Middle East and North Africa rocked by Arab unrest

SHOCKWAVES from the ousting of presidents in Tunisia and Egypt continued to roll across north Africa and the Middle East yesterday, with peoples long subject to autocratic rule demanding to be heard.

Despite many states cautiously welcoming the overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, their own populations have been seized by the momentum and are demanding greater freedoms and reform.

This is a breakdown of events, current and planned, in the Arabic- speaking world and Iran.

* ALGERIA: Opposition leaders planned a second protest march in the capital despite a long-standing ban on demonstrations. France called on Algiers to allow anti-government protests to take place freely, without violence.

* BAHRAIN: Bahraini police used tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters in the eastern village of Nuwaidrat, as security forces deployed in the tiny Gulf kingdom following Facebook calls for a February 14 “revolt”.

* IRAN: Thousands of defiant opposition supporters in Tehran staged what they said was a rally supporting Arab revolts as riot police fired tear gas and paint balls to disperse them, witnesses and opposition websites said.

* IRAQ: Baghdad will host its first annual Arab summit since the US-led invasion of 2003 on March 29, in the wake of popular uprisings that transformed the political landscape of the volatile and long autocratic region.

* JORDAN: Justice Minister Hussein Mujalli joined a sit-in held by trade unions and described a Jordanian soldier serving a life sentence for killing Israeli schoolgirls in 1997 as a “hero,” demanding his release.

* LIBYA: Facebook groups numbering several hundred have called for demonstrations to mark a “day of rage” in Libya on February 17 modelled on similar protests in other Arab countries.

* MOROCCO: Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi was to meet the opposition to discuss parliamentary polls, with the impact of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia weighing heavily on the talks.

* PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas reappointed Salam Fayyad as premier and tasked him with forming a new government after his cabinet resigned.

* SYRIA: Female blogger Tal al-Mallouhi, 19, gets five years in prison after being found guilty by a security court of “divulging information to a foreign country”. Her blog focuses on the Palestinians, not Syrian politics.

* TUNISIA: The country marked a month since the overthrow of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

* YEMEN: Pro-democracy protesters clashed violently with police and supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, with clashes also reported in Taez south of the capital, where thousands joined anti-Saleh demonstrations.