OLMERT TO BE CHARGED IN PROPERTY SCANDAL

Olmert to be charged in Israel property scandal
MAR 14,11 11:00AM

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli prosecutors will file charges against 18 people, including former premier Ehud Olmert, for allegedly taking bribes in a massive property scandal, the justice ministry said on Monday.The allegations stem from Olmert's tenure as Jerusalem mayor and will add to the woes of the former premier, who is already on trial on three unrelated counts of fraud and bribery.From the evidence, it appears that a long list of public servants at the Jerusalem municipality apparently received bribes to promote the Holyland project and the interests of its developers, a ministry statement said.It named Olmert, and his successor Uri Lupolianski along with several senior city hall officials, prominent businessmen and property developers.The investigation centres on a scandal involving bribes from developers building a grandiose residential project in Jerusalem called the Holyland complex.Last year, prosecutors named Olmert as a key suspect in the Holyland affair in which he is suspected of having taken bribes totalling some 1.5 million shekels ($422,000, 30,000 euros).The bribes were allegedly given during construction of the massive complex in the 1990s. He has been questioned three times by police and has denied all the charges.

The justice ministry said all the suspects had been informed of the intention to file charges against them, but would be given a hearing first.Olmert resigned under pressure in September 2008 after police recommended he be indicted in the other cases.He is accused of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talanski and of multiple-billing for foreign trips.Olmert has also been charged with cronyism in connection with an investment centre which he oversaw when he was trade and industry minister between 2003 and 2006.All the charges relate to a period before Olmert became premier in 2006.

Hundreds pour in for Gaza unity rally
MAR 14,11

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – A crowd of at least 1,500 young Palestinians streamed into central Gaza City to rally for national unity on Monday, a day ahead of schedule.The activists marched to the Square of the Unknown Soldier, and chanted The people want to end the division, in reference to the bitter split between Gaza's Hamas rulers and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.We are starting our sit-in now, organiser Ahmad Arar told AFP.Banners and placards were everywhere, some reading: Abbas, Haniya -- we want national unity! in an address to president Mahmud Abbas and Hamas premier Ismail Haniya.Others read: We won't go home until the end of the division.Many brought tents and mattresses, while others were setting up water stations, with the intention of remaining in the square overnight until the official start of the demonstration on Tuesday.The March 15 demonstrations are scheduled to take place simultaneously in Ramallah and Gaza City in a campaign put together on Facebook by a loose coalition of young activists, who say they have no political affiliation.

Similar protests are also planned outside Palestinian delegations overseas, in a move inspired by the recent wave of uprisings in the Arab world, which brought down the regimes of Egypt and Tunisia.As more and more people arrived at the sit-in, there was a party-like atmosphere in the square, with youngsters waving flags, singing national songs and chanting slogans.Huge loud speakers blasted tunes from a popular Lebanese singer as young people stood around chatting or put up tents, some lounging on mattresses.Some activists said the decision to start the mass protests a day early was taken for fear the Hamas-run security forces would close off the square or block roads in a bid to prevent the planned rallies.But Samah al-Rawah, another of the March 15 organisers, said the decision to start early came after the Hamas interior ministry refused to give them a permit to protest on March 15, saying another group had already applied to hold a protest that day.Organisers believe the permit was handed to a Hamas organisation which is trying to coopt the March 15 movement, which goes by the name: The National Campaign for an End to Division.

So we have started now because we don't want any other Palestinian faction to steal this event. We will sleep here because we don't want anyone else to take over the square, Rawah said.Earlier on Monday, Haniya had ordered the interior ministry to let the rallies go ahead without interruption, his office said in a statement.The premier, it said, supports all the efforts by the young people and the factions which aims to end the division and protecting the... national unity of our people.
Haniya ordered the ministry to ensure the security forces "created an atmosphere which would let these public events succeed.Since the outbreak of massive protests in Egypt, Hamas security forces have clamped down on numerous demonstrations. Last week, they detained 11 unity protesters and interrogated those believed to be behind the Facebook campaign.

