Libya, Yemen and Middle East unrest- latest updates

• President Saleh makes dramatic return to Yemen • Palestinian statehood goes to the UN • Gaddafi’s PM arrested in Libya 1.30pm: Amnesty International says it believes an 18 year old is the first woman known to have died in custody during Syria’s current unrest, a claim being reported widely . The rights group said the family of Zainab al-Hosni found her mutilated body in a morgue in the central city of Homs while searching for the body of her activist brother. Amnesty said she was abducted by what appeared to be plainclothes security forces on 27 July, seemingly to pressure her brother to hand himself in. Philip Luther from the organisation said: If it is confirmed that Zainab was in custody when she died, this would be one of the most disturbing cases of a death in detention we have seen so far. 1.24pm: A tweet from Brian Whitaker has pointed me to this fascinating story from Reuters , which recounts the work in Beghazi of “super-fixers”, the well-connected and shadowy private envoys seeking to connect foreign oil companies with Libya’s new regime. 1.04pm: In Bahrain , the kingdom’s leading Shia cleric has been scathing about tomorrow’s parliamentary by-elections, an indication of the religious divides which underpin the tensions. Addressing worshippers at a mosque in the opposition stronghold of Diraz, Sheik Isa Qassim said: There is a class of society under repression and there are obstacles at every turn, blocking their voice. This is fake democracy. 1.02pm: This is Peter Walker, taking over temporarily from Lizzy. AP is citing Syrian activists as saying security forces have opened fire on anti-Assad protesters in the central city of Homs, killing one man. 12.48pm: Here’s a lunchtime summary of developments across the region: Yemen • President Ali Abdullah Saleh has urged battling factions in Yemen to call a cease-fire , saying in a statement that the only way out of country’s crisis was negotiations. The call came hours after he flew back to Yemen after four months in Saudi Arabia , prompting thousands of his supporters to turn out to a pro-Saleh rally in Sana’a. • In the north of the city, thousands of anti-Saleh protesters have thronged Change Square. They are preparing for a big rally this afternoon, with many saying that the return of the president will merely fan the flames of unrest. Activists have reported that at least six protesters have been shot in Sana’a today, and that one man has been shot dead by a pro-government sniper in Taiz. (See 11.49am.) • Protests have spread far beyond the capital today, according to campaign group Avaaz. They reported that demonstrations are being held today in 17 of Yemen’s 21 provinces, including Taiz, Aden, Hodieda, Baitha, and Dhammar provinces. Bahrain • Anti-government activists are preparing to take to the streets again in demonstrations timed to coincide with tomorrow’s by-elections in the lower house of parliament (see 9.56am) . A foreign observer tweeting under the name @in_bahrain reports that the February 14 opposition group has called for the protest to begin at 3pm local time. Organisers have said they aim to move back to the Martyrs Square- the spot formerly known as Pearl Roundabout where protesters were shot and killed in March. • A senior Shiite cleric has criticized the Gulf kingdom’s Sunni rulers for practising what he says is “fake democracy” ahead of parliament elections. AP reported that Sheik Isa Qassim gave a sermon at Friday prayers in which he said the elections were meaningless. He was speaking in the opposition stronghold of Diraz, northwest of the capital Manama, it added. Libya A spokesman for the NTC has confirmed that an interim government line-up will be announced within days. (See 11.38am.) Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told Reuters there would be 22 ministerial portfolios and a vice-premier. Palestinian territories There are only hours to go now before Mahmoud Abbas submits his bid for Palestinian statehood to the UN. Shortly after he makes a speech before the general assembly, the Palestinian president is expected to hand over a letter stating his request. And shortly after that Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is scheduled to speak: he is likely to chastise the bid as harmful to the (largely dormant) peace process. You’ll soon be able to follow all the day’s events on a Guardian live blog hosted by my colleagues in New York. Syria The European Union has said it is imposing an investment ban in the Syrian oil sector to put more pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. (See 11.58am.) EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said it would aim to reinforce the ban on Syrian crude oil imports agreed earlier this month. Last night, at the UN, David Cameron called for the international community to toughen its stance on Syria, calling on members of the Security Council to pass a resolution. 