Arab revolt spreads: Shoe throwing recahes Libya, Bahrain Yemen...

[General Duke]

Bahraini protesters wave their national flag and chant slogans as they gather at Manama's Pearl roundabout today.

 

Bahrain protesters hold ground

Anti-government protests continue in tiny kingdom, despite apology by king for the deaths of two demonstrators

[General Duke]

Hundreds of anti-government protesters have clashed with police overnight in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. The protests were reportedly triggered by anger at the arrest of a human rights campaigner.

 

Meanwhile, Libyan state television said rallies were being held across the country in support of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

 

The online edition of Libya's privately owned Quryna newspaper, which is based in Benghazi, reported that demonstrators had petrol bombs and threw stones.

 

It said a crowd protested outside a local government office to demand the release of the activist, and then went to the city's Shajara square where demonstrators clashed with police and government supporters.

 

Government supporters have now taken over the square, according to reports. Fourteen people were injured including 10 police officers, but none of the injuries was serious, the newspaper said.

 

A Benghazi resident said the people involved in the clashes were relatives of inmates in Tripoli's Abu Salim jail, where militant Islamists and government opponents were usually held.

 

"Last night was a bad night," said the witness, who did not want to be identified. "There were about 500 or 600 people involved. They went to the revolutionary committee (local government headquarters) in Sabri district, and they tried to go to the central revolutionary committee ... They threw stones," he said, adding, "It is calm now."

 

Libyan state television showed footage of a rally of government supporters in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Participants chanted slogans accusing Qatar-based television news channel al-Jazeera – which was instrumental in revolts in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt – of broadcasting lies.

[Dhagax-Tuur]

Last time I checked Somalia is still part of the Arab family of nations - in support of the revolt of my brethren in North A and the Arab peninsula I want to throw my shoe at Faroole, Sharif et al.

 

Anyone for some shoe-throwing fun?

 

Take one.....pls.

[General Duke]

^^^Somalia is part of thje Arab world. Dictators Mubarak, Ghadafi and Omar Gulleh of Djibouti have played a major role in keeping Somalia in its dire state. One down, two to go...

[General Duke]

Abdelhamid Mehri, one of the last surviving leaders of Algeria's war of independence against France, has written a letter to the country's president calling for radical constitutional reform.

 

In the letter, obtained by Reuters, Mehri said that Algeria's form of government is "no longer capable of addressing the big challenges facing the nation," and comparing it to the governments of Tunisia and Egypt in having "a democratic facade but exclude, through different means, a large part of the citizens from participating in public life".

 

Reuters's Lamine Chikhi reports from Algiers:

 

Mehri's words carry weight because he was a leading figure in Algeria's struggle against French colonial rule and helped forge the country's identity after independence.

 

Mehri, who is 84, is one of only two Algerians still alive who negotiated the Evian Treaty, which ended France's 130-year colonial rule after a war of independence that killed hundreds of thousands of people.