Recap of developments in Middle East, North Africa

AFP, Saturday 19 Feb 2011

Saturday's developments in the unrest sweeping the Middle East and North Africa

Here are Saturday's developments in the unrest sweeping the Middle East and North Africa following uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia that toppled their longtime rulers.

LIBYA: The death toll from three days of demonstrations in Libya has reached at least 84, Human Rights Watch says, as the protest movement in the east of the north African nation begins to look like an all-out revolt.

BAHRAIN: The Bahraini opposition rejected an offer of dialogue from the authorities saying it would join talks only after the cabinet quits and troops behind a bloody crackdown leave the streets.

YEMEN: One protester was shot dead and five wounded in clashes with Yemeni government supporters near the capital Sanaa's university campus, an AFP correspondent reported.

ALGERIA: About 200 protesters braved riot police in a central square of Algiers chanting "Algeria free and democratic" and "People want the fall of the regime" mimicking the slogans used in Egypt's regime-toppling demonstrations.

DJIBOUTI: Fresh clashes broke out between opposition supporters and police in Djibouti, a day after an unprecedented anti-regime protest ended in violence, an AFP correspondent reported.

SAUDI: Human Rights Watch called on Saudi Arabia to free five activists who announced amid the turmoil shaking the Middle East that they were forming the kingdom's first political party.

EGYPT: Egypt's military warned it would not tolerate protests that disrupt the economy after several hundred thousand Egyptians thronged Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to celebrate a week since Hosni Mubarak's fall.

IRAN: Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main Iran opposition leader whose rebellion against the government has rocked the Islamic republic, is now completely cut off from the outside world, his website reported on Friday.

JORDAN: A mob wielding batons waded into an anti-regime protest in Amman on Friday, injuring eight people in the first such violence since protests began in Jordan, witnesses and medics said.

KUWAIT: At least five people, including a security man, were hurt and dozens arrested on Friday as Kuwaiti riot police clashed with hundreds of stateless Arab protesters demanding rights.

SYRIA: Hundreds of Syrians staged an impromptu protest against security forces after traffic police beat a young man in the capital's Old City, a Dubai-based website reported on Friday.

TUNISIA: Tunisia's caretaker government granted amnesty to political prisoners and new aid to the poor Friday as it moved to counter simmering discontent a month after the ouster of its strongman president.

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