Egypt Feature: "The One Citizen" --- Political Prisoner Maikel Nabil's Powerful Critique

See also Egypt Special: Are Writing and Walking Really Such a Threat to the Regime?
Egypt Video: Alaa Abd-El Fattah Speaks Out After Release from Prison

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I am not addressing myself to the military, for they are advancing toward their end like the enchanted, ignoring all indications of their fate. I am addressing myself to society, a society that was taught to accept the violation of One Citizen’s rights for the greater good of the community, as if the power that oppresses one will be able to later respect the rights of the community. This society that has accepted the displacement of the Nubian community in the name of national interest, that has accepted the expulsion of Egyptian Jews, the confiscation of their property, the revoking of their nationality, in the name of the interests of the majority. The same society that has sequestered gay rights, that has limited the individual freedoms of individuals under the guise of maintaining the family system and the interests of the greater society. It is time for the 85 Million to understand that their freedom is tied to the freedom of that One Citizen, that all freedom is lost once they allow the wolf to choose the first victim from amongst the herd, that they cannot regain the freedom of society unless every One Citizen is free.

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Egypt Feature: The Political Battle Beyond Cairo (Bohn)

Election Day in Assiut, November 2011Assiut feels far away from the famed epicenter of Tahrir Square. The oft-neglected peripheral region of Upper Egypt (the cultivated valley of the Nile from Cairo in the north to Aswan, 535 miles south) has been plagued by institutional apathy for years, long dismissed as a dead-end, from where one travels to the capital for work and never returns. When Egypt's contentious de-facto leaders, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), speak of a silent but loyal majority, or "liberals," fret about the backward religious and violence-prone rural areas, they have cities like Assiut in mind. But the reality is far more complicated. Assiut and Tahrir are bound together by personal connections and shared concerns -- inextricable ties that suggest a far more nuanced emerging Egypt than is generally felt from the central nerve of Cairo.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Assad "It Wasn't Me"

See also Western Journalists Inside Syria: A Video Record of Everyday Crimes

Bahrain, Uzbekistan (and Beyond) Special: Bell Pottinger, PR Agency for the Regimes, is Busted
Bahrain Feature: Today's Revival of Mass Protests
Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Uncertainty and Deaths in Homs

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2131 GMT: We close the LiveBlog with this report, just 22 minutes old:

"very huge EXPLOSION just hit the southern part of #Syria n central city of #Homs . . my windows were horribly shaking"

Looks like it will be another violent Friday in Syria...

2005 GMT: The new Egyptian interior minister has pledged not to use teargas or live ammo against protesters:

Major General Mohamed Ibrahim Yusuf, the former director of security in the Giza governorate, told the local Arabic newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm that he will not use the gas or any firearms on protesters.

Yusuf was selected by new Prime Minister Kamel al-Ganzouri, who was chosen by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to form a new government after the previous one resigned as a result of the Tahrir Square violence.

We don't have the heart to tell Yusuf that the interior ministry has already made that pledge, and SCAF has denied attacking protesters.

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Sorting Out "Shameless Acts of Terror"

Syrian activist/blogger Razan Ghazzawi, Egyptian activist/blogger Alaa Abd-El Fattah, and Bahraini activist/blogger Ali Abdulemam, photographed in Budapest in 2008 --- Ghazzawi was detained this weekend, Abd-El Fattah is in prison, and Abdulemam is in hiding from a 15-year sentence

See also Saudi Arabia Feature: 16 Reformists Given Long Prison Sentences
Syria Feature: The Arrest of Activist Razan Ghazzawi
Sunday's Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Actress's Message

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2214 GMT: As we close the LiveBlog, we turn to Yemen. Reuters confirms the news that at least 1 civilian was killed by soldiers today in Taiz:

Tanks, armored vehicles and opposition fighters left some areas of Taiz, a hub of 10 months of unrest against Saleh's 33-year rule, but gunmen and snipers remained and had fired on demonstrators, witnesses said.

"Both sides violated the ceasefire agreement. We were marching peacefully and they (Saleh's forces) shot at us yet again," medical student Hamoud al-Aklamy told Reuters.