Settlement killings inhuman, Abbas tells Israel
– Mon Mar 14, 6:58 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday the killing of a Jewish settler couple and three of their children was inhuman, telling Israel he was determined to help catch those responsible.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had complained that Abbas's administration insufficiently condemned the attack and even encouraged such bloodshed through incitement in official Palestinian forums.This was inhuman and immoral. We deplore this incident, without a doubt. It is an abomination, Abbas told Israel Radio.I can't imagine a four-month-old child murdered, he said, speaking in Arabic. Children, of all things ... Any person who has a sense of humanity would be pained and driven to tears by such sights.Friday night's knife rampage in a home in Itamar settlement, which Israel blamed on Palestinians still at large, ruptured the relative quiet of the occupied West Bank and underscored the stalemate between Abbas and Netanyahu over prospects for peace.

Netanyahu said on Sunday that alarming incitement in Palestinian schools, mosques and media had prepared the ground for the Itamar attack.Abbas rejected the allegation, saying his Palestinian Authority was the only place in the Arab and Muslim world where the government set weekly guidelines for mosque sermons.If it (a sermon) is incitement, it is stopped. If it is not incitement, they can go ahead, he said.The Palestinians, with international support, have pursued a law-and-order drive in the West Bank, which they want back as part of their future state. They see Israeli settlements as an obstacle and insist building stops before peace talks resume.Netanyahu has rejected that demand and responded to the Itamar attack by approving hundreds of new settler homes.Abbas said he had telephoned Netanyahu to offer condolences as well as help from in solving the Itamar attack.Had we had advance intelligence, we would have prevented this, he said.We want to know who did this. We hope to get results and identify the perpetrator and bring him to justice.
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Louise Ireland)

US criticizes Israeli settlement construction plan By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press – Mon Mar 14, 6:20 am ET

JERUSALEM – The U.S. Embassy said Monday it was deeply concerned by Israel's plans to build hundreds of new homes in the West Bank following a deadly attack on a settler family, calling Israeli settlements illegitimate and an obstacle to peacemaking.In a rare interview to the Israeli media, the Palestinian president reached out to the Israeli public, decrying the weekend attack in the settlement of Itamar as despicable, immoral and inhuman. But he rejected the Israeli suggestion that his government was indirectly to blame.While the country was still reeling from the gruesome attack, in which two parents and three young children were fatally stabbed as they slept, the Israeli government announced Sunday that it had approved the construction of between 400 and 500 new homes in major West Bank settlement blocs.They murder, we build, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday during a condolence call to the grieving family. Palestinian militants are presumed to have carried out the assault.The plans for new construction infuriated Palestinians, and together with the attack, drove prospects for renewed peacemaking even further out of reach. A Netanyahu aide said the Israeli government informed the U.S. — which has been toiling with little success to break the negotiations deadlock — of the decision.

We're deeply concerned by continuing Israeli actions on settlements in the West Bank, the statement from the U.S. Embassy said.As we said before, we view these settlements as illegitimate and as running counter to efforts to resume direct negotiations.Just last month, the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction. The U.S. said it agreed with the wider world about the illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity but thought Israelis and Palestinians should resolve key conflicts between them and the council wasn't the proper venue for the dispute. The council's 14 other members voted in favor of the resolution.A senior Israeli official responded to the U.S. criticism by reasserting Israel's expectation that the major settlement blocs, where most of the 300,000 West Bank settlers live, will remain in Israeli hands under any final peace accord.An additional 200,000 settlers live in east Jerusalem, captured along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want both territories, along with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, for their future state. They say all settlements are illegitimate.Early Monday, the Israeli army pressed forward with its search for the attacker in Awarta, a Palestinian village next to Itamar. Residents said soldiers using loudspeakers ordered men between the ages of 18 and 40 to report to a village school for questioning.Village resident Mashour Awad said dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people from a nearby neighborhood were taken to the school, and that no one put up any resistance. I've seen people from that neighborhood going because they fear the soldiers may come to their homes and they could face worse. They prefer to go,he said.

