Travel bans, a push for harsh sanctions, criminal investigations, and more anti-government protests – another week of chaos is underway in the Arab world. Here is a look at the latest.
YEMEN
On Monday, tens of thousands of protesters gathered across Yemen, from the capital Sanaa to disparate regions where separatists or Shi'ite rebels hold sway, chanting slogans such as, “No dialogue, no dialogue. You leaving is the only option.”
Yemen's opposition will not join a unity government expected to be offered by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, saying on Monday it was standing with popular demands for an end to his three-decade rule.
“The opposition decided to stand with the people's demand for the fall of the regime, and there is no going back from that,” said Mohammed al-Sabry, a spokesman for Yemen's umbrella opposition coalition.
LIBYA
Muammar Gadhafi has appointed the head of Libya's foreign intelligence service to speak to the leadership of the eastern region, which is no longer under the Libyan leader's control, al Jazeera TV reported.
Monday's broadcast report, which quoted one of al Jazeera's correspondents, named the head of the foreign intelligence service as Bouzaid Dordah.
A spokesman for the newly formed National Libyan Council, based in the eastern city of Benghazi and which has described itself as the face of the revolution, said on Sunday he saw no room for negotiation with Gadhafi.
About 400 people protested against Gadhafi in the Tajoura district in the east of the capital Tripoli on Monday, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.
Soon after, several sports utility vehicles pulled into the square where the protest was taking place and the occupants, wearing green bandanas, jumped out and fired into the air in an attempt to disperse the protest.
Protesters dispersed once a brigade of pro-Gadhafi fighters rushed to the scene, scattering before the gunmen could fire a shot, a witness said.
There were attempts to restore aspects of normalcy in the capital, residents said. Many stores downtown reopened, and traffic in the streets increased.
Sons of Gadhafi have failed to persuade prominent Saudi clerics to issue religious rulings against a revolt that is threatening to bring down the veteran leader, Al Arabiya television said on Monday.
The Saudi-owned channel said on its website that Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam had contacted one cleric, Salman al-Awda, and Saadi Gadhafi had reached out to a second, Ayedh al-Garni, but both rejected their calls.
“You are killing the Libyan people. Turn to God because you are wronging them. Protect Libyan blood, you are killing old people and children. Fear God,” Garni said he told Saadi.
LIBYA - REACTION
• U.S. repositions forces – The U.S. military is repositioning naval and air forces around Libya, a Pentagon official said Monday, as international demands intensify for an end to Gadhafi's decades-long rule.
It is moving some armed forces in the region near Libya in case they're needed, but is not saying what they might be needed for.
• France sends rebels aid – France announced it is sending two planes with humanitarian aid to Libya's opposition stronghold of Benghazi on Monday, in what its prime minister described as the start of a “massive operation” to push Moammar Gadhafi from power.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the planes would leave “in a few hours” for the eastern city of Benghazi with doctors, nurses, medicines and medical equipment.
“It will be the beginning of a massive operation of humanitarian support for the populations of liberated territories,” he said.
• Exile for Gadhafi? – Going into exile would be one option for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in meeting international demands that he leave power, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.
Carney, asked by reporters whether the United States would help facilitate exile for Gaddafi, said this was a bit of speculation that he would not discuss.
• Atrocity accountability? – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is imploring the world to hold Gadhafi's regime to account for gross atrocities that include reports of executing soldiers for refusing to turn their guns on their fellow citizens.
Clinton made the plea for the international community to speak with a single voice at Monday's session of the UN Human Rights Council. She said that Gadhafi must leave power “now, without further violence or delay.”
• Attacks – Kenyans and Nigerians fleeing unrest in Libya said on Monday they faced attacks and hostility from Libyan citizens and officials who branded them as mercenaries supporting Gadhafi's rule.
A Kenya Airways flight landed in Nairobi with 90 Kenyans on board, and 64 other people from South Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Burundi, officials said.
• Blair rebuffed – Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Monday's edition of The Times newspaper that he made two telephone calls to the embattled dictator last week, but that the message that he should resign was rebuffed. He described the Libyan leader as being in denial about his situation
• Cut off from oil–The European Union says that Libya's Gadhafi no longer controls most of oil and gas fields.
Libya's oil chief said Monday that production had been cut by around 50 per cent, and argued it was “safe” for foreign oil workers to return after a mass exodus sparked by Gadhafi's increasingly violent campaign to retain control of the country.
• No-fly zone? – The United States pressed its European allies on Monday to set tough sanctions on the Libyan government, while doubts emerged about the feasibility of a proposed no-fly zone to prevent Gadhafi's regime from launching aerial attacks against protesters.
Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that Britain would work with allies on plans to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya to protect its people from military attacks by Gadhafi's government.
“We do not in any way rule out the use of military assets,” Cameron said.
