As reported by Reuters:
* Libyans take to streets after protesters killed
* Bahrain opposition bloc snubs king's offer of talks
* Rights group says death toll in Libya now 84
(Updates Bahrain, Libya, adds Yemen, Algeria, UK's Hague)
By Cynthia Johnston and Frederik Richter
MANAMA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Two of the Middle East's most entrenched rulers were battling to quell unrest on Saturday after security forces killed dozens of protesters in Libya and police fired teargas at demonstrators in the Bahraini capital.
Unrest has spread from Tunisia and Egypt to Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Djibouti, as people of one country after another shed their fear of oppressive, autocratic rulers and took to the streets demanding democratic change and economic opportunity. Protesters in Algiers on Saturday were surrounded by police and corralled into a courtyard, pro- and anti-government crowds in the Yemeni capital Sanaa hurled stones at each other, and protesters clashed with security forces in Djibouti.
Libyan security forces killed 35 people in the eastern city of Benghazi late on Friday, Human Rights Watch cited witnesses and hospital sources as saying, in the worst violence of Muammar Gaddafi's four decades in power. Protests against Gaddafi's rule this week, inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, were met with a fierce security crackdown, especially in the restive east around Benghazi. A security source said clashes were still under way on Saturday in the region between Benghazi and Al Bayda, 200 km away, where local people said security forces had killed dozens of people in the past 72 hours.
The area is "80 percent under control ... a lot of police stations have been set on fire or damaged," the source said. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Friday's killings took to 84 its estimate for the death toll in three days of protests, mostly around Benghazi, against a ruling elite accused of hoarding Libya's oil wealth and denying political freedoms. It said the deaths in the city, 1,000 km (600 miles) east of Tripoli, happened when security forces opened fire on people protesting after funeral processions for people killed in earlier violence. There was no official word on the death toll.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Libya to stop using force against protesters and asked Middle East governments to respond to the "legitimate aspirations" of their people.
"I condemn the violence in Libya, including reports of the use of heavy weapons fire and a unit of snipers against demonstrators," Hague said in a statement. "This is clearly unacceptable and horrifying."
In Bahrain, a key U.S. ally and home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, troops and armoured vehicles left a Manama square that had been a base for anti-government protesters, hours after opposition groups rejected a royal call for dialogue unless the military stood down.
Police firing teargas beat back the few demonstrators who tried to move back into their former stronghold in Pearl Square after the army pullout. The crown prince, charged by King Hamad on Friday with opening a dialogue with the protesters, announced that all troops had been ordered off the streets and that police would maintain order. The announcement met one of the conditions for talks spelt out by a Shi'ite ex-lawmer of the main Shi'ite opposition bloc, Wefax, which quit parliament on Thursday.
Ibrahim Mattar told Reuters the authorities must "accept the concept of constitutional monarchy" and pull troops off the streets before a dialogue could begin. "Then we can go for a temporary government of new faces that would not include the current interior or defence ministers," he said.
The government is led by the Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa dynasty, but the majority Shi'ite population has long complained about what it sees as discrimination in access to state jobs, housing and healthcare, a charge the government denies. The United States and top oil producer Saudi Arabia see Bahrain as a Sunni bulwark against neighbouring Shi'ite regional power Iran.
The spreading unrest -- particularly worries about its possible effects on the world No. 1 oil producer, Saudi Arabia -- helped drive Brent crude prices higher this week before other factors caused them to slip on Friday.
It was also a factor in gold prices posting their best weekly performance since December.
Analysts say a key difference between Libya and Egypt is that Gaddafi has oil cash to smooth over social problems. He is also respected in much of the country, though less so in the Cyrenaica region around Benghazi.
"There is no national uprising," said Noman Benotman, a former opposition Libyan Islamist based in Britain but currently in Tripoli. "I don't think Libya is comparable to Egypt or Tunisia. Gaddafi would fight to the very last moment," he said by telephone from the Libyan capital.
In Yemen, supporters and opponents of the government threw stones at each other and fired shots in the air in Sanaa, a day after five people were killed and dozens wounded in clashes in several towns between security forces and crowds demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule. Saleh, a U.S. ally against a Yemen-based al Qaeda wing that has launched attacks at home and abroad, is struggling to end month-old protests flaring across his impoverished country. In Algiers, police in riot gear crammed some 500 protesters into the courtyard of a residential block before they could reach May 1 Square in the city centre.
The main opposition parties did not take part in the banned protest, which was organised by human rights groups, some trade unionists and a small opposition party.
This, like other recent demonstrations in Algeria for democratic change and better economic conditions, was too small to rattle the authorities, but there have been signs that pressure is building within the ruling group for substantial change, including a new government line-up.
The political uprising sweeping through the Middle East has also reached the tiny Horn of Africa state of Djibouti, where anti-government protesters clashed with security forces on Saturday for the second day running.
On Friday, thousands of protesters called for the removal of President Ismail Omar Guelleh, whose family has held sway in Djibouti since independence in 1977. Guelleh took office in 1999 and is expected to run for a third term in April 2011.
