Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Conflicting Claims Over Palestinian Who Died in Israeli Custody

See also Middle East Opinion: What "Lincoln" Shows Us About Personal Politics in the Gulf States
Syria Live Coverage: Civilian Deaths in Aleppo
Saturday's Mali (and Beyond) Live Coverage: At Least 78 Killed in Fighting in North

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Ahmad Jaradat1848 GMT: Mali. Another ten Chadian soldiers have been killed in combat with insurgents in northern Mali's mountainous border with Algeria, Chad's army said on Sunday.

On Friday, 13 Chadian soldiers were slain in fighting around what one senior commander said was an insurgent base of "significant importance". At least 93 insurgents have been killed so far, according to the Chadian military.

The casualties are the heaviest suffer by African troops since a French-Malian offensive cleared insurgents from towns and cities earlier this month.

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Mali (and Beyond) Live Coverage: At Least 78 Killed in Fighting in North

A car bomb in Tessalit in Mali on Friday (see 0750 GMT) (Photo: AFP)

See also Syria Live Coverage: Opposition Boycotts International Talks Over Aleppo Deaths
Friday's Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Parliamentary Elections set for April-June

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1755 GMT: Tunisia. Thousands of protesters rallied today against Prime Minister-designate Ali Larayedh.

President Moncef Marzouki asked Larayedh of the Ennadha Party, the leading faction in the ruling coaltion, to form a Government on Friday.

Outgoing Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned on Tuesday because Ennahda rejected his plan for an apolitical technocrat Cabinet to prepare for elections.

Opposition secularists accuse Larayedh of leading a Ministry of Interior which has failed to curb Islamist violence.

About 3000 demonstrators marched on Tunis' main street Habib Bourguiba raising banners hostile to the Ennahda party and Larayedh and chanting, "Larayedh out" and "The people want to bring down the regime".

Meanwhile, Larayedh has tried to assemble a new Cabinet. Fights are expected over the posts of Justice and Foreign Ministers, which independents are demanding for their preferred candidates.

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Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protests Continue in Port Said

One of this week's protests in Port Said in Egypt

See also Syria Live Coverage: Multiple Bombings in Damascus
Wednesday's Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Clashes Continue as Regime Claims Arrest of "Iran-Iraq-Lebanon Terror Cell"

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1910 GMT:Egypt. President Morsi will call a Parliamentary election, to be held in three or four stages, starting in April.

"The president will issue a decree soon, it could be tonight, calling for elections to start in April," a source in his office told Reuters.

1900 GMT:Morocco. Reporters Without Borders has condemned the 10-month prison sentence handed down last week to citizen journalist Mohamed Attaoui on the charge of “working as a local official despite being suspended”.

Attaoui was arrested on 21 January in town of Tounfite north-central Morocco while photographing homes that are unfit for habitation for a report he intended to publish.

The president and general secretary of the Tounfite Group, a grass-roots association to which Attaoui belongs, were also arrested and have been sentenced to a year and eight months in prison, respectively.

Following his arrest, Attaoui was placed in solitary confinement and was not allowed a visit from his wife until 18 February.

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Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Clashes Continue as Regime Claims Arrest of "Iran-Iraq-Lebanon Terror Cell"

"Third-day" funeral of 16-year-old Hassan AlJazeeri, killed by police on Thursday night

See also Syria Live Coverage: A "Humanitarian Tragedy"
Tuesday's Tunisia (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Plan for New Government Collapses

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1755 GMT: Saudi Arabia. Thirty Saudi women have become the first female members of the Shura Council, as they were sworn in before King Abdullah at his palace in the capital Riyadh.

The women are among 160 members of the advisory body.

"The development we are working at must be gradual," King Abdullah said. He recommended that the Council show "realism" in its discussions and allow "reason to prevail in issues [with which] it has to deal".

On 11 January, the King appointed the women, who include university graduates, human rights activists, and two princesses.

1749 GMT: Palestine. The Forum of Palestinian journalists has criticised Israeli forces for detaining three Palestinian journalists on Tuesday in Bethlehem.

The three men are Mamdouh Hamamreh, a reporter for the Al-Quds satellite channel; Samer Hamad, a cameraman for Palmedia news agency, and Abdul-Rahman Younos, a reporter for Al-Quds.com.

The arrests follow the claimed abduction of Mohamed Saba’na, a political caricaturist for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper, after his return from a ocnference in Jordan.