Jewish settlers bent on retaliation, meanwhile, threw rocks at cars driving on a main road linking the Palestinian cities of Nablus and Ramallah and set several cars on fire outside of Ramallah and in the town of Qalqiliya, Palestinian officials said.
Disputes over settlement construction have driven peacemaking into a virtual standstill for the past two years. Palestinians refuse to negotiate until Israel halts all building on occupied territories. Israel says negotiations should not be held hostage to conditions and note that previous rounds of talks took place while construction proceeded.Israeli officials had accused Abbas of only tepidly condemning the carnage in the settlement of Itamar. And they suggested his government was indirectly to blame, calling it the product of incitement against Israel.Responding to the Israeli pressure, Abbas spoke to state-run Israel Radio on Monday, harshly condemning the violence and saying his government would have prevented the assault if it had had advance knowledge. He said he would not allow violence to expand.But Abbas disputed Israel's allegations that Palestinian clerics preach incitement, saying his government hands out a uniform sermon to be delivered by all. He also called for a joint Israeli-Palestinian-U.S. team to examine claims of incitement in Palestinian textbooks.Israel has long contended that Palestinian textbooks and official media preach hatred toward Israel and that the killers of Israelis are often glorified.On Sunday, a group of activists from Abbas' Fatah movement dedicated a square in the West Bank city of Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, a female militant who carried out a 1978 bus attack that killed 37 Israelis. Aides to Abbas said they tried to stop the ceremony and the move was not officially sanctioned. Still, Israel has not produced evidence that incitement contributed to the killings.The military has taken some 20 people into custody in connection with the attacks but has provided no further details. Abbas said Palestinian security officials were working with Israel to find the assailant.

Mideast Quartet, Canada condemn West Bank killings
– Sun Mar 13, 5:30 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The international Quartet on the Middle East and Canada on Saturday strongly condemned the murder of an Israeli family in the West Bank and said its perpetrators should be brought to justice.The Quartet condemns in the strongest possible terms the violent murder of an Israeli family of five, including three young children, in the West Bank today, the group, which includes the United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States, said in a joint statement.

Attacks on any civilians are completely unacceptable in any circumstance, the statement said.The Quartet calls on those responsible to be brought to justice and welcomes the strong condemnation of this attack by... the Palestinian leadership.
Five members of an Israeli family were murdered in their beds in a West Bank settlement in an attack blamed on Palestinians, sparking a huge manhunt and international condemnation on Saturday.Media reports said a baby girl of three months, two children aged three and 11, and their parents Ehud and Ruth Vogel were all stabbed to death in the Friday night attack in Itamar near the Palestinian town of Nablus.Army radio said two other children had been spared and a third, a girl of 10, had arrived home late and alerted neighbours that something was wrong.The Quartet in its statement also emphasized the need to expedite efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian and comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.The diplomatic grouping has sought to push the Israelis and Palestinians into renewing some kind of peace negotiations, which ran aground last September over an intractable dispute about Jewish settlements.In Canada, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said: The brutal killing of the five Israelis, including children, cannot be justified.Our sympathies are with the victims? families and friends and the people of Israel, Cannon said in a statement.These heinous acts of terror cannot be tolerated. The murderer must be held accountable, and we hope the Palestinian Authority will cooperate fully in the investigation.

Yemen clashes and Bahrain chaos as protests deepen
By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press – Sun Mar 13, 4:45 pm ET

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Yemeni police firing from rooftops wounded more than 100 in a protesters' camp Sunday and anti-government demonstrators paralyzed Bahrain's capital as unrest deepened in two of Washington's most critical allies in the region.The ruler of Oman, another key Western partner, shifted some lawmaking powers to officials outside the royal family in what an analyst called a historic change.Meanwhile, Saudi authorities tolerated 200 activists demanding the release of detainees in defiance of stern warnings of crackdowns on pro-democracy rallies.The range of responses — from attacks to appeasement — underscored the different gambits at play. Some regimes are looking to battle their way out while others turn to rapid reforms in a bid to quell dissent inspired by groundswell for change across the Arab world.Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has increasingly turned to confrontation after protesters rebuffed his offer to bow out with elections in 2013.

