The lesson from watching Tunisia and Egypt fall and then Bahrain and Libya remain, is that the tougher you are the longer you stay. And President Salih wants to stay.
Most Yemeni officials I know are bracing themselves for a massacre.
Saturday, March 19, 2011 at 14:01 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
2200 GMT: We're going to take an overnight break. Coverage switches to our Live Feed from Al Jazeera English.
2145 GMT: Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi is now speaking by phone. He says that the coalition attack will launch a second Crusade, which will be countered by the Libyan people. He then asks Africans and South Americans to stand by the regime.
Gaddafi declares that the regime must now open the weapons depots and arm all Libyans. He then ends --- a very un-Qaddafi speech of less than three minutes.
2115 GMT: Activists claim that lawyer Ragia Omran was kidnapped today from a polling station in Egypt during the referendum on the Constiutional amendments.
2110 GMT: French broadcasters, refuting the claims of Libyan State TV (see 2050 GMT), reports that all French aircraft have returned safely from missions over Libya.
2105 GMT: Four Al Jazeera journalists have been detained in western Libya.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 5:59 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2200 GMT: Another appearance by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi tonight. Addressing supporters in Tripoli, he chided his opponents: "You are saying Gaddafi is going to leave the country. Do you think Gaddafi would leave?....Those traitors who let Libya down during the Italian imperialism, they have left their children with the shame."
Qaddafi spoke as the opposition held an anti-regime rally in their base in Benghazi in the east.
2105 GMT: A gang armed with clubs and butcher knives attacked the printing press of Bahrain's only opposition newspaper, Al Wasat, early Tuesday morning.
Al Wasat, which means "The Centre" in Arabic, was set up in 2002 after Bahrain's King introduced reforms that allowed independent press licences. All of Bahrain's other newspapers are pro-government or affiliated with senior officials.
2100 GMT: Two clips claiming to be of protests in Syria today:
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 5:28 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 1915 GMT: A resident has told Reuters that regime forces are now in control of Zuara in the west of Libya.
1730 GMT: Media are reporting that regime tanks have entered the opposition-held town of Zuara, in the far west of Libya, and are moving toward the centre of the town.
1720 GMT: The Foreign Minister of the UAE says the country has sent 500 police to Bahrain.
1710 GMT: At least 30 people were injured when police opened fire on protesters in Marib Province in eastern Yemen.
Police also shot live ammunition at protesters in northeastern Jawf Province. In the capital, Sanaa, soldiers and armoured vehicles tried to cut off and surround an area near the university building where thousands of protesters have camped out for weeks.
Video of Sunday's clashes in Sanaa in Yemen that killed two and injured dozens:
Sanaa, 12 March 2011This leads us to the big question: what does it all mean?
To put it succinctly: this is the end for [President Ali Abdullah] Saleh in Yemen....The only question left is when and in what manner he goes. But he will not survive this term.
The sooner the US recognizes this the better it will be for not only US policy in Yemen but for the security of the homeland --- already people in Yemen are chanting against the US for its support of Saleh. Getting shot at with US-made tear gas canisters doesn't help either.
Saleh has alienated too many different segments of society in Yemen. He can no longer survive as president. This is his final dance.
Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 7:06 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
2040 GMT: More oppositionsclaims from Libya (see 2025 GMT) --- their special forces have counterattacked in Brega, arresting 20-60 regime fighters, killing 25, and seizing weapons.
The regime had claimed earlier today that it had taken the oil port in north-central Libya.
2035 GMT: Egypt’s military police have prevented a rally organised by imams calling for the independence of the Islamic institution Al-Azhar and for an investigation into alleged corruption at the Ministry of Endowments.
An eyewitness said that the police prevented nearly 1000 imams and preachers from reaching the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt's ruling body, and assaulted them with fists and electric batons. Clashes resulted between the two sides.
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 12:59 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2210 GMT: In Egypt, actor and activist Aly Sobhy, whose detention we noted earlier today (see 1430 GMT), has been released.
Sobhy was seized by the military on Wednesday as he tried to get the names of protesters who had been detained in Tahrir Square in Cairo.
2130 GMT: Another video of today's mass pro-democracy march to Safriya Palace in Bahrain:
2020 GMT: Al Jazeera cameramen, Ali Hassan Al Jaber, has been killed after a crew of the Arabic-language channel was ambushed by regime forces near the town of Benghazi.
Reporter Nasser Al Haddar was also injured by a gunshot.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 9:11 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
2045 GMT: Doctors have suggested that regime forces in Yemen used a form of nerve gas on pro-democracy protesters in Sanaa in a violent clash on Tuesday night.
The soldiers fired warning shots into the air before shooting gas and, it is claimed, live bullets into the crowd, killing one and injuring at least 75.
“The material in this gas makes people convulse for hours. It paralyzes them. They couldn’t move at all. We tried to give them oxygen but it didn’t work,” said Amaar Nujaim, a field doctor who works for Islamic Relief.“We are seeing symptoms in the patient’s nerves, not in their respiratory systems. I’m 90 percent sure its nerve gas and not tear gas that was used,” said Sami Zaid, a doctor at the Science and Technology Hospital in Sanaa.
Mohammad Al-Sheikh, a pathologist at the same hospital, said that some of the victims had lost their muscular control and were forced to wear diapers.
“We have never seen tear gas cause these symptoms. We fear it may be a dangerous gas that is internationally forbidden,” Al-Sheikh said.
Monday, March 7, 2011 at 10:54 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2050 GMT: Two claimed videos from Az Zintan, 160 km (100 miles) southwest of Tripoli, where the opposition says it attacked regime forces on the outskirts of the city: the first is of questioning of captured Qaddafi troops, the second is a brief clip of the pre-1969 flag flying over the town:
Monday, March 7, 2011 at 8:30 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
Juan Cole gets to grips with all the developments to produce his Top 10 List of changes for democracy. It's a good round-up, but we should also note events ---covered in EA's LiveBlog --- that did not make the list, such as weekend protests in Lebanon and Casablanca (see inset picture):
10. In the Sunni-ruled monarchy of Bahrain, which has practiced employment discrimination against the Shiite majority of citizens, the Ministry of Interior has announced it will create 20,000 security-related jobs, apparently intended to be filled mainly by Shiite Bahrainis with college degrees. The protest movement, however, is unlikely to be satisfied unless there are political, not just economic concessions.
Ali Abdullah Saleh, Bahrain, Jordan, Juan Cole, Oman, Tawakul Karman, Yemen 