12.40pm: AP reports that Yemen’s President Saleh has called for a cease-fire, saying the only way out of the crisis is through negotiations. In a statement from his office, Saleh also urged political and military figures to adopt a truce. More as soon as we have it. 11.58am: The European Union has agreed on an investment ban in the Syrian oil sector to put more pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, AP reports. EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Friday that the new measure seeks to reinforce the ban on Syrian crude oil imports agreed on Sep. 2. Friday’s additional measures also include a ban to deliver bank notes to the Syrian Central Bank and travel and visa bans on more officials linked to the regime. The U.N. has estimated that some 2,600 people have already been killed during the suppression of anti-government protests. In case you missed it, David Cameron spoke at the UN last night of the need for tougher diplomatic action – specifically for a Security Council resolution- on Syria. In his first speech to the UN since becoming prime minister, he said: We have a responsibility to stand up against regimes that persecute their people. We need to see reform in Yemen, and above all, on Syria, it is time for the Members of the Security Council to act. We must now adopt a credible resolution threatening tough sanctions. 11.49am: Campaign group Avaaz , which has contact with eye-witnesses, medical staff, military personnel and human rights activists in Yemen, has released its daily update on the situation on the ground. It reports that: • Nearly a million pro-democracy youth protesters have turned out in Sana’a to call on Saleh to stand down. • Six protesters were shot, two critically injured, when government forces opened fire, according to a medic in Change Square, Mohammed al-Qubati. He said: They’re shooting live ammunition at protesters…This is Saleh’s welcome gift to his people. • Since the arrival of Saleh last night, fierce clashes have been taking place in Sana’a between the Republican Guards and pro-democracy military of the 1st division. • Protests have spread well beyond the capital, with millions of people taking part in demonstrations in 17 of Yemen’s 21 provinces, including Taiz, Aden, Hodieda, Baitha, and Dhammar provinces. • One protester was killed in the Zaid al-Moshiki district of the southern city of Taiz early this morning when he was shot by a pro-government sniper, according to eye witnesses. 11.38am: Reuters reports that an interim government in Libya is to be announced within days. Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, a spokesman for the NTC, is quoted as saying: We’ve agreed on a number of portfolios and who would hold the most important ones. There will be 22 portfolios and one vice premier. It would be a compact government, a crisis government. This appears to back up Mahmood Jibril’s statement earlier this week that the new government would be named within 10 days. As was remarked then, drawing up a list of ministers deemed inclusive in a country divided along tribal lines could be a tricky business. 11.25am: “Sana’a is truly a divided city”, tweets the Guardian’s Tom Finn from the Yemeni capital. “Huge crowds just a few miles apart from each other supporting and deriding Saleh’s return.” Finn is on his way to a rally in support of newly-returned President Saleh, where he says thousands are “waving flags, shouting ‘thank god you arrived safely’.” But, as he reported earlier (see 9.26am) , hundreds of thousands are expected to turn out to an anti-Saleh demo later on today. 11.12am: They all had relatives who died in the battle to topple Gaddafi, and now they are calling on the NTC to honour its commitment to look after them. Al Jazeera has this interesting report from Tripoli on the demands for compensation from the families of the victims of the revolution. . 10.55am: Sana’a seems to be convulsed with rumour and speculation about the intentions of the President. Earlier this morning, a Dubai-based television channel broadcast unconfirmed reports that Saleh had come home simply in order to stand down. However al-Jazeera is now saying that one of the President’s advisers has rejected this idea. Saleh, he said, plans to remain president and resolve the nation’s turmoil through political channels. That would seem to concur with a report from the Xinhua news agency which quotes an unnamed source as saying Saleh will deliver a speech later today in which he will announce measures designed to end the crisis in Yemen. 