Near Sanaa University, an encampment of demonstrators came under twin attacks: police firing from rooftop positions, and a ground assault by security forces and government backers armed with clubs and knives. Mohammad al-Abahi, a doctor in charge of a makeshift hospital near the university, said more than 100 people were injured, including 20 from tear gas inhalation.In the southern Aden province, it was the protesters on the offensive — storming a police station and seizing weapons after police fled, witnesses said.Yemen — hit by a wave of protests since mid-February — is considered by Washington to be a vital front-line ally against one of the world's most active al-Qaida branches. But the U.S. patience for Saleh's tactics appears to be wearing thin.Bahrain's showdown also has reached the one-month mark with no end in sight. There are now fears the tiny kingdom could be stumbling toward open sectarian conflict between the ruling minority Sunnis and Shiites, who account for 70 percent of the nation's 525,000 people.The mostly Shiite protesters first took to the streets to air their allegations of widespread discrimination. But the calls have been growing to topple the entire ruling monarchy after attacks and crackdowns by security forces in the strategic nation, which hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.Protesters displayed their power with a new and disruptive strategy — blocking the main highway into the financial district in the capital Manama, one of the Gulf's investment and banking centers. Riot police firing tear gas eventually cleared the barricades, but traffic was snarled for miles (kilometers) and morning commuters were enraged.

Bahrain is no longer stable, growled Sawsan Mohammed, 30, who works in the financial district.In some neighborhoods, vigilantes set up checkpoints to try to keep outsiders from entering. Some Shiite protesters claimed that pro-government gangs were roaming some areas armed with clubs and other weapons.At Bahrain University, clashes broke out between protesters and government backers. Two protesters sustained serious head injures and hundreds looked for medical help, mostly with breathing problems from tear gas, hospital officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.In Pearl Square — a landmark site occupied by demonstrators — security forces surrounded the tent compound, shooting tear gas in the largest effort to disrupt the protesters since a crackdown last month left four dead.Police withdrew after activists stood their ground and chanted Peaceful! peaceful! The turmoil came a day after a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who urged Bahrain's leaders to make quick progress toward reforms. Washington and its Gulf Arab allies worry that Shiite powerhouse Iran could use instability in Bahrain as a foothold to expand its influence in the region.In Oman — a close ally of both the U.S. and Iran — the ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said issued a decree saying he would hand legislative and regulatory powers within 30 days to two current advisory councils, one elected and another appointed by the sultan.

The move reflects the scramble to head off possible wider unrest in the strategically important nation. Oman and Iran share control of the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, which carries 40 percent of the world's oil tanker traffic. Just hours before the announcement, suspected arsonists burned a government office and the home of a clan leader in Ebri, about 210 miles (350 kilometers) northwest of the capital Muscat. No injuries were reported, but military units boosted their presence in the area.The sultan has made sweeping Cabinet shake-ups and promises for thousands of new civil service posts since demonstrations began late last month. But the latest plan introduces the most fundamental changes about how the country is governed.An Oman-based political analyst, Saeed Awad bin Bagoer, described the sultan's plan to transfer powers to the council as an historic political reform.In the Saudi capital Riyadh, more than 200 people were allowed to protest outside the Interior Ministry to demand the release of detainees held on security and terrorism-related charges.The rally was held despite a ban on demonstrations and threats for harsh crackdowns on any challenge to the pro-Western monarchy. It was not clear whether it was a bid by Saudi authorities to allow limited demonstrations or if the protesters could face punishment later.Moroccan police broke up an unauthorized protest in Casablanca by several hundred people, including many supporters of Morocco's best-known Islamist movement, the Justice and Spirituality movement.An Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press that about 50 protesters were arrested and four officers injured.King Mohammed VI said Wednesday that Morocco will revise its constitution for the first time in 15 years — part of steps to build greater democracy.Associated Press writers Ahmed Al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen; Reem Khalifa in Manama, Bahrain, and Saeed Al-Nahdy in Muscat, Oman, contributed to this report.