• Travel sanctions – The European Union has agreed to sanctions against Libyan strongman Gadhafi, including an arms embargo, asset freeze and visa ban.
• Criminal investigation – The International Criminal Court said Monday it has been in contact with Libyan army officers to gather information about civilian deaths during the uprising against Gadhafi's regime, and pledged “no impunity” for anyone found to have committed crimes against humanity.
An ICC prosecutor said on Monday he hoped to complete a preliminary examination of the violence in Libya in a few days before opening a full investigation.
• EU evacuations – The European Union says that most of the 10,000 EU citizens in Libya have left, but there are still 650 asking to be evacuated.
EU Crisis Response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said Monday the remaining EU nationals are often in tough areas to reach, making their rescue difficult.
• Risky evacuation – The Philippine's new foreign secretary personally led a risky convoy to Libya's capital from neighbouring Tunisia, successfully evacuating 400 Filipino workers trapped by the violence there, a spokesman said Monday.
Albert del Rosario, who was appointed acting foreign secretary only last week, flew into Tunisia and on Sunday led a 55-vehicle convoy to Tripoli with two other diplomats to bring back the workers, the foreign affairs department said.
• Al Qaeda support – Osama bin Laden's deputy sought to co-opt the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia in a new message, urging the countries' peoples to create Islamic states and warning that the United States is trying to manipulate the events to ensure American and Israeli interests are preserved.
QATAR
Gadhafi should take a “brave decision” to avoid more bloodshed and destruction in Libya, Qatar's prime minister said on Monday, in a rare Arab call on the Libyan leader to resign.
“It is not too late for a decision. It is impossible for anyone to win in this revolution but the Libyan people,” said Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, urging a solution that would reduce bloodshed and suffering and avert the destruction of Libya.
TUNISIA
Opposition leaders say youth have joined large police patrols to help keep the peace in Tunisia's tense capital after a weekend of deadly protests led to the resignation of the longtime prime minister.
Tunis saw no new major demonstrations Monday after weekend clashes between riot police and stone-throwing youths left at least five people dead.
Tunisian Industry and Technology Minister Mohamed Afif Chelbi has resigned from the government, the official TAP news agency reported on Monday.
Chelbi was one of only two remaining ministers who served in the cabinet under ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who held the same post under Ben Ali, stepped down on Sunday.
IRAN
Iran's state prosecutor says all outside contact with the country's two opposition leaders has been cut as part of a campaign to silence dissent.
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi warned “other measures” could be taken if necessary against Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi. His remarks were reported Monday by the official IRNA news agency.
CHINA
U.S. and European diplomats have criticized the harassment of foreign reporters in China who were trying to cover calls for peaceful protests like those that swept the Middle East.
RELATED STORY: Police smother protesters in China
It wasn't clear how many people, if any, tried to protest on Sunday, but Chinese authorities met the demonstration calls with an outsized response, detaining several Chinese and placing strict controls on foreign reporters.
IRAQ
Iraq's prime minister is calling for new provincial elections following anti-government protests that killed 14 people last week.
Nouri al-Maliki says the call for the early vote is in response to the people's demands for change.
BAHRAIN
Anti-government protesters blockaded Bahrain's parliament and massed outside the state broadcaster on Monday in efforts to escalate pressure on the nation's embattled monarchy after two weeks of nonstop marches and deadly clashes.
The demonstrations appear part of a strategy to hold rallies at sensitive locations in the capital Manama while maintaining a round-the-clock protest base in a landmark square in the tiny Gulf kingdom.
The parliament became a target to coincide with a meeting called by the 40-member upper chamber, which is appointed by Bahrain's ruler. The session was delayed by several hours when protesters formed a human chain around the entrance.
From parliament, the marchers then moved to the state TV headquarters, chanting slogans that claim the reports on the unrest seek to widen rifts between the Shiite-led protesters and the Sunni dynasty that has ruled Bahrain for more than two centuries.
EGYPT
Egypt's public prosecutor has issued an order that imposes a travel ban on former President Hosni Mubarak and his family while complaints against them are being investigated, a prosecutor's spokesman said on Monday.
He did not detail the complaints, but the prosecutor's spokesman Adel el-Saeed said an official order had been issued, adding that the order also put a freeze on their money and assets.
The official news agency issued a similar report.
OMAN
Men and women casually looted a smouldering supermarket in Oman's main industrial centre on Monday, after police disappeared in the wake of violent protests in the normally placid Arab state.
“It's a free for all,” said one man who watched while people grabbed all they could find – from food to metal sheets and electronic goods – and piled their hauls into trolleys at the Lulu Hypermarket at a road junction in the port of Sohar.
A doctor said six people had died in clashes between stone-throwing protesters and police on Sunday in the northern industrial town of Sohar, although Oman's health minister said only one person died and 20 were injured.