10.22am: The situation in Bahrain is very tense, according to @in_bahrain, an anonymous Twitter user who describes themselves as a foreign observer in the country . Here’s a series of their latest Tweets, with the most recent first: Hearing a lot of “down down Hamad,” and protests haven’t even started yet. Just visited a few homes, each one had either a large box or sack full of spent tear gas canisters and other “non lethal” weapons. #Bahrain is on lock down with police everywhere. Situation very tense. Sound of helicopters is constant. Lots of police checkpoints on roads, but only outside Shia areas according to activists. Police choppers take to the skies early in #Bahrain. Still looking for Bahraini preparing to vote this weekend. However, I did meet plenty ready to protest. Based on discussions w/ activists, I have a feeling Bahrainis will put their country back on the map of Arab revolutions tomorrow. 10.08am: For many world leaders it is a welcome moment in the limelight, but for Lilia Labidi, Tunisia’s new minister of women’s affairs, the UN General Assembly proved dispiriting and a bit of a drag. According to the New York Times, she decided to go home after realising the world’s focus had moved on from the Arab Spring . The paper reports: For Lilia Labidi, minister of women’s affairs since the Tunisian revolution in January, her first giddy exposure to the United Nations rapidly dissipated. Her own appeal to the gathering for help in consolidating gains for women in Tunisia elicited little reaction, with Mrs. Clinton, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and various other female heads of state sweeping out of the meeting on empowering women without stopping for even a hello. Ms. Labidi, although a guest of the United Nations, decided to go home. “I cannot live here in such luxury,” she said, noting that the $700-a-day cost of her staying in New York would be better spent on a project for rural women. “To the degree that the Arab Spring is important, one would have wanted more than a warm welcome and a group photograph — what am I bringing back to the Tunisian women?” she said over breakfast in a Midtown Manhattan coffee shop. “The attention of the world has to be much more engaged in our region.” Ms. Labidi, a soft-spoken professor of anthropology and clinical psychology, said she found it frustrating that the question she was asked the most by people had little bearing on her projects, like improving girls’ access to elementary school. The question she heard over and over: What effect will the revolution have on Tunisian attitudes toward the Arab-Israeli conflict? 9.56am: Opposition activists in Bahrain are calling people to take part in protests today and tomorrow timed to coincide with by-elections for 18 of the 40 seats in the lower house of parliament. The February 14 Coalition, an opposition group, has urged people to march on Martyr’s Square, the site formerly known as Pearl Roundabout and the scene of March’s bloody crackdown. The Economist warns today that “another violent confrontation is quite likely”. The leader of the opposition Al-Wefaq party is quoted by CNN as telling an an opposition rally in Tubli, a village south of Manama: When we talk about democracy, we want democracy like that of Westminster, France, and America, not the democracy of Saddam Hussein, nor the democracy of Zine El Abidine, nor the democracy of Gaddafi. 9.26am: Here’s the latest update on Saleh’s return from Tom Finn in Sana’a. Opinions are mixed, he reports, on what the wily president- and the protesters urging him to go- will do next: President Ali Abdullah Saleh flew back into Yemen in the early hours of this morning. With no electricity in Sana’a, word of Saleh’s arrival spread by the sound of gunfire with his supporters across the capital firing kalashnikovs and heavy artillery into the air. Most of the streets are empty with Yemenis staying indoors for fear of being hit by stray bullets. The timing of Saleh’s return was described to me by a Yemeni analyst who did not wish to be named as “a characteristic Saleh move”. He told me that Saleh’s aim is to “suddenly emerge in a time of crisis so as to appear a saviour and peace keeper.” He also speculated that Saleh would probably resign “within days” in an effort to excuse his surprise return and calm the situation. Other believe it will have the opposite effect. Faizah Suleiman, a female protester leader from the coordinating council at Change Square- the tented protest camp in the heart of the capital- said she expected the president’s return to coincide with an even more brutal crackdown on Change Square, “if we’re still alive we’ll march this afternoon.” Another protester named Adel said that Saleh’s reappearance was “dangerous” but would “breathe new life” into the eight month protest movement which until recently was threatening to grow stale. He said thousands of people would march through the streets who would otherwise have stayed in their houses. The gravest concern of all is that Saleh’s sudden reappearance will draw Yemen’s powerful tribal leaders into the ongoing fighting. When Saleh was airlifted to Saudi Arabia for treatment after his mosque was bombed in June, Sadeq Al-Ahmar, the grizzly-bearded sheikh at the head of Yemen’s most influential tribe, the Hashed, swore “by God” that he would never let Saleh rule