Israel buries stabbed family, vows more settlements
by Hazel Ward – Sun Mar 13, 3:26 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli family of five, including a baby, stabbed to death in a weekend attack on a settlement, were buried on Sunday as the government vowed to build hundreds more settler homes.As the hunt for the killers continued, at least 20,000 mourners packed into the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem, the hillside graveyard echoing with sounds of grief and the angry diatribes of political and religious leaders.This was a barbaric act that only animals are capable of, said Rafi Ben-Basat, one mourner who knew the family who are widely believed to have been murdered by Palestinian attackers.You savage Arabs, lacking humanity, will not break us! vowed settler leader Gershon Masika as the bodies of the three children and their parents were lowered into the ground.The attackers broke into the family home in Itamar settlement near Nablus on Friday night, and in a frenzied stabbing attack killed five members of the Fogel family -- three-month-old Hadas, four-year-old Elad, Yoav, 11, and their parents Udi and Ruthie.Grisly pictures released by the settler leadership on Sunday showed the victims lying on blood-spattered beds, each with multiple stab wounds.Israeli police went on high alert and the army said troops had been ordered to be vigilant for any attempted revenge attacks.

As soldiers continued their search, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ministers had approved construction of several hundred housing units within the settlement blocs of Gush Etzion, Maale Adumim, Ariel and Kiryat Sefer.The decision won a nod from the Yesha settlers' council but was furiously denounced by the Palestinians.This decision by the government is a small step in the right direction, a Yesha statement said, but added: It is deeply troubling that it requires the murder of children in the arms of their parents to achieve such an objective.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat condemned the move, telling AFP the Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the decision of the Israeli government to speed up and increase the building of settlements.Nabil Abu Rudeina, President Mahmud Abbas's spokesman, said in a statement: The decision taken to build new settlements is a mistake and unacceptable. It will destroy everything and will lead to big problems.

Late on Sunday, Netanyahu paid a condolence visit to the families of the victims, telling them that they (the Palestinians) shoot and we build.They say the Land of Israel is built on suffering, but who could have thought the suffering would be so great? Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.The decision to build new settler homes was taken 24 hours after the bloodshed, which sparked a wave of international revulsion from the White House to Ramallah.The Middle East peace Quartet also issued a statement condemning in the strongest possible terms the violent murder of an Israeli family of five, including three young children, in the West Bank.After the funeral, hundreds of settlers blocked dozens of road junctions in Israel and the West Bank in protest at the killings, police said.Hundreds of demonstrators are at different junctions all across the country, with an emphasis on Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem,said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.He said police were responding to prevent disturbances, but taking into consideration the sensitivities following the funeral.Beyond the protests, fears of revenge attacks did not materialise immediately, with Palestinian witnesses and security sources reporting only a series of minor confrontations.Several vehicles were damaged by stone throwing and one house suffered minor damage after being set on fire.Troops quickly arrived and sent the settlers away from the villages.Troops kept up their hunt for the perpetrators, imposing a curfew for a second day on Awarta village immediately west of Itamar, with Defence Minister Ehud Barak saying he was confident the killers would be caught.As defence minister I am certain that the iron fist of the Israeli army and the Shin Bet will swiftly descend upon the murderers. They will be caught and accounts will be settled with them, he said.The security of Israel -- its future and its borders -- will be determined by us, and not by murderous terror.

Thousands in Beirut demand Hezbollah disarm By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press – Sun Mar 13, 1:02 pm ET

BEIRUT – Tens of thousands of supporters of Lebanon's pro-Western opposition thronged downtown Beirut on Sunday, demanding that the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah give up its weapons.The rally was a potent show of support for Lebanon's toppled prime minister Saad Hariri, who moved into the opposition after Hezbollah and its allies forced his government to collapse in January.We want to place the weapons at the disposal of the state because it is the state that unites us all and it is the army that protects us all, Hariri said, shouting over the crowd as they cheered and waved Lebanon's national flag.Hariri has taken a far stronger public stance against Hezbollah in recent weeks than he did during his 14 months as prime minister, suggesting that the country's political deadlock is far from over.Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a member of Hezbollah's political bureau, said the group will not respond to Sunday's gathering.But a slew of billboards has popped up in Beirut lately, saying Israel also wants Hezbollah disarmed — a clear message that Hezbollah sees its weapons as a necessary safeguard against its enemies.Hariri accuses the militant group, which is backed by Syria and Iran, of using its weapons for intimidation and political leverage.