Activists, right now, are reporting loud explosions in various neighborhoods of the capital city, Sana'a. Every time it appears as though things in Yemen are calming down, something happens to remind us that in Yemen, just like in many places in the region, Arab Spring is far from over, despite the fact that it is now about to enter its second year.

2205 GMT: Protesters are still conducting a sit-in protest in Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital Cairo, demanding that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces release all political prisoners. The demonstrators have announced that they will allow traffic to flow again in the square, while continuing the sit-in.

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Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Prosecution Creep?

Human rights activist Razan Zaitouneh sends a video message from hiding in Damascus, "We face one of the most brutal regimes in the region and in the world"

See also Bahrain Feature : How The Regime Is Restoring Peace, The American Way
Syria Opinion: Why There Should --- And Will --- Be a No-Fly Zone
Friday's Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) Liveblog: A United Front

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1900 GMT: A mass protest tonight in the Karam al-Shami section of Homs in Syria:

1855 GMT: Bahraini activist Zainab Alkhawaja criticises the regime's appointment of John Yates, former Assistant Commission of London's police (see 1325 GMT), to "reform" the kingdom's law enforcement:

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Egypt Analysis: Assessing the Elections (El Amrani)

An Activist Hands Out Leaflets to VotersWhat we saw today — so far at least — is that even amidst public uncertainty about the future, split public opinion on Tahrir and SCAF, and organizational chaos, the Egyptian people are eager to participate in the democratic process that may have real meaning for the first time in their lives. They are sharing in the fruits of the revolution, with pragmatism and hope, and testing whether the change is real. I don't see the high turnout (or what we think is a high turnout as we await official data) as a sign of support for SCAF. It's a sign of support for the democratic process and hope for its improvement.

That is a testimony of the Egyptian people's seriousness. But it does not change the fact that these elections were prepared with staggering, perhaps even malicious, incompetence and on that basis alone should not have been held, and that the transition blueprint in general is a bad one.

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Egypt Q&A: Why Is There A "Revolution Reignited"? (Elazul)

Why are they going to Tahrir (and other squares) now?

Because something is wrong:

When there is no security after 9 months .... despite billions being spent on the police,  something wrong.

When they say the chaos will continue until a president is elected in 2013, something is wrong.

When until today, not a single pound of the money stolen by the regime has been returned, Something is wrong.

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Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Protest Creep

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Activist Zainab Alkhawaja (@angryarabiya) stands in front of police after security forces attacked a protest in A'ali in Bahrain

Bahrain 1st-Hand: How Activist Zainab Alkhawaja Defied the Police...And Escaped Arrest

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2114 GMT: After losing an appeal, it appears as though Libya's former Prime Minister, Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, will be extradited from Tunisia to Libya to face trial. However, the move could still be blocked when the new government takes over in Tunisia:

It was unclear whether Tunisia's incoming president, who is a former head of the country's best-known human rights group, would sign the order. Al-Mahmoudi's lawyers have also appealed to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, asking them to grant him a status of political refuge.

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Egypt LiveBlog: One Week Later....

1959 GMT: Despite concessions, speeches, and a new prime minister, this is the scene in Tahrir Square, Cairo, this evening, as thousands remain to protest:

1954 GMT: Egypt's new prime minister will have more power than his predecessor, a concession to the protesters, perhaps, but will it be enough to alleviate their fears and frustrations?

Kamal el-Ganzouri, 78, served as prime minister between 1996 and 1999 and was deputy prime minister and planning minister before that. He also was a provincial governor under the late President Anwar Sadat.

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Egypt LiveBlog: The Fighting Resumes

Men form a protective circle around a woman, amidst reports of abuse by security forces of female protesters

See also Egypt Analysis: So What Happens Now?
Egypt LiveBlog: The Fighting Resumes
Wednesday's Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Report of the Commission of Inquiry

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1700 GMT: News has just arrived that Kamal Ghanzouri has been appointed as the new prime minister of Egypt by SCAF. Ghanzouri is a former prime minister, who served under ex-President Hosni Mubarak from 1996 to 1999 and has a PhD from the University of Michigan. 

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