Yemeni anti-government protesters chant slogans calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh Feb. 28.
On Monday, tens of thousands of protesters gathered across Yemen, from the capital Sanaa to disparate regions where separatists or Shi'ite rebels hold sway, chanting slogans such as, “No dialogue, no dialogue. You leaving is the only option.”
Yemen's opposition will not join a unity government expected to be offered by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, saying on Monday it was standing with popular demands for an end to his three-decade rule.
“The opposition decided to stand with the people's demand for the fall of the regime, and there is no going back from that,” said Mohammed al-Sabry, a spokesman for Yemen's umbrella opposition coalition.
LIBYA
Muammar Gadhafi has appointed the head of Libya's foreign intelligence service to speak to the leadership of the eastern region, which is no longer under the Libyan leader's control, al Jazeera TV reported.
Monday's broadcast report, which quoted one of al Jazeera's correspondents, named the head of the foreign intelligence service as Bouzaid Dordah.
A spokesman for the newly formed National Libyan Council, based in the eastern city of Benghazi and which has described itself as the face of the revolution, said on Sunday he saw no room for negotiation with Gadhafi.
About 400 people protested against Gadhafi in the Tajoura district in the east of the capital Tripoli on Monday, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.
Soon after, several sports utility vehicles pulled into the square where the protest was taking place and the occupants, wearing green bandanas, jumped out and fired into the air in an attempt to disperse the protest.
Protesters dispersed once a brigade of pro-Gadhafi fighters rushed to the scene, scattering before the gunmen could fire a shot, a witness said.
There were attempts to restore aspects of normalcy in the capital, residents said. Many stores downtown reopened, and traffic in the streets increased.
Sons of Gadhafi have failed to persuade prominent Saudi clerics to issue religious rulings against a revolt that is threatening to bring down the veteran leader, Al Arabiya television said on Monday.
The Saudi-owned channel said on its website that Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam had contacted one cleric, Salman al-Awda, and Saadi Gadhafi had reached out to a second, Ayedh al-Garni, but both rejected their calls.
“You are killing the Libyan people. Turn to God because you are wronging them. Protect Libyan blood, you are killing old people and children. Fear God,” Garni said he told Saadi.
LIBYA - REACTION
• U.S. repositions forces – The U.S. military is repositioning naval and air forces around Libya, a Pentagon official said Monday, as international demands intensify for an end to Gadhafi's decades-long rule.
It is moving some armed forces in the region near Libya in case they're needed, but is not saying what they might be needed for.
• France sends rebels aid – France announced it is sending two planes with humanitarian aid to Libya's opposition stronghold of Benghazi on Monday, in what its prime minister described as the start of a “massive operation” to push Moammar Gadhafi from power.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the planes would leave “in a few hours” for the eastern city of Benghazi with doctors, nurses, medicines and medical equipment.
“It will be the beginning of a massive operation of humanitarian support for the populations of liberated territories,” he said.
• Exile for Gadhafi? – Going into exile would be one option for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in meeting international demands that he leave power, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.
Carney, asked by reporters whether the United States would help facilitate exile for Gaddafi, said this was a bit of speculation that he would not discuss.
• Atrocity accountability? – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is imploring the world to hold Gadhafi's regime to account for gross atrocities that include reports of executing soldiers for refusing to turn their guns on their fellow citizens.
Clinton made the plea for the international community to speak with a single voice at Monday's session of the UN Human Rights Council. She said that Gadhafi must leave power “now, without further violence or delay.”
• Attacks – Kenyans and Nigerians fleeing unrest in Libya said on Monday they faced attacks and hostility from Libyan citizens and officials who branded them as mercenaries supporting Gadhafi's rule.
A Kenya Airways flight landed in Nairobi with 90 Kenyans on board, and 64 other people from South Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Burundi, officials said.
• Blair rebuffed – Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Monday's edition of The Times newspaper that he made two telephone calls to the embattled dictator last week, but that the message that he should resign was rebuffed. He described the Libyan leader as being in denial about his situation
• Cut off from oil–The European Union says that Libya's Gadhafi no longer controls most of oil and gas fields.
Libya's oil chief said Monday that production had been cut by around 50 per cent, and argued it was “safe” for foreign oil workers to return after a mass exodus sparked by Gadhafi's increasingly violent campaign to retain control of the country.
• No-fly zone? – The United States pressed its European allies on Monday to set tough sanctions on the Libyan government, while doubts emerged about the feasibility of a proposed no-fly zone to prevent Gadhafi's regime from launching aerial attacks against protesters.
Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that Britain would work with allies on plans to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya to protect its people from military attacks by Gadhafi's government.
“We do not in any way rule out the use of military assets,” Cameron said.