Djibouti, a former French colony between Eritrea and Somalia, hosts France's largest military base in Africa and a major U.S. base. Its port is used by foreign navies patrolling busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia to fight piracy. Unemployment runs at about 60 percent.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, William Maclean in London and Saleh Al-Shaibany in Muscat; Writing by Tim Pearce, )
* Libyans take to streets after protesters killed
* Bahrain opposition bloc snubs king's offer of talks
* Rights group says death toll in Libya now 84
(Updates Bahrain, Libya, adds Yemen, Algeria, UK's Hague)
By Cynthia Johnston and Frederik Richter
MANAMA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Two of the Middle East's most entrenched rulers were battling to quell unrest on Saturday after security forces killed dozens of protesters in Libya and police fired teargas at demonstrators in the Bahraini capital.
Unrest has spread from Tunisia and Egypt to Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Djibouti, as people of one country after another shed their fear of oppressive, autocratic rulers and took to the streets demanding democratic change and economic opportunity. Protesters in Algiers on Saturday were surrounded by police and corralled into a courtyard, pro- and anti-government crowds in the Yemeni capital Sanaa hurled stones at each other, and protesters clashed with security forces in Djibouti.
Libyan security forces killed 35 people in the eastern city of Benghazi late on Friday, Human Rights Watch cited witnesses and hospital sources as saying, in the worst violence of Muammar Gaddafi's four decades in power. Protests against Gaddafi's rule this week, inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, were met with a fierce security crackdown, especially in the restive east around Benghazi. A security source said clashes were still under way on Saturday in the region between Benghazi and Al Bayda, 200 km away, where local people said security forces had killed dozens of people in the past 72 hours.
The area is "80 percent under control ... a lot of police stations have been set on fire or damaged," the source said. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Friday's killings took to 84 its estimate for the death toll in three days of protests, mostly around Benghazi, against a ruling elite accused of hoarding Libya's oil wealth and denying political freedoms. It said the deaths in the city, 1,000 km (600 miles) east of Tripoli, happened when security forces opened fire on people protesting after funeral processions for people killed in earlier violence. There was no official word on the death toll.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Libya to stop using force against protesters and asked Middle East governments to respond to the "legitimate aspirations" of their people.
"I condemn the violence in Libya, including reports of the use of heavy weapons fire and a unit of snipers against demonstrators," Hague said in a statement. "This is clearly unacceptable and horrifying."
In Bahrain, a key U.S. ally and home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, troops and armoured vehicles left a Manama square that had been a base for anti-government protesters, hours after opposition groups rejected a royal call for dialogue unless the military stood down.
Police firing teargas beat back the few demonstrators who tried to move back into their former stronghold in Pearl Square after the army pullout. The crown prince, charged by King Hamad on Friday with opening a dialogue with the protesters, announced that all troops had been ordered off the streets and that police would maintain order. The announcement met one of the conditions for talks spelt out by a Shi'ite ex-lawmer of the main Shi'ite opposition bloc, Wefax, which quit parliament on Thursday.
Ibrahim Mattar told Reuters the authorities must "accept the concept of constitutional monarchy" and pull troops off the streets before a dialogue could begin. "Then we can go for a temporary government of new faces that would not include the current interior or defence ministers," he said.
The government is led by the Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa dynasty, but the majority Shi'ite population has long complained about what it sees as discrimination in access to state jobs, housing and healthcare, a charge the government denies. The United States and top oil producer Saudi Arabia see Bahrain as a Sunni bulwark against neighbouring Shi'ite regional power Iran.
The spreading unrest -- particularly worries about its possible effects on the world No. 1 oil producer, Saudi Arabia -- helped drive Brent crude prices higher this week before other factors caused them to slip on Friday.
It was also a factor in gold prices posting their best weekly performance since December.
Analysts say a key difference between Libya and Egypt is that Gaddafi has oil cash to smooth over social problems. He is also respected in much of the country, though less so in the Cyrenaica region around Benghazi.
"There is no national uprising," said Noman Benotman, a former opposition Libyan Islamist based in Britain but currently in Tripoli. "I don't think Libya is comparable to Egypt or Tunisia. Gaddafi would fight to the very last moment," he said by telephone from the Libyan capital.
In Yemen, supporters and opponents of the government threw stones at each other and fired shots in the air in Sanaa, a day after five people were killed and dozens wounded in clashes in several towns between security forces and crowds demanding an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule. Saleh, a U.S. ally against a Yemen-based al Qaeda wing that has launched attacks at home and abroad, is struggling to end month-old protests flaring across his impoverished country. In Algiers, police in riot gear crammed some 500 protesters into the courtyard of a residential block before they could reach May 1 Square in the city centre.
The main opposition parties did not take part in the banned protest, which was organised by human rights groups, some trade unionists and a small opposition party.
This, like other recent demonstrations in Algeria for democratic change and better economic conditions, was too small to rattle the authorities, but there have been signs that pressure is building within the ruling group for substantial change, including a new government line-up.
The political uprising sweeping through the Middle East has also reached the tiny Horn of Africa state of Djibouti, where anti-government protesters clashed with security forces on Saturday for the second day running.
On Friday, thousands of protesters called for the removal of President Ismail Omar Guelleh, whose family has held sway in Djibouti since independence in 1977. Guelleh took office in 1999 and is expected to run for a third term in April 2011.
Djibouti, a former French colony between Eritrea and Somalia, hosts France's largest military base in Africa and a major U.S. base. Its port is used by foreign navies patrolling busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia to fight piracy. Unemployment runs at about 60 percent.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, William Maclean in London and Saleh Al-Shaibany in Muscat; Writing by Tim Pearce, )
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