Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 89 Deaths, 672 Protests, and a "Liberated" Regime Convoy

Women queuing to vote in Libya's first national elections after the fall of the Qaddafi regime

See also Sudan 1st-Hand: When Nightmare Turns to Reality
Great Moments in Politics: Jordanian MP Pulls Gun on Activist During TV Debate
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Top Military Commander Defects?

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1715 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees of Syria report 47 people have been killed by security forces so far today, with 17 slain in the shelling of Deir Ez Zor and 10 dead in Aleppo and its suburbs.

1615 GMT: Iraq. Officials say a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged belt at a gathering of his family, killing his pro-government cousin and six other relatives, in Ramadi, 115 kilometres ((71 miles) west of Baghdad.

The bomber entered the home of his cousin, the local leader of the Sahwa militia, on Friday night as the extended family was gathered for a meal. He approached his cousin and detonated his explosives, killing him as well as his wife, three of their teenage children, his brother and another relative.

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Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 277 Dead in Two Days?

The moment, at 1:35 of the clip, when the crowd in Cairo's Tahrir Square learned that Mohamed Morsi had been confirmed as Egyptian President

See also Sudan Analysis and Video: Explaining the Latest Protests
Palestine Film Special: "Live: From Bethlehem"
Egypt Analysis: Why This is Not a "Soft Coup"
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Turkish Plane is Shot Down --- What Next?

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2015 GMT: Egypt. President-elect Mohamed Morsi has given a televised speech in which he has thanked the "martyrs" of the uprising against the Mubarak regime, saluted the people, and thanked the army, police, and judiciary for their service to Egypt.

Meanwhile, an officer "close to the ruling military council" has put out a message to Morsi, "The onus now is on the new President to unite the nation and create a true coalition of political and revolutionary forces to rebuild the country economically and politically...."The challenge for Egypt now is rebuilding its institutions and ensuring that these institutions are independent and work for the people, not a single party or movement."

The officer also upheld the legitimacy of the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces, "The military council has done its duty in keeping the election process free and fair, a true example of democracy, to the world."

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Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Trapped in Homs...and Hama...and Douma...and...

Shelling of Hama in Syria, amid calls to prayer, on Wednesday

See also Sudan Feature: The Protests Revive
Syria Revealed: CIA Helping with Arms Shipments to Insurgents
Turkey Live Coverage (21 June): A Questionable Military Declaration
Wednesday's Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Mubarak Not Quite "Clinically Dead"; 50+ Very Dead in Syria

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2042 GMT: Sudan. To comply with austerity measures ordered by the national government, Khartoum State Governor Abdel Rahman Khedr has dissolved his Cabinet.

On Monday, President Umar al-Bashir ordered cuts to cope with the loss of about 75% of the country’s oil output when South Sudan seceded last year.

The measures have sparked student protests (see separate feature). About 200 gathered at the University of Khartoum early today to prepare for another anti-government rally, defying police who fired tear gas and warnings shots on Wednesday to disperse protesters.

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Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Morsi Claims Presidential Win, But Military Tightens Grip on Power

See also Turkey Analysis: An Opposition MP Gives Prime Minister Erdogan An Edge on the Kurdish Issue
Bahrain Opinion: Why Younis Ashoori's Imprisonment Points to Repression Rather than Reform
Sunday's Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Vote of Uncertainty

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1948 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees of Syria claim 51 people have died at the hands of security forces today, including 15 in the Damascus suburbs and 12 in Homs Province.

1639 GMT: Syria. Claimed footage of Syrian forces dragging away two unarmed women:

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 109 Killed Amid Reports of "Children as Human Shields" and a "Plainclothes Army"

2023 GMT: Syria. The battles near Homs are heating up, and the Free Syrian Army seems to be making significant headway:

FSA back in Baba Amro, Homs - stunning combat footage with tank destroyed youtube.com/watch?v=nZI7xS… youtube.com/watch?v=JdTVoB… #Syria

— edward dark (@edwardedark) June 12, 2012

2003 GMT: Tunisia. The Ministries of Interior and Defense have declared a night-time curfew in the capital Tunis and seven other suburbs and cities following clashes with Salafi Islamists and other protesters angered by an art exhibition they say insults Muslims (see 1234 GMT).

