Bahrain commission to investigate army, torture claims, Posted by Meosha Eaton

(Reuters) - A commission tasked by Bahrain to investigate weeks of protests that rocked the Gulf island kingdom said Sunday it would look at the role of the security forces in the unrest and examine charges of torture.

At a news conference marking the launch of the five-member panel's investigation, chairman Cherif Bassiouni said his team would look at 30 police officers being investigated by the Interior Ministry for allegedly not following procedures.

He said the army would also be investigated.

Wade says will learn lesson from Senegal riots, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Senegal leader says will "learn lesson" from protests

* Statement unclear on election plans

* Message follows earlier French warning to Wade

By Diadie Ba

DAKAR, July 7 - Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade has said he must "learn a lesson" from violent protests against his government, but did not specify whether this would alter his controversial plan to stand for re-election.

The message follows a blunt warning earlier this week from former colonial power and close ally France against Wade seeking to cling on to power.

Key political risks to watch in Yemen, Posted by Meosha Eaton

SANAA, June 3 (Reuters) - Fierce fighting in Sanaa between forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his tribal opponents has sent Yemen sliding rapidly towards civil war.

Street battles in the past 10 days have claimed at least 155 of more than 370 lives lost since popular protests demanding an end to Saleh's nearly 33 years in power erupted in January.

Yemen fighting intensifies, US envoy in talks, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Saleh refuses calls to step down

* Troops fire at protesters in Taiz

* Worries mount about risk to global oil supplies

* Refugee crisis may be brewing (Adds airport re-opening, details)

By Mohamed Sudam and Mohammed Ghobari

SANAA, June 2 (Reuters) - Forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh battled with tribal fighters in Yemen's capital on Thursday in overnight clashes that killed dozens as a U.S. envoy flew around the region to try and stop a civil war.

Ferocious fighting in the streets of Sanaa which grew out of protests against Saleh's rule since January has killed

Amman protest calls for release of political prisoners, Posted by Meosha Eaton

AMMAN, JORDAN (MARCH 13, 2011) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
1. VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS NEAR PRIME MINISTRY BUILDING
2. DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING BANNERS
3. YOUNG BOYS HOLDING BANNERS CALLING FOR RELEASE OF PRISONERS
4. BANNER WRITTEN IN ARABIC, READING: "WE CALL FOR THE RELEASE OF PRISONERS"
5. PROTESTERS
6. BOY HOLDING BANNER READING: "RELEASE SHEIKH ABU MOHAMMAD AL-MAQDISI"
7. MAN ADDRESSING CROWD
8. PEOPLE LISTENING

9. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) RELATIVE OF PRISONER, MOHAMMAD, SAYING:
"They are political prisoners and there is actually no reason for their detainment, particularly during such difficult times. If the king, Abu Hussein, releases these people, he would put an end to a crisis and it would be a great service for the Jordanian people."

10. YOUNG BOYS HOLDING BANNERS

11. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FATHER OF TWO POLITICAL PRISONERS, MOHAMMAD HIJAZI, SAYING:
"The government promotes itself as a moderate state with the enemy, the zionist entity, therefore I call on them to use a moderate approach with the prisoners, the ones they refer to as Islamist group prisoners. The killer zionists are not better than my sons and the sons of other Islamist prisoners. I demand the government release them immediately."

12. WOMEN HOLDING BANNERS DURING PROTEST
13. WOMAN HOLDING GIRL DURING PROTEST
14. WOMAN HOLDING BANNER WRITTEN IN ARABIC, READING: "UNTIL WHEN WILL ABU SAYAF AND THE PEOPLE OF MA'AN REMAIN IN PRISON?"
15. BOY HOLDING MASKS WITH ARABIC WRITING, READING: "JWEIDEH PRISON, GENERAL INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT PRISON"

 Hundreds of family members demonstrated near the prime minster's office in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Sunday (March 13) to demand the immediate release of their relatives arrested over alleged ties to banned Islamist groups.

Protesters came from as far as Ma'an, a town located 250 kilometres south of Amman where many political prisoners are being held on terrorism-related charges.