• Travel sanctions – The European Union has agreed to sanctions against Libyan strongman Gadhafi, including an arms embargo, asset freeze and visa ban.
• Criminal investigation – The International Criminal Court said Monday it has been in contact with Libyan army officers to gather information about civilian deaths during the uprising against Gadhafi's regime, and pledged “no impunity” for anyone found to have committed crimes against humanity.
An ICC prosecutor said on Monday he hoped to complete a preliminary examination of the violence in Libya in a few days before opening a full investigation.
• EU evacuations – The European Union says that most of the 10,000 EU citizens in Libya have left, but there are still 650 asking to be evacuated.
EU Crisis Response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said Monday the remaining EU nationals are often in tough areas to reach, making their rescue difficult.
• Risky evacuation – The Philippine's new foreign secretary personally led a risky convoy to Libya's capital from neighbouring Tunisia, successfully evacuating 400 Filipino workers trapped by the violence there, a spokesman said Monday.
Albert del Rosario, who was appointed acting foreign secretary only last week, flew into Tunisia and on Sunday led a 55-vehicle convoy to Tripoli with two other diplomats to bring back the workers, the foreign affairs department said.
• Al Qaeda support – Osama bin Laden's deputy sought to co-opt the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia in a new message, urging the countries' peoples to create Islamic states and warning that the United States is trying to manipulate the events to ensure American and Israeli interests are preserved.
QATAR
Gadhafi should take a “brave decision” to avoid more bloodshed and destruction in Libya, Qatar's prime minister said on Monday, in a rare Arab call on the Libyan leader to resign.
“It is not too late for a decision. It is impossible for anyone to win in this revolution but the Libyan people,” said Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, urging a solution that would reduce bloodshed and suffering and avert the destruction of Libya.
TUNISIA
Opposition leaders say youth have joined large police patrols to help keep the peace in Tunisia's tense capital after a weekend of deadly protests led to the resignation of the longtime prime minister.
Tunis saw no new major demonstrations Monday after weekend clashes between riot police and stone-throwing youths left at least five people dead.
Tunisian Industry and Technology Minister Mohamed Afif Chelbi has resigned from the government, the official TAP news agency reported on Monday.
Chelbi was one of only two remaining ministers who served in the cabinet under ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who held the same post under Ben Ali, stepped down on Sunday.
IRAN
Iran's state prosecutor says all outside contact with the country's two opposition leaders has been cut as part of a campaign to silence dissent.
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi warned “other measures” could be taken if necessary against Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi. His remarks were reported Monday by the official IRNA news agency.
CHINA
U.S. and European diplomats have criticized the harassment of foreign reporters in China who were trying to cover calls for peaceful protests like those that swept the Middle East.
RELATED STORY: Police smother protesters in China
It wasn't clear how many people, if any, tried to protest on Sunday, but Chinese authorities met the demonstration calls with an outsized response, detaining several Chinese and placing strict controls on foreign reporters.
IRAQ
Iraq's prime minister is calling for new provincial elections following anti-government protests that killed 14 people last week.
Nouri al-Maliki says the call for the early vote is in response to the people's demands for change.
BAHRAIN
Anti-government protesters blockaded Bahrain's parliament and massed outside the state broadcaster on Monday in efforts to escalate pressure on the nation's embattled monarchy after two weeks of nonstop marches and deadly clashes.
The demonstrations appear part of a strategy to hold rallies at sensitive locations in the capital Manama while maintaining a round-the-clock protest base in a landmark square in the tiny Gulf kingdom.
The parliament became a target to coincide with a meeting called by the 40-member upper chamber, which is appointed by Bahrain's ruler. The session was delayed by several hours when protesters formed a human chain around the entrance.
From parliament, the marchers then moved to the state TV headquarters, chanting slogans that claim the reports on the unrest seek to widen rifts between the Shiite-led protesters and the Sunni dynasty that has ruled Bahrain for more than two centuries.
EGYPT
Egypt's public prosecutor has issued an order that imposes a travel ban on former President Hosni Mubarak and his family while complaints against them are being investigated, a prosecutor's spokesman said on Monday.
He did not detail the complaints, but the prosecutor's spokesman Adel el-Saeed said an official order had been issued, adding that the order also put a freeze on their money and assets.
The official news agency issued a similar report.
OMAN
Men and women casually looted a smouldering supermarket in Oman's main industrial centre on Monday, after police disappeared in the wake of violent protests in the normally placid Arab state.
“It's a free for all,” said one man who watched while people grabbed all they could find – from food to metal sheets and electronic goods – and piled their hauls into trolleys at the Lulu Hypermarket at a road junction in the port of Sohar.
A doctor said six people had died in clashes between stone-throwing protesters and police on Sunday in the northern industrial town of Sohar, although Oman's health minister said only one person died and 20 were injured.
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