The curfew begins at 9 p.m. and ends at 5 a.m. and will be enforced throughout the capital, the suburbs of Ben Arouss, Ariana, and Manouba, and the cities of Sousse, Monastir, Jendouba and Ben Guerdane.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Annan Plan is Failing --- We Must Have the Annan Plan

See also Syria Video Feature: Friday's Protests Across the Country
Syria Transcript: Kofi Annan's Speech to the UN General Assembly
Thursday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: More than 140 Die as US and Russia Talk of "Plan B"

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2105 GMT: Syria. The Salaheddin section of Aleppo tonight:

2035 GMT: Syria. Security forces fire at protesters in Aleppo today:

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Yemen Feature: Who are the Competing Factions? (Ferguson)

Soldiers & Pro-Government Tribesmen, 26 MayAll around the country, the challenges to Yemen's new government's authority are numerous --- and serious.

Yemen's new president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, was sworn into office this February after being the consensus candidate in a national referendum. He is meant to be overseeing a transition to full democracy in the country following a revolution that erupted in January 2011.

That revolution, however, spurred a violent power struggle between loyalists of the old regime --- the family of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled for over 30 years - and defected factions of the military and tribes opposed to him.

As fighting broke out across the capital city, Sanaa, in 2011, various rebel groups throughout the country that had long been fighting the government, took advantage of the chaos to sweep across new swathes of territory.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Bye-Bye to the Illusion of the Ceasefire

See Also, Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Assad Shoos Away UN Envoy Annan

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2100 GMT: Syria. The names of 12 of the 15 men whom, according to insurgents, were executed in a fertiliser plant outside Homs today:

1 - Mohammad Tawfik Bakkar
2 – Ibrahim Ismail Bakkar
3 – Khaled Abdel Najib Barro
4 – Adnan Omar al-Yassin
5 – Sulaiman Abdel Qader Satto
6 – Samer Mohammad Bakkar
7 – Abdel Kafi Hasan Bakkar
8 – Mohammad Abdo al-Zirai
9 – Maher Ahmad Taleb
10 – Hamed Saadiyeh
11 – Mohammad Mahmoud Satouf
12 – Yehia Sabri Buzan

1946 GMT: Syria. Insurgents claim 15 men have been executed at their workplace, a fertiliser plant, in Buwaydah Al Sharqiyah, outside Homs.

A Facebook account linked with the Free Syrian Army in Baba Amr claims that the FSA found the men:

This picture is from the first to arrive of the massacre committed in Albuweyda Alsharqiyah today where 15 men from the fertiliser plant were abducted by regime thugs, tortured and executed with close-range bullets.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Assad Shoos Away UN Envoy Annan

2112 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordinating Committees, at least 40 people were killed by Assad forces today nationwide:

14 martyrs in Homs, 10 martyrs in Daraa (Tayba, Nawa, Inkhel), 7 martyrs in Damascus Suburbs (Douma, Daraya, Thayabiya), 5 martyrs in Aleppo (Izaz and Atareb), 2 martrs in Idlib and 2 martyrs in Kafr Zeita, Hama.

According to the LCCS, only 2 of those killed were members of the Free Syrian Army - 38 were unarmed civilians.

2033 GMT: Syria. Two videos released today give an impression of the scale of violence reported in the Hamidiyah district of Homs today. The first, 2 minutes long (before it repeats without sound), shows shells falling on the district at the center of what was once Syria's 4th largest city. The second video, more than 10 minutes of nearly constant shelling and gunfire, as smoke fills the sky:

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: After the Houla "Massacre", Another 60 Deaths

A rally in the Damascus suburb of Douma on Saturday night with a message about the Houla "masscare", "These are our martyrs, we will never forget them"

See also Bahrain Live Coverage: Regime on Human Rights "You Are Biased. P.S. We'll Sue You"
Saturday's Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: More than 50 Die in Houla; A Presidential Run-Off in Cairo

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2200 GMT: Syria. The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria say 51 people have died today, including 11 children, four women and six defected soldiers

The toll is likely to increase if the death toll from today's shelling of Hama is as high as feared --- so far the LCCS only claim 25 slain in Hama Province.

2034 GMT: Syria. Activists are reporting on social media tonight that at least thirty people have been killed in regime shelling of Hama.

Opposition sources said the shelling began in the morning on areas near the northern entrance of the city, after a series of insurgent attacks on army roadblocks in the city, and resumed in the evening on the southern al-Malaab district.

Footage has been posted of some of the victims (Warning: Graphic).

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