"Jailed activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja was feared to have died, his lawyer said on Monday, after Bahraini authorities turned down repeated requests to contact him. ... Khawaja, a Shiite who was condemned with other opposition activists to life in jail over an alleged plot to topple the Sunni monarchy during a month-long protest a year ago, began a hunger strike on the night of February 8-9." (04/09/12)
http://bit.ly/IuIOKj"Islamic law will not be enshrined in Tunisia's new constitution, preserving the secular basis of the North African nation, Tunisia's ruling Islamist Ennahda Party said Monday. Ziad Doulatli, a party leader, said the first article of the new constitution would remain the same as in the 1959 version and it will not call for Shariah, Islamic law, to be the source of all legislation, as many conservatives had wanted." (03/26/12)
http://tinyurl.com/cq3huyh"The experience of Egypt should drive home the fact that it could take more than a couple of weeks and a change at the top to make a substantial revolution that actually improves the lives of average people. This brings up the question of how a mass movement against the establishment can create the arrangements that replace it." (01/26/12)
http://baltic-review.com/2012/01/egypt-a-year-of-revolution/"Syria's state news agency says President Bashar Assad has granted a general amnesty for crimes committed during the unrest of the past 10 months. SANA says the amnesty issued Sunday covers those who have peacefully demonstrated, those who have carried unlicensed weapons and those who hand over their weapons to authorities before the end of January. It also applies to army deserters who fled military service if they turn themselves in before Jan. 31." (01/15/12)
http://fxn.ws/AiFvGV"By turns defiant and threatening, President Bashar Assad vowed Tuesday to use an 'iron hand' to crush what he called the terrorists and saboteurs behind Syria's 10-month-old uprising in which thousands of people have been killed. In his first speech since June, Assad showed a steely confidence in the face of the uprising, one of the bloodiest of the Arab Spring. But opponents called it a rambling address by a leader who is dangerously out of touch." (01/10/12)
http://tinyurl.com/7lmhyp7"The Yemeni cabinet has approved the draft of a law that will give President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his aides immunity from prosecution. The draft was submitted to parliament for approval and is expected to be approved within days, said Yahya al-Arasi, a senior vice presidential aide. Ghaleb al-Odaini, the spokesman for the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), said the law will pass but expect lawmakers to make changes to it before approving it." (01/09/12)
http://tinyurl.com/73t85zu"A pan-Arab body called Sunday for the immediate withdrawal of the Arab League monitors in Syria because President Bashar Assad's regime has kept up killings of government opponents even in the presence of the observers. The 88-member Arab Parliament said that Arabs are angered by the Syrian regime's ongoing killings while the nearly 100 monitors are in the country. The monitors are supposed to be ensuring Syria complies with terms of the League's plan to end the 9-month-old crackdown on dissent -- a plan Syria agreed to on Dec. 19." (01/01/12)
http://tinyurl.com/6wm2jmh"Yemen's opposition on Sunday accused outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh of trying to torpedo a power transfer deal by sparking a new crisis, as troops loyal to him clashed with opposition forces, killing three. The violence was evidence that the president's signature on a power transfer deal has not ended months of turmoil that have benefited al-Qaida-linked militants." (01/01/12)
http://tinyurl.com/7uhf9rf"Riot police in Bahrain fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades as they clashed Sunday with hundreds of opposition supporters, some hurling Molotov cocktails, following the politically charged funeral of a 15-year-old boy. ... Police earlier tried to seal off the site of the funeral to prevent crowds from gathering. The opposition says the teenager died Saturday after a tear gas canister fired at close range hit him in the chest." (01/01/12)
http://fxn.ws/vd9nYU"Yemenis are rallying to express their anger over the latest deaths of protesters and to demand the resignation of the country's vice president for failing to bring the killers to justice. Tens of thousands marched Sunday in the capital Sanaa past the office of Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, denouncing him as a 'tool in the hands' of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh." (12/25/11)
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20111225/API/1112250915"A prominent Egyptian blogger freed by an Egyptian judge on Sunday lambasted the military government and said 'nothing has changed' since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power in February. 'It's not the end of the case, that I am out. The real criminals, the generals of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, are still at large and they must be tried,' said Alaa Abd El-Fattah, whose case is pending further investigation." (12/25/11)
http://tinyurl.com/7op4fr2"Egyptian activists have called a mass rally in Cairo on Friday against the army's handling of protests that killed 17 people and drew international criticism of the ruling generals. ... Students have called for Egyptians to join Friday's protest with a march from Cairo's Ain Shams university, two of whose students were among the 17 killed." (12/23/11)
