parties have not bridged their differences. Faced with this stalemate, I put forward a new basis for negotiations in May. That basis is clear, and well known to all of us here. Israelis must know that any agreement provides assurances for their security. Palestinians deserve to know the territorial basis of their state.
I know that many are frustrated by the lack of progress. So am I. But the question isn’t the goal we seek --- the question is how to reach it. And I am convinced that there is no short cut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the UN --- if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now. Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians who must live side by side. Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians --- not us --- who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them: on borders and security; on refugees and Jerusalem.
Last December, Tunisians rose up against their dictator, triggering a political earthquake that has sent shockwaves through most of the Middle East and north Africa. Now, Tunisia is leading the way once again – this time on the vexed issue of gender equality.
It has become the first country in the region to withdraw all its specific reservations regarding Cedaw – the international convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 10:17 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Yesterday, in one of the more surreal moments of the fall of Muammar Qaddafi's compound, insurgents "liberated" the former leader's tok tok --- the combination of vehicle, similar to a golf cart, and setting for one of his speeches in the days after the start of the uprising:
That got us thinking: how fast could a liberated tok tok go? Could it take on Hitler's radio car, for example? Or Stalin's ZIS-115?
And then we remembered a more recent and pertinent example. In January, we reported on the another Arab Spring vehicle liberation --- former Tunisian President Ben Ali's car had been freed by a forklift:
So let's do this: Tok Tok v. Ferrari in a Great Ex-Dictators Drag Race. And maybe we don't have stop there: what about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's celebrated Peugeot 504? Maybe Bashar al-Assad would like to enter his car, unimpeded by the woman protester who tried to ruin his post-speech party at the end of March?
For 55 years, Tunisia celebrated Women's Day every August 13, representing the push for gender equality that has been one of the hallmarks of the North African nation's post-colonial era.
Women were active players in the uprising that ended the rule of Zine Abidine Ben Ali, and many hope that event will translate into a more visible role in the country’s soon-to-be democratic political life.
Yet some are worried that the rights women have enjoyed for the past five decades might soon be swept away by the tide of social conservatism that has emerged in the wake of the uprising.
