Syria, Yemen (And Beyond): Switching From West to East

The scene at the "victory party" outside of the Al Nahda party headquarters in Tunisia

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2216 GMT: A protest in the Damascus suburb of Zamalka tonight:

And a march from the Al-Rifai mosque in Kafarsouseh:

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Libya Snapshot: The TV Producer Keeping Qaddafi on the Air (Black)

Former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi may be getting a bad press these days, but there is one media figure who is still a fan. Meet the man who is keeping Muammar --- wherever he might be --- on the air....

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Libya Feature: The Caterer, The Memory Stick, and the Fall of Qaddafi's Tripoli (Nakhoul)

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime was delivered by a caterer, on a memory stick.

Abdel Majid Mlegta ran the companies that supplied meals to Libyan government departments including the interior ministry. The job was "easy," he told Reuters last week. "I built good relations with officers. I wanted to serve my country."

But in the first few weeks of the uprising, he secretly began to work for the rebels. He recruited sympathizers at the nerve center of the Gaddafi government, pinpointed its weak links and its command-and-control strength in Tripoli, and passed that information onto the rebel leadership on a series of flash memory cards.

The first was handed to him, he says, by Gaddafi military intelligence and security officers. It contained information about seven key operations rooms in the capital, including internal security, the Gaddafi revolutionary committees, the popular guards --- as Gaddafi's voluntary armed militia was known -- and military intelligence.

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Libya LiveBlog: Disappearing and Re-Appearing Qaddafis

Insurgents take control of Muammar Qaddafi's compound, ripping his portrait and climbing atop a statue marking the 1986 US attack on Tripoli

See also Libya Snapshot: An Anecdote about Khamis Qaddafi, the Arab Spring, and 3 Cold-Blooded Killings
Libya Audio: Scott Lucas on BBC "Assessing Latest in Tripoli...And What's Next"
Monday's Libya LiveBlog: The Last Push Against Former Leader Qaddafi

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2100 GMT: Luke Harding of The Guardian offers a night-time summary of the situation in Tripoli:

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Overwhelmed by Protests

2115 GMT: More night demonstrations in Syria, first in Homs, then in Kafranbel in the northwest:

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Libya Interview: Qaddafi's Son Saif Al-Islam "We Will Ally with Radical Islamists" (Kirkpatrick)

After six months battling a rebellion that his family portrayed as an Islamist conspiracy, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s son and one-time heir apparent said Wednesday that he was reversing course to forge a behind-the-scenes alliance with radical Islamist elements among the Libyan rebels to drive out their more liberal-minded confederates.

“The liberals will escape or be killed,” the son, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, vowed in an hourlong interview that stretched past midnight. “We will do it together,” he added, wearing a newly grown beard and fingering Islamic prayer beads as he reclined on a love seat in a spare office tucked in a nearly deserted downtown hotel. “Libya will look like Saudi Arabia, like Iran. So what?”

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Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Hello to Ramadan, Hello to Turmoil

Despite violence, a large crowd protests last night in Lattakia, Syria.

See also Syria Video Essay: 1st Day of Ramadan was a Day of Chaos
Egypt Video Special: Military Breaks Up Tahrir Square Sit-In
Live Audio From Hama: Shelling Continues for Second Night

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2056 GMT: We close the liveblog with this last collection of audio and video. We will be collecting night protest videos and posting them either late tonight or early tomorrow. {Editor's note --- collection now moved to separate entry, "Syria Video Special: Another Defiant Night of Ramadan Protests".]

2015 GMT: A loud, and large, group of protesters leave a mosque and pour into the streets of Midan, in the heart if Damascus tonight:

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Control or Retreat?

"Friday of Departure" in Syria: Protesters carry a massive flag through Assi Square, Hama.

See Also our Video Entry: Syria - Watching the Friday Protests - Set 1 and Set 2

1900 GMT: The New York Times reports that the Gaddafi regime lost hundreds of millions of dollars in investment funds managed by western banks.

Western companies were only allowed to deal with Libya between 2004 and 2011. This raises two, probably academic, questions: why did Western companies have such a bad track record with Libyan money, and if the rebels win can we thank them?

1816 GMT: Friday prayers on 60th Street in Sana'a, Yemen, once again turned into protests, as clerics leading the prayers called on Vice President Hadi to make more concessions to the demands of the opposition.

The UN fact-finding mission in Yemen is reporting that they have been granted access to protesters, and the government is cooperating with the mission. The team is expected to be finished with their investigation on July 6th.

1800 GMT: The LA times is reporting that the rebels are now within 50 miles from the Libyan capital, Tripoli. The rebels now occupy Bir Ghanam, halfway between Zintan and the large city of Aziziya. Rebels are concerned about potential civilian casualties in Aziziya, as they expect Gaddafi to use the civilians as human shields.

1742 GMT: Andy Carvin has uploaded a video to go with his report (below), showing a man injured in the violence in Tahrir Square.

1730 GMT: Though we're still updating and adding to the videos, our second set from today's protests in Syria is up and running. So far, we have video from Basr al Harir (south), Qamishli (northeast), Mayadin (east), Zabadani (southwest), Idlib in the northeast, and a massive demonstration in Assi Square in Hama.

1717 GMT: More from Andy Carvin, where violence has erupted in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt:

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Libya, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Maintaining the Pressure

Tanks surround Jisr al-Shughour in northwest Syria

2015 GMT: A protest in Idlib Province in northwest Syria condemns military occupations:

1925 GMT: Back from a break to find that Spain has expelled the Libyan Ambassador, Ajeli Abdussalam Ali Breni, "because the Qaddafi regime has lost all legitimacy due to its continual repression of the Libyan population."

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Finding the Dead

Candle-lit demonstration in the Damascus suburb of Saqba last night

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2045 GMT: Activists says Lebanon has detained at least two Syrian soldiers who crossed the border to escape clashes between security forces and protesters.

The soldiers reportedly fled after opening fire on regime troops attacking civilians near a border checkpoint that they were manning. One soldier is said to have been killed.

2040 GMT: Libyan officials said they have been trying unsuccessfully to contact Minister of Oil, Shukri Ghanem, who has reportedly defected (see 1030 GMT), for the past 24 hours.

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