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE7BG00820111223"The U.N. envoy to Yemen says he expects President Abdullah Ali Saleh to honor a deal by officially transferring power to his vice president on Friday and then leave the country for medical treatment. Saleh signed the deal last month after long delays. Some critics fear he won't relinquish the title of president even though his powers already have been transferred to Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi." (12/21/11)
http://tinyurl.com/77wq5qy"As government troops advanced on a village in northwestern Syria, activists say the terrified residents fled into a valley for fear of being arrested or worse. What happened next, one of the activists said, was 'an organized massacre.' The troops surrounded the valley and unleashed a barrage of rockets, tank shells, bombs and gunfire in an hours-long assault, according to two human rights groups and a witness, killing more than 100 people ..." (12/21/11)
http://tinyurl.com/84m24ma"Egypt's Health Ministry says at least three more protesters have been killed in clashes with army soldiers in central Cairo, bringing the four-day death toll to at least 14. ... The clashes have been raging since Friday in and around Tahrir, which served as the epicenter of the popular uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in February." (12/19/11)
http://fxn.ws/tSHpiw"Egypt’s military rulers said Wednesday that they would control the process of writing a constitution and maintain authority over the interim government to check the power of Islamists who have taken a commanding lead in parliamentary elections." (12/07/11)
http://nyti.ms/sqd1pD
Center for a Stateless Society "The Egyptian revolution was not completed in February when Hosni Mubarak stepped down and left power in the hands of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. A cynic would describe this as a transfer of power from one wing of the armed forces to another. The SCAF is willing to share political power with politicians who are eager to share with them, but they appear unwilling to relinquish that power entirely. But there is power in the street too." (11/24/11)
http://c4ss.org/content/9023"Three U.S. students were paraded on Egyptian television on Tuesday after being accused of throwing petrol bombs at police during protests near Cairo's Tahrir Square where demonstrators have been demanding an end to military rule. State television did not give their identities, describing them as 'foreigners.' But the U.S. embassy confirmed that three U.S. citizens were being detained and the American University in Cairo said three U.S. students studying there had been held." (11/22/11)
http://tinyurl.com/6ne83nj"Egypt's state television says the Cabinet has submitted its resignation to the ruling military council but will stay on to run the nation's day-to-day affairs until a decision is made. The resignation of the Cabinet on Monday came amid widening protests against the ruling military. Protesters are demanding that the military quickly announce a date for the handover of power to a civilian government." (11/21/11)
http://www.dailycamera.com/nation-world-news/ci_19381348"The Bahrain government admitted Monday to the use of 'excessive force' against opposition protesters this year days before an independent commission set up by King Hamad al-Khalifa is due to present its findings on police actions. Legal action has been initiated against 20 police officers involved in the mistreatment, a government statement said." (11/21/11)
http://tinyurl.com/7c79tww"Ten people were killed Sunday in confrontations between protesters and security forces in Egypt, a health ministry spokesman said. These fatalities, reported by spokesman Dr. Adil al-Dawi around midnight Sunday, appear to be in addition to two shooting victims -- one in Cairo, one in Alexandria -- from Saturday. The same spokesman said earlier that at least 1,114 people had been injured over the weekend." (11/20/11)
http://tinyurl.com/6roekzj"At least two rocket-propelled grenades hit a building belonging to the ruling Baath party in Damascus on Sunday, residents said, in the first insurgent attack reported inside the Syrian capital since an eight-month uprising began against President Bashar Assad. 'Security police blocked off the square where the Baath's Damascus branch is located. But I saw smoke rising from the building and fire trucks around it,' one witness, who declined to be named, told Reuters." (11/20/11)
http://tinyurl.com/6whgw7z"Police backed by the army used batons and teargas on Sunday to charge protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square demanding Eygpt's ruling generals swiftly hand power to civilians, in some of the worst violence since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. With little more than a week to go before a parliamentary election that starts the process of transition, the state news agency reported three dead in a second day of violence on Sunday and 192 wounded." (11/20/11)
http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=246292"Army defectors ambushed dozens of Syrian troops and regime forces gunned down civilians during one of the bloodiest days of the 8-month-old uprising, which appeared Tuesday to be spiraling out of President Bashar Assad’s control. Up to 90 people were killed in a gruesome wave of violence Monday, activists said." (11/15/11)
http://bit.ly/vrTrmd
Touring tyranny in Bahrain
by Brian Terrell
"That we had come as tourists was true. We had intentionally neglected to mention, though, that we had been invited to Bahrain along with a few other international activists to monitor the government’s response to demonstrations marking the one-year anniversary of Bahrain’s 'Arab Spring' pro-democracy uprising on Feb. 14." (02/21/12)
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