again. The last time hostilities between the Saleh and Ahmar families turned violent, in May, a week’s worth of mortar battles erupted, flattening an entire neighborhood in the capital’s east and killing hundreds on either side. There are already reports that clashes have broken out in and around the neighbourhood where Sadeq Al-Ahmr lives, in addition there are thousands of Ahmar’s rebel tribesmen and renegade troops loyal to defected general Ali Mohsin roaming the capital. What we may witness today is a battle for the capital. A number of Western diplomats in Sana’a have told me they had “no clue” that Saleh was going to come back today. Even members of the Saleh’s ruling party were kept in the dark suggesting it may have been a spontaneous move by the leader. Rumours are circulating that Saleh will appear this afternoon at a massive pro-government rally near his palace in the city’s West. But most of the attention will be on the north of the capital where hundreds of thousands are expected to gather for Friday prayers and a mass march to denounce his return. 8.55am: Welcome to Middle East Live. As has become the theme of the week, Yemen looks set to be the focus for today. But here’s a round-up of the major developments across the region: Yemen • President Ali Abdullah Saleh has flown back to Yemen after months recovering from injuries sustained in a June attack on his compound. The dramatic move comes at the end of a week which has seen the worst bout of violence in the eight-month uprising. Nearly 100 people are believed to have died. • Some protesters are predicting Saleh’s surprise return will fan the flames of the unrest in the capital Sana’a. AP reports that fighting has continued after his arrival, with heavy clashes and thuds of mortars heard throughout the night and into this morning. The Guardian’s Tom Finn writes: The timing of Saleh’s return was described to me by a Yemeni analyst who did not wish to be named as “a characteristic Saleh move”, he told me that Saleh’s aim is to “suddenly emerge in a time of crisis so as to appear a saviour and peace keeper.” He also speculated that Saleh would probably resign “within days” in an effort to excuse his surprise return and calm the situation. Other believe it will have the opposite effect. Faizah Suleiman, a female protester leader from the coordinating council at Change Square (The tented protest camp in the heart of the capital) said she expected the president’s return to coincide with an even more brutal crackdown on Change Square, “if we’re still alive we’ll march this afternoon.” Another protester named Adel said that Saleh’s reappearance was “dangerous” but would “breath new life” into the eight month protest movement which until recently was threatening to grow stale. He said thousands of people would march through the streets who would otherwise have stayed in their houses. The gravest concern of all is that Saleh’s sudden reappearance will draw Yemen’s powerful tribal leaders into the ongoing fighting. When Saleh was airlifted to Saudi Arabia for treatment after his mosque was bombed in June, Sadeq Al-Ahmar, the grizzly-bearded sheikh at the head of Yemen’s most influential tribe, the Hashed, swore “by God” that he would never let Saleh rule again. Libya • Muammar Gaddafi’s last prime minister has been arrested in Tunisia , becoming the most senior member of the former Libyan regime to be detained since the government’s overthrow. Ian Black in Tripoli reports : Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi was caught near the country’s border with Algeria and jailed for six months for illegal entry. He is likely to be handed over to Libya to face investigation, however, since the Tunis government recognises the new ruling NTC in Tripoli. • The United States has reopened its embassy in Tripoli. Speaking to journalists after the flag-raising, Ambassador Gene A. Cretz raised the subject of oil . He told them: We know that oil is the jewel in the crown of Libyan natural resources, but even in Qaddafi’s time they were starting from A to Z in terms of building infrastructure and other things” [after the country had begun opening up to the West six years ago.] If we can get American companies here on a fairly big scale, which we will try to do everything we can to do that, then this will redound to improve the situation in the United States with respect to our own jobs. Palestinian territories Mahmoud Abbas will submit his bid for recognition of Palestinian statehood to the United Nations later today. The Palestinian leader is expected to hand over the letter seeking to join the UN shortly before he addresses the general assembly to plead the case for admission. You’ll be able to follow all the developments in this story on a separate live blog manned by my colleagues in New York. Middle East Yemen Libya Syria Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk

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