Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Cease-Fire?

2115 GMT: The New York Times summarises the context of the three-year sentence handed down today to blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad by an Egyptian military court.

And this is the post in March that got Nabil Sanad into trouble, as he queried whether the Egyptian military --- which he accused of torturing protesters --- was really on the side of the people.

2005 GMT: A statement from the office of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said today that he is ready for a "peaceful" and constitutional transfer of power, a day after the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council states urged him to hand over power to his Vice President.

The statement said, "In compliance with statements (he) made several times...his excellency the President has no reservation against transferring power peacefully and smoothly within the framework of the constitution....[He] "welcomes efforts exerted by brothers in the Gulf Cooperation Council to help in finding a solution for the current crisis in Yemen."

The statement stopped short of saying whether Saleh accepted the GCC proposal to hand power to his deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi: "The Yemeni Republic stresses that it will deal positively with the statement as a base for dialogue."

Saleh had defied the GCC in a speech to his supporters on Friday, saying that he would not accept foreign interference to determine Yemen's future.

2000 GMT: More on the story of Syrian military personnel slain in Baniyas this weekend....

Josh Landis, who runs the blog Syria Comment, writes that two Lieutenants Colonels and 10 military personnel were killed and more wounded on Sunday. One of the dead colonels is the cousin of Landis's wife.

Landis writes that the rumour is that supporters of former Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, forced to resign in 2005, are behind the attack.

1945 GMT: UNICEF, the UN children's agency, has said that at least 20 children, mostly under the age of 10, have been killed in the Libyan city of Misurata in the past month. Many more have been injured by gunfire or shrapnel from mortars and tank shells.

A battle to control the city has been waged for more than six weeks. An opposition spokesman said that shelling by regime troops killed five people and wounded about 20.

1655 GMT: Hundreds of students have rallied in the Syrian capital Damascus to express solidarity with pro-democracy protesters killed over the weekend.

The protest at Damascus University was broken up by security forces who beat up and arrested several students. Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria's National Organisation for Human Rights, said one student died after he was shot.

Meanwhile, amidst the news of the Syrian military locking down the coastal city of Baniyas after weekend protests, this note tucked away in an Associated Press story:

The government blames the violence on armed gangs rather than true reform-seekers and has vowed to crush further unrest. Backing up that contention, state television reported that thugs were behind the killing of nine policemen in an ambush near Banias, which is 185 miles (300 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Damascus.

The report said gunmen hiding among trees along a road shot at police, and it broadcast images later of and ambulance and other civilian vehicles coming under fire along the same road.

1555 GMT: And now the response from the head of the opposition National Transitional Council, Mahmoud Jibril, to the approach of the African Union, including a cease-fire in Libya:

This proposal today was determined more than a month ago, the initiative comes in line with the resolutions of the UN Security Council - including the ceasefire, protection of civilians, and granting the freedom of the Libyan people to determine their future....

Colonel Qaddafi during this time [this past month] did not respect these resolutions and continued to bombard civilians from the air and artillery shelling. He laid siege with militia forces and positioned security personnel in plain clothes and snipers on rooftops - which cannot allow the Libyan people to determine their future.

For more than one month, he has disregarded the UN resolutions.

You are aware how many deaths and injuries have occured this month. You are also aware how many material assets have been destroyed, how many oil fields wrecked. Therefore, this proposal presented today is outdated.

We are also aware the demands of our people from day one is that Gaddafi must step down. Therefore, any initiiative which does not include this key popular demand will not be regarded.

Muammar Gaddafi and his sons should depart immediately. If he will, to save himself, otherwise the flood of the Libyan people is heading its way to him.

We cannot negotiate the blood of our martyrs. We will die with them or be rewarded with victory.

1550 GMT: Back from filming for an American documentary on the CIA and US media to find the latest from Libya....

Despite Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's supposed acceptance of a cease-fire initiative from the African Union, regime forces have reportedly continued the bombardment of Misurata, Libya's third-largest city.

Human Rights Watch reports from medical sources that hospitals in Misurata have documented about 250 deaths over the past month, most of them civilians.

Libyan authorities have released a second Al Jazeera reporter. Ahmed val ould Eddin, a Mauritanian national, was captured in Libya last month with three colleagues by regime forces.

Two of the four journalists are still in custody.

1000 GMT: An Egyptian military court has sentenced blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad to three years in prison.

A journalist reports reports that the court had promised to postpone the verdict until Tuesday but delivered it once's Nabil Sanad's lawyers left the hearing.

Nabil Sanad was arrested on 28 March over an article he posted on his blog. He was accused of insulting the military, spreading false information, and disturbing public security.

0910 GMT: Reports indicate the Libyan opposition will reject a cease-fire offer from an African Union delegation without a withdrawal of regime forces from towns, release of political prisoners, and international monitoring as talks begin for a transitional government.

0555 GMT: After a successful propaganda campaign which curbed the country's only independent newspaper, the Bahraini regime is now trying to take down Nabeel Rajab, the president of Bahrain's Center for Human Rights.

On Sunday, Rajab was referred to Bahrain's military prosecutor for publishing a photograph of a protester, Ali Isa Saqer, who died in custody (see Sunday's updates about last week's deaths of two demonstrators in detention). Officials claim the image is fabricated.

Saqer, 31, died on Saturday, according to the general director of Muharraq Governorate Police. Authorities said Saqer, charged with the attempted murder of policemen by driving his car at them, was causing trouble at the detention centre, and when security forces sought to subdue him, he resisted them and sustained injuries. He was sent to the hospital, where he later died.

Rajab's photograph, published on his Facebook page, showed Saqer with multiple cuts on his front and back and heavy bruising across his body and face. Bahrain's Interior Ministry published two photos which it claimed were of Saqer ---- the face was blacked out and there were only minor cuts and bruising.

A CNN documentary film team which recently went to Bahrain was detained by security forces in the street outside Rajab's house and questioned for six hours and released. The team was released but warned not to film anything else without permission.

Rajab was also briefly detained at the end of March.

0550 GMT: Video of opposition fighters in Misurata firing at regime forces:

0545 GMT: With the military lockdown of Syrian cities such as Daraa and Baniyas, less news comes out of the country this morning. Yesterday's most striking claim was that four people had died in Baniyas as the military took control of the coastal city amidst protests.

0430 GMT: The headline story this morning from Libya is the declaration from a delegation of African Union leaders, following their meeting with Muammar Qaddafi, that the Libyan leader has accepted a "road map" for a settlement, including a cease-fire and protection of civilians; humanitarian aid for Libyans and foreign workers, especially Africans; and a transitional period with talks and political reforms which "meet the aspirations of the Libyan people".

For that to occur, however, NATO has "to cease the bombing... and give the cease-fire a chance", according to South African President Jacob Zuma, and it is far from clear that this pause will take place. On Sunday, there was fierce fighting around and in opposition-held Ajdabiya. Most reports spoke of battles inside the city, but regime forces then pulled back after taking heavy losses from NATO bombing.