Protesters called on King Abdullah to use his power to grant freedom for detainees, many of whom were tried in military courts.

Hundreds of Salafis, an ultra conservative branch of Islam that strictly follows the teachings of the Prophet Mohammad, are held in prisons across Jordan after being tried in military courts on terrorism related charges.

"They are political prisoners and there is actually no reason for their detainment, particularly during such difficult times," said Mohammad, a relative of one prisoner.
"If the king, Abu Hussein, releases these people, he would put an end to a crisis and it would be a great service for the Jordanian people," Mohammad added.

Many Salafi scholars promote violence, but others have renounced it since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

But some militant groups still claim Salafism as their ideology, despite an iron fisted policy by pro-western authorities in Jordan.

Observers said Jordanian authorities stepped up their anti-Salafi campaign as part of a global war against al-Qaeda and in response to U.S. pressure to quell fundamentalist Islamists.

"The government promotes itself as a moderate state with the enemy, the zionist entity, therefore I call on them to use a moderate approach with the prisoners, the ones they refer to as Islamist group prisoners," said Mohammad Hijazi, who has two sons held in a maximum security prison on terrorism related charges.

"The killer zionists are not better than my sons and the sons of other Islamist prisoners. I demand the government release them immediately," Hijazi added.
Authorities in Jordan have been accused by international human rights groups of discriminating against Islamist detainees.

Oman protesters want information minister sacked, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Cabinet reshuffled twice after protests
* Protestors say information minister should have gone too


By Saleh Al-Shaibany

MUSCAT, March 10 (Reuters) - Omani protestors demanded the sacking of the information minister on Thursday, three days after the sultan removed ten cabinet members to try and address widening discontent in the Gulf Arab state. Responding to calls from protesters to stop widespread corruption, Sultan Qaboos bin Said reshuffled his cabinet for the second time in a week on Monday, and removed the finance and interior ministers, among others.

But protesters said the reshuffle by Qaboos, an absolute monarch in power since 1970, did not go far enough. "The information minister has for years suppressed freedom of the media and he should have been among those ministers who were sacked. We want him to go now," Mohammed Al Hakmani, one of the protesters at the headquarters of the Shura Council, told Reuters.

Popular revolts against oppressive governments and economic hardship have swept through the Arab world over the past two months, unseating entrenched leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and leading to bloody fighting in Libya. Anti-government protests have also hit other Gulf countries, including Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Yesterday, about 200 people gathered at Oman's ministry of information demanding freedom of press and a shake-up of its officials in the state-run radio and television.
"The local press must be able to report any minister who is corrupt and we don't see it happening under the current minister of information," said Faiz Al Badri, another protester in the northeast industrial town of Sohar.

Hamed Al-Rashdi has held the information portfolio for nearly a decade and kept local media under tight control.

The protests in Oman, which briefly turned violent on February 27, have been going on for two weeks. About 50 demonstrators continue to sleep in tents at Sohar's globe roundabout, opposite a large supermarket protesters had looted and burned down. (Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Cairo activists say met by men with knives, Posted by Meosha Eaton

 

CAIRO, March 6 (Reuters) - Egyptian activists demonstrating for reform of Interior Ministry security forces said they were confronted by men in plain clothes armed with knives during a protest at police offices in Cairo on Sunday.

Two activists speaking to Reuters by telephone from the protest said they were trapped by "the thugs".

It appeared to be the first time armed men in plain clothes had deployed in force to confront reform activists in Cairo since the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11.

(Reporting by Marwa Awad; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Peter Millership)

Army fires in air at Cairo protest - witnesses, Posted by Meosha Eaton

CAIRO, March 6 (Reuters) - Egyptian soldiers fired into the air during a protest outside Interior Ministry offices in Cairo on Sunday during a demonstration by activists demanding reform of the security forces, witnesses said.

(Reporting by Marwa Awad; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Peter Millership)

Thousands protest against Lebanon's sectarian system, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Thousands protest outside Lebanon's electricity ministry
* Angry about political sectarian


BEIRUT, March 6 (Reuters) - Around 8,000 people protested in Beirut on Sunday against Lebanon's sectarian political system, chanting the same slogans as demonstrators who toppled presidents in Tunisia and Egypt.