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Tunisia (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Plan for New Government Collapses

Tunisia PM Hamadi Jebali2123 GMT: Bahrain. Meanwhile, the regime claims that their police were attacked by rioters and vandals, some of whom threw molotov cocktails:

(14) صور لأعمال الشغب والتخريب على شارع البديع في ختام عزاء متوفى بالديه twitter.com/moi_bahrain/st…

— Ministry of Interior (@moi_bahrain) February 19, 2013

2110 GMT: Bahrain. The Bahraini government is saying that it has arrested 8 members of a terror cell suspected of plotting against the government. Here is part of the press release, which can be read in full here:

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Lebanon (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The US Goes After Hezbollah

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses a Beirut crowd via video link on Ssturday (Photo: Bilal Hussein/AP)

See also Syria Live Coverage: Hezbollah Emerges in the Conflict
Sunday's Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Thousands March as Clashes Continue

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1503 GMT: Libya. Police chief Abdel-Salam el-Barghathi has said four detained foreigners have been accused of espionage in addition to proselytising Christianity.

The group --- a Swedish-American, a South Korean, a South African, and an Egyptian --- was arrested last week in the eastern city of Benghazi with tens of thousands of copies of literature about Christianity in their possession.

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Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The 2nd Anniversary of Mubarak's Fall

11 February 2011: The crowd in Cairo's Tahrir Square reacts to news of Hosni Mubarak's resignation

See also Syria Live Coverage: Fighting Escalates Near Damascus
Sunday's Tunisia (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Prime Minister Threatens Resignation if New Cabinet Not Accepted

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2030 GMT: Egypt. Clashes continue at the Presidential Palace --- Sherine Tadros of Al Jazeera English tweets:

Police firing tear gas at protesters #presidentialPalace #Egypt twitter.com/SherineT/statu…

— Sherine Tadros (@SherineT) February 11, 2013

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Tunisia (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Prime Minister Threatens Resignation if New Cabinet Not Accepted

See also Syria Live Coverage: Assad Changes His Ministers Amid Economic Crisis
Saturday's Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Overnight Clashes In and Beyond Cairo

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1900 GMT: Mali. French and Malian troops fought running gun battles with Islamist insurgents in northern town of Gao today.

The French-Malian force took the town earlier this month, as insurgents --- who had moved in last April --- withdrew.

Gunfire broke out in the area of the central market and police station, hours after French and Malian forces reinforced a checkpoint that had been attacked for the second time in two days by a suicide bomber.

French helicopter gunships flew overhead.

"Islamists who have infiltrated the town are trying to attack our positions, but we're fighting back," a Malian army officer said. Another Malian soldier said one group of rebel infiltrators had come in on motorbikes.

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Israel, Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Israelis Arrest More than 20 Hamas Members in West Bank

1458 GMT: Israel. The Israeli Defense Forces has failed to adequately investigate complaints of abuses by IDF soldiers against Palestinians, according to a human rights group. Haaretz reports:

Of the 240 complaints regarding possible crimes committed by Israel Defense Forces soldiers against Palestinians filed with the Military Police in 2012, only 78 investigations were launched and not a single indictment was served, a report by the Yesh Din human rights group has revealed.

0800 GMT: Mali. Two senior Islamist insurgents, including a top leader of the group Ansar Dine, have been captured in the north, near Mali's border with Algeria.

The Tuareg separatist group MNLA said it arrested Mohamed Moussa Ag Mohamed and Oumeini Ould Baba Akhmed on Saturday

Ag Mohamed is the third-ranking leader of Ansar Dine, which controlled Timbuktu for 10 months until French and Malian Government forces moved in last week.

Baba Akhmed is believed to be a member of the Movement for Unification and Jihad in West Africa.

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Israel, Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: UN Declares Jewish Settlements in West Bank "Illegal"

2220 GMT: Egypt. The protesters in front of the Presidential Palace appear to be settling in for a long and drawn out battle:

Protesters moving back towards prez palace,dragging sheets of metal,cylindrical police pods anything they can get their hands on #Egypt

— Bel Trew - بل ترو (@Beltrew) February 1, 2013

#csf appeared to have withdrawn back towards gates of prez palace. Protesters building barricade. Extraordinary #Egypt

— Bel Trew - بل ترو (@Beltrew) February 1, 2013

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