Sunday's rally heightens growing tensions in Lebanon over a U.N. tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri.The Hague-based court is widely expected to accuse Hezbollah members of involvement in the killing in indictments issued two months ago but which remain sealed. Hezbollah vehemently denies having anything to do with the killing, and its ministers walked out of Saad Hariri's government when he refused to cut ties with the tribunal.Hezbollah and its allies then secured enough support in parliament to name Najib Mikati as their pick for prime minister. Mikati has emphasized that he will not do the bidding of any one side in Lebanon's fractious politics, but he is still struggling to form a Cabinet.Opponents of Hezbollah — which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization — say having an Iranian proxy at the helm of Lebanon's government would lead to international isolation.Hezbollah's weapons are a longstanding and contentious political issue in Lebanon.Hezbollah was the only Lebanese faction allowed to keep its weapons under the agreement that ended the 1975-1990 civil war, on the grounds that it needed arms to fight any potential threat from Israel.Today, the arsenal far outweighs that of the national army and public sentiment on the weapons is mixed. The Lebanese applaud Hezbollah's ability to confront Israel, but many accuse the group of leading the country into violent conflict.In 2006, many Lebanese complained that Hezbollah had dragged the whole country into war with Israel. Two years later, 80 people died in clashes as Hezbollah resisted government attempts to dismantle its private phone network.

Sunday's rally also paid tribute to Rafik Hariri, whose assassination changed the course of Lebanese history by sparking a massive protest movement in 2005 that that became known as the Cedar Revolution.The movement ushered in the end of Syria's 30-year military domination if Lebanon.The five-time prime minister had close ties with Western leaders as well as Syria and was credited with helping rebuild Lebanon's capital after the civil war. In the last few months before his assassination, however, he had tried to limit Damascus' influence over Lebanon, and many accused Syria of involvement in his killing.Syria denies those accusations.

A look at political unrest in the Middle East
The Associated Press – Sun Mar 13, 12:09 pm ET

A look at anti-government protests, political unrest and key developments in the Middle East on Sunday:

LIBYA:Troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi shell the oil town of Brega in eastern Libya, pounding pockets of resistance during their swift advance on the country's poorly equipped and loosely organized rebels. Libyan state television reports that government troops retake Brega, but the report could not immediately be verified.

YEMEN:Police on rooftops fire live bullets and tear gas at protesters, injuring more than 100 people who were camping near Sanaa University, the latest in weeks of demonstrations calling for the Yemeni president to step down.Wielding clubs and knives, police and government supporters also attack protesters on the ground.

BAHRAIN:Thousands of anti-government demonstrators cut off Bahrain's financial center and drive back police trying to push them from the capital's central square. For the tiny island kingdom it is the most disruptive protests since calls for more freedom erupted a month ago.Demonstrators also clash with security forces and government supporters on the campus of the main university in the Gulf country, the home of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

SAUDI ARABIA:More than 200 protest outside the Interior Ministry to demand the release of detainees in the largest demonstration in the capital since the regional outbreak of pro-democracy unrest. Saudi authorities ban demonstrations and are increasingly determined to prevent the wave of unrest sweeping across the Middle East from spreading to the oil-rich Kingdom.

LEBANON:Tens of thousands of Lebanese fill a central Beirut square to mark the 2005 protests that ended Syria's 30-year domination of the country. They also demand that the militant group Hezbollah, seen as a proxy of Syria, give up its weapons.

OMAN: Oman's ruler grants lawmaking powers to officials outside the royal family in the boldest reforms yet aimed at quelling protests for jobs and a greater public role in politics. The decree by Sultan Qaboos bin Said reflects the scramble to appease demonstrators and head off possible wider unrest in the strategically important nation, which shares control of the Gulf waterway that carries 40 percent of the world's oil tanker traffic.

TUNISIA:Authorities order a curfew in a central mining town amid simmering unrest following a bout of deadly clashes between police and protesters. It's the latest sign of Tunisia's struggle to restore stability after a revolution that deposed an autocratic leader and sparked uprisings in the Arab world.