The constitution in Lebanon, which has been without a government since Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri was toppled by Hezbollah and its political allies in January, enshrines a division of power between different religious sects. But critics say the delicate power-sharing has also hindered development, fuelled corruption and entrenched the leaders of Lebanan's various Christian and Muslim factions. "Bread, knowledge, freedom. And no to political sectarianism", one banner at the protest read.

"The people want the overthrow of the system," protesters chanted, echoing the calls which have swept through the Arab world in recent weeks. The demonstration was held outside Lebanon's electricity ministry which protesters said was a symbol of the corruption and inefficiency Lebanon's sectarian system had produced. The ministry is unable to deliver a 24-hour power supply.

Lebanon suffered a 15-year civil war which ended in 1990 and killed 150,000 people. Major sectarian violence, threatening to tip the country into a new civil war, also broke out in 2008. Last Sunday hundreds of people held a similar protest in Beirut along a route that was a frontline during the civil war.

Saudi Arabia detained 22 Shi'ites, activists say, Postd by Meosha Eaton

* Authorities detained at least 22 after Shi'ite protest
* Protests held in oil-producing eastern region

(Adds quote, details in paragraph 9-10)

DUBAI, March 6 (Reuters) - Security forces in Saudi Arabia have detained at least 22 minority Shi'ite Muslims who protested last week over what they say is discrimination, activists said on Sunday.

Saudi Shi'ites have staged small protests for about two weeks in the kingdom's east, which holds much of the oil wealth of the world's top crude exporter. It is also near Bahrain, scene of protests by majority Shi'ites against their Sunni rulers.

"Twenty-two were arrested on Thursday plus four on Friday, so the total is 26. This was all in Qatif," said rights activist Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, who heads the Saudi-based independent Human Rights First Society. A Shi'ite activist in the Shi'ite town of Qatif in the Eastern Province said he knew of 22 arrests. Interior ministry officials could not be reached for comment.

Shi'ite protests in Saudi Arabia started in the area of the main city town of Qatif and neighbouring Awwamiya and spread to the town of Hofuf on Friday. The demands were mainly for the release of prisoners they say are held without trial.

Saudi Shi'ites often complain they struggle to get senior government jobs and benefits given to other citizens. The government of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy without an elected parliament that usually does not tolerate public dissent, denies these charges.

The interior ministry said on Saturday demonstrations violated Islamic law and the kingdom's traditions, according to a statement on state news agency SPA.

"We are really worried by the detentions and harassment that people who take part in protests are facing," a statement by 15 rights activists said on Sunday. "These practices conflict with the right of peaceful association that the kingdom committed to ... at the U.N. Human Rights Council."

The activists said wives and other relatives of around nine men detained since a deadly 1996 attack on U.S. military in Khobar were ejected from the office of the local governor, Prince Mohammed bin Fahd, on Saturday when they tried to petition for their release.

"They met first on Wednesday with an official and he promised they would have a meeting with the governor. But when they went, he declined to meet and security guards intervened," the Shi'ite activist said. The Shi'ite website Rasid said they were verbally abused, as an official told them they were lucky the detainees had not been executed. The women started chanting "freedom, freedom".

The U.S. ally has escaped protests like those in Egypt and Tunisia which toppling regimes but some dissent has built up as unrest spread in other Arab countries and Saudi neighbours Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan and Oman. More than 17,000 people have backed a call on Facebook to hold two demonstrations this month, the first one on Friday.

A loose alliance of liberals, moderate Islamists and Shi'ites have petitioned King Abdullah to allow elections in the kingdom. Last month, Abdullah returned to Riyadh after a three-month medical absence and unveiled $37 billion in benefits for citizens in an apparent bid to curb dissent.

(Reporting by Andrew Hammond; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Gaddafi forces try to retake rebel town near capital, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Residents say gunfight raging since morning
* Rebels pushed back to central square
* "We will fight to the end" - rebel spokesman


By Maria Golovnina

TRIPOLI, March 4 (Reuters) - Security forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi launched an offensive on Friday to retake a town near the capital that has for days been defying his rule, residents said by telephone.

