Libya, Syria (& Beyond) LiveBlog: US-Libyan Talks for Qaddafi Departure

1940 GMT: Protest tonight in Al Dair on the northern coast of Bahrain:

And in Sanabis:

1910 GMT: Protest today in a Damascus neighbourhood:

Tonight's demonstration in Amuda in the northeast, "Long live Syria, down with Assad":

And a large rally tonight in Jabal al Zawye in the northwest:

1710 GMT: We have been getting unconfirmed reports all afternoon of casualties as security forces fired on protesters at a funeral procession in Homs. Activists have said that at least 10 people were killed, including the mother of a man who was slain on Monday.

Al Jazeera English's Rula Amin said mourners had chosen a location for today's funerals which was "a bit far away from where the security was deployed --- they wanted to avoid friction with the security forces". However, it appears security forces were present at the Khaled bin Al-Walid mosque as well. Amin reported, "They (the protesters) were surprised by the spray of gunfire. of live bullets that were and...they left the protest running, without burying the dead."

Video before the clash and during the gunfire:

1400 GMT: More footage from demonstrations in Syria on Monday, in Idlib in the northwest and in Harasta outside Damascus:

1230 GMT: A protest in Taiz in Yemen today, condemning yesterday's attack on a march in the capital Sana'a:

1120 GMT: Spencer Ackerman speaks with Ahmed Maher, a co-founder of Egypt's 6 April Youth Movement, and reports on divisions in the organisation:

Some of Maher’s old comrades seeing him as a bit of a dictator himself. “There was no internal democracy,” Tarek El-Khouly, the leader of another faction — reportedly larger than Maher’s — told the magazine. “There was no transparency. [Ahmed Maher] wouldn’t tell us if he was getting foreign funds.”

That’s something Maher denies — strenuously. “No, no, no,” he says. He doesn’t take any foreign cash. He seemed to deny knowing El-Khouly in our call, even though El-Khouly has been widely quoted for months as an April 6 leader.

“There are persons who represent the government and these groups [Mubarak's old party, the National Democratic Party] trying to make problems for April 6,” he says. “I think this guy in this magazine, he helped them by spreading these rumors.”

But Maher raised eyebrows when U.S. reporters — including me — got emails from an Los Angeles PR firm called the Levine Communication Office talking up Maher. Steve Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations contended, “Perhaps they don’t understand how their engagement of an American public relations firm might look to their fellow Egyptians.” That is: inauthentically Egyptian.

Issandr El Amrani, one of the top journalists covering the Egyptian revolution,...e-mails, “in the current Egyptian media environment this is a dangerous thing, there is a lot of sensitivity about the U.S. and accusations thrown at April 6 that it is accepting foreign funding, etc. So they should have an explanation ready about why they’re doing this.”

1050 GMT: Claimed footage of a protest in Homs in Syria as the military increased pressure on the city --- 13 people were reportedly killed on Monday and Tuesday by security forces (see 0910 GMT):

A video has been posted of gunfire over the city at 5 a.m. local time.

0910 GMT: According to a Syrian human rights activist, security forces shot dead 13 civilians Monday and Tuesday in Homs, Syria's thrid-largest city.

“Thirteen civilians were killed yesterday and today in several parts of Homs when the army opened fire as it carried out an operation in the city," said Rami Abdel Sharaf, the head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Another activist had said on Monday night that several coaches packed with security force personnel entered the Khalidiya neighborhood of Homs, shooting dead a civilian and wounding four others.

0905 GMT: Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf was admitted to a  Cairo hospital late Monday, suffering from exhaustion. His spokesman said Sharaf had not suffered a stroke, as initially reported earlier.

Sharaf was released after a series of medical tests. He has reportedly consultations to present a new government.

Earlier Monday, 14 of 27 ministers were replaced in a Cabinet reshuffle.

0815 GMT: We start this morning with a headline story about Libya.

The US State Department has confirmed that American officials have met in the Tunisian capital Tunis with representatives of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, claiming that Washington delivered a "clear firm message that the only way to move forward is for Qaddafi to step down".

The department spokesman said the three-hour meeting took place on Saturday. The three-person delegation included Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman and, according to another source, Gene Cretz, the US Ambassador to Libya.

The State Department would not say who represented the Qaddafi government

An American official said the meeting was initiated by the US following contact by Libyan representatives: "Senior officials in the Qaddafi regime had over a period of weeks made repeated calls to senior officials in the U.S. and in those conversations they evinced an incorrect sense that somehow the United States was in a different place from other members of the international community and that the U.S. could see a future for Qaddafi in Libya."

The meeting followed Washington's decision on Friday to formally recognise the opposition National Transitional Council as the legitimate interim government of Libya.

The Libyan regime confirmed the talks on Monday. "We support any dialogue, any peace initiative as long as they don't decide Libya's future from without, they decide it from within," spokesman Ibrahim Moussa told journalists in Tripoli. "If any country involved in this aggression against us wants to revise its position and genuinely wants peace and democracy in Libya, come to us and we will discuss everything, but do not condition your peace talks. Let Libyans decide their future."