Hamza Kashgari, a Saudi Arabian columnist who made comments on Twitter deemed to be insulting the Prophet Muhammad, was arrested in Malaysia after fleeing his country. He may be extradited to Saudi Arabia, where calls for his death are mounting.
Yemeni protesters gathered outside New York’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel to protest the arrival of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. With repression continuing and the vice president in seclusion, many fear Saleh is continuing to run the country from afar.
At least 200 were killed in the Syrian city of Homs as security forces pursued their campaign to take back opposition-held areas. Meanwhile, authorities tightened their grip of Hama as residents recalled the 1982 massacre of some 20,000 there.
Two people were shot dead by police in Suez and more than 400 injured in protests across Egypt, as armed Bedouin tribesmen meanwhile abducted 25 Chinese workers in the Sinai Peninsula and seized control of a resort complex.
Four Hezbollah militants accused in the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri will be tried in absentia, before the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon at The Hague, given the failure of authorities to apprehend the suspects.
The Free Syrian Army is taking control of territory just outside Damascus, while the US and allies protest Russian arms sales to Assad’s regime. IWPR interviewed one activist in rebel territory who called for NATO intervention.
At least 20,000 marched in Istanbul carrying signs reading “We are all Armenian” to mark five years since the murder of prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink—and to protest the lack of justice in his case.
A Russian naval flotilla led by an aircraft carrier docked in the Syrian port of Tartus in what Damascus hailed as a show of solidarity by Moscow—as NATO member Turkey broached military intervention in the conflicted Arab nation.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay again condemned the brutal crackdown on protesters by military and security forces in Cairo, where 11 people have been killed in repression over the past four days.
The opposition has called an ongoing general strike, civil disobedience campaign and election boycott in a bid to bring down the Assad regime—but called for the Free Syrian Army to halt attacks on the security forces.
As Egypt’s military rulers say they will appoint a council to oversee the drafting of a new constitution to balance the influence of Islamists, pro-secular protesters demand a broad-based, all-civilian “national salvation” government.
Reports from Homs suggest an outbreak of sectarian killings, with numerous bodies—many tortured or mutilated—left on the streets. A pro-government militia called the Shabiha is apparently arming Alawite militants and attacking Sunni protesters.