An improvised force of rebels has been pushed back to the central square in Zawiyah, 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, where about 2,000 of them are getting ready to make a last stand, a rebel spokesman said.

"We are on the square, all of our forces are here," said Youssef Shagan. "The square is safe but they (government forces) are attacking from east and west. We will fight until the end."

"They have now started trying to go into the city to try to retake it," he said.
He said three rebel soldiers had been killed and 40 people had been wounded. His account could not be independently verified because reporters' movements in Libya are restricted.

The rebellion in Zawiyah -- the closest rebel-held territory to the capital and also the site of an oil refinery -- has been an embarassment to the Libyan authorities who are trying to show they control at least the west of the country.

US Protesters fear governmets trying to weaken unions, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Labor rights protesters gather around nation
* Protesters fear governments trying to weaken unions
* Thousands of angry workers take the U.S. streets

(Adds details from Los Angeles and Denver)

By Michelle Nichols
NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people protested in Wisconsin on Saturday against a state government push to curb the power of public sector unions, sparking solidarity rallies for labor rights around the United States. Protesters see the proposals as an effort to weaken the labor movement. Other states considering similar proposals include Ohio, Tennessee, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas.

Several thousand protesters gathered in New York City and Los Angeles, about 1,000 people turned out in Chicago, Denver and Columbus, Ohio, several hundred rallied in Austin, Texas, and about 100 people joined a protest in Miami. At the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison, thousands of protesters chanted underneath Republican Governor Scott Walker's office window: "Hey hey, ho ho, Scott Walker has got to go."

"Union busting is wrong," said Joe Soto, a 56-year-old steamfitter from Reedsburg, northwest of Madison.

Wisconsin's state Assembly on Friday approved Walker's proposal to strip public sector unions of most collective bargaining rights. The plan now needs state Senate approval, but Senate Democrats have fled Wisconsin to prevent a vote. The bid by Wisconsin Republicans to try and balance the state budget by rewriting labor laws has turned into a national standoff with Republicans and business interests on one side, and Democrats and union groups on the other.

"When a governor refuses to invest in the people who educate our children and keep us safe, he needs to know this will not stand," actor Bradley Whitford, who played a White House staffer on "The West Wing" TV series and is a Wisconsin native, told the protesters in Madison.

'UN-AMERICAN'
The stakes are high for labor groups because more than a third of U.S. public employees, including teachers, police and civil service workers, belong to unions. Only about six percent of private sector workers are unionized. "We bailed out Goldman Sachs, we bailed out Wall Street, we bailed out GM, but the hell with our teachers, our fire fighters, our nurses, our city workers, our state workers! I'm here because that's unjust, unfair," said Raymond Wohl, a teacher for 20 years, at the Chicago protest.

Doug Frank, 51, said he drove three-and-a-half hours from his home in Crosby to attend the protest in Austin.

"This is finally the one that pushed me over the edge," said Frank, an oil and gas laboratory technician. "What they're trying to do (in Wisconsin) is very heavy-handed; it's un-American," he said. In New York, people waved signs reading "Cut bonuses, not teachers," "Unions make us strong," and "Wall St is destroying America," and wore stickers that read "We are all Wisconsin.

Anne O'Byrne, 44, a philosophy professor at Stony Brook University who brought her daughter Sophia, 2, to the New York rally, said she was disturbed by events in Wisconsin. "If we don't have collective bargaining rights I don't know what's left for workers in America," she said. "It seems important to me to resist any attempt to take away those union rights that have in fact brought us so much over the years."

John Cody, 26, of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, said unions were "under assault" in the United States and some protesters had drawn inspiration from the popular uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

"Egypt is inspiring Americans and labor movements," he said. "Unions need to work like the corporations in some ways in that the world's become a globalized economy so unions need to show acts of solidarity not only across the United States but across the world."

(Additional reporting by James Kelleher, Stefanie Carano and David Bailey in Madison, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Corrie MacLaggan in Austin, Christing Stebbins in Chicago, Jim Leckrone in Columbus and Thomas Brown in Miami, Editing by John Whitesides, Paul Simao and Todd Eastham)