Protesters watch as tear gas fills a street during a demonstration in Deraa in this image from amateur video taken on Mar 23 2011 and posted on a social media website
The Syrian government has announced a series of reforms, including possibly ending the country's emergency law, in the wake of a series of deadly anti-government protests.
A presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban announced the changes at a news conference Thursday. She said the government will study the idea of scrapping the emergency law. Syria has been under the law since the Baath Party took power in 1963, banning any opposition to its rule.
Anti-government protesters have been demanding that President Bashar al-Assad end the emergency law, curb Syria's pervasive security apparatus, free political prisoners and allow freedom of expression.
Reuters
Bouthaina Shaaban, adviser of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, speaks at a news conference in Damascus, Mar 24, 2011
The presidential adviser said the government also is drafting a law that would allow political parties, enacting measures to fight unemployment, and raising salaries for public servants. Syria's state-run media says wages will increase by 20-30 percent, while the tax rate on salaries will decrease.
The adviser's news conference took place hours after thousands of Syrians chanted anti-government slogans as they attended funerals for nine protesters killed during a government assault on Wednesday. The incident took place in Daraa, a southern city that remains tense following nearly a week of clashes between security forces and anti-government demonstrators.
The adviser referred to that city as she announced the social measures. She said the decisions being made take into account the "people of Daraa."
Human rights activists and witnesses say 15 people were killed in the city Wednesday by police gunfire. Syria's government has a different account of the violence. State-run media said four people were killed when an "armed gang" attacked a medical team.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned the unrest in Daraa. In a statement Thursday, she said the use of live ammunition and excessive force against peaceful protesters must cease immediately."
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Syria should follow the example of Egypt, where the army stood on the "sidelines" and allowed pro-democracy demonstrations. He commented Thursday from Israel, after wrapping up a trip to Egypt.
Separately, activists Thursday said Syrian authorities have arrested Mazen Darwish, an outspoken critic of the government. His detention was announced by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Anti-government protesters shout slogans during a rally to demand the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh outside Sanaa University, March 24, 2011
A tense and sometimes bloody standoff continues between the president of Yemen and thousands of demonstrators trying to bring down his government after 32 years in power. The dispute reached a boiling point when supporters of the president shot and killed dozens of protesters last week, prompting key military and tribal leaders to join the opposition.
Divisions inside Yemen’s armed forces led President Ali Abdullah Saleh to warn his military chiefs that any attempt to stage a coup will bring on a civil war and split the country.
"Those who want to climb up to power through coups should know that this is out of the question. The homeland will not be stable; there will be a civil war, a bloody war," he said.
And in case the threat was not enough, President Saleh also offered to hold parliamentary elections later this year and leave office by January.
But despite the threats and offers, key military commanders and tribal leaders are lining up with government opponents who insist the president resign now.
Both the government and defecting army units have deployed armored vehicles in the streets of Sana’a, the capital. The government has declared a state of emergency.
American officials and analysts fear the situation is spiraling out of control.
"There is a significant danger of violence in Yemen because there is really no unity among the opposition or any obvious figure acceptable to the opposition, so that if the president goes, there is a very real question how will the country be governed and how Yemen’s many very difficult problems [can] be addressed," said David Newton, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen.
Among those difficulties, Newton notes that Yemen’s 24 million people are among the poorest in the Middle East, and that the country is also dealing with separatist movements and an active al-Qaida terrorist presence.
Even so, Newton says there is a chance at success if the various opposition groups can unite and form an interim government.
Such a government, he says, might then be able to reach out to secessionists in the south and the Shi'ite Houthi rebels in the north of Yemen.
It all depends, he says, on whether Yemen’s army maintains discipline and serves as a force of stability during any transition phase.
Ibrahim Karawan, a professor at Utah University and former director of its Middle East Center, says the army role will depend on how President Saleh handles the next few days or weeks. "The army thus far did not want to intervene and some of its leaders began to split and began to distance themselves from the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh and that will open the door towards other forms of disentanglement with the regime and distancing the military leadership from the regime," he said.
For the United States, the departure of President Saleh would mean the loss of a key ally against the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula terrorist group that has been operating openly in Yemen.
Karawan notes, however, that it should be possible for Washington to work out similar cooperation on terrorism with a new government in Yemen. "The military will be the force that will call for continued cooperation with the U.S. and would call on the U.S. to maintain its military support for Yemen, and America will try to play on that link between the regime and the American interest itself," he said.
Most U.S. experts on Yemen say that whatever kind of regime takes power in Yemen, it could limit the threat of al-Qaida by maintaining ties with the United States and addressing the country’s social and economic problems
Radiation Spread From Japanese Nuclear Power Plant Continues
Steve Herman | Tokyo March 25, 2011
Photo: AP
Japan's Self-Defense Force's members and others in protective gear help to transfer workers who stepped into contaminated water on Thursday during their operation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, March 25, 2011
Authorities in Japan are continuing efforts to control the crisis at a damaged nuclear power plant. The Fukushima-1 complex was damaged after a massive earthquake two weeks ago and is still emitting radiation in the atmosphere
On the outside, steam continued to rise Friday from several reactor buildings at the Fukushima-1 nuclear facility in northeastern Japan. Inside, work continued to try to bring automated cooling systems back on line that would help prevent an even potentially worse spread of radiation from the severely damaged complex.
Japan's government has recommended that people living between 20 and 30 kilometers from the facility leave their homes, but no mandatory evacuation is being issued for that zone. Those within 20 kilometers were previously ordered out of the area due to radiation fears.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, the deputy director of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, says it is possible that radioactive matter will continue to travel far away and testing about the extent of the emissions needs to be made.
The continuing emission of radioactive vapor has prompted warnings about drinking tap water as far away as 300 kilometers south of the plant. It has also raised safety concerns internationally about Japanese vegetables, milk and seafood.
Two of three workers laying cables in the turbine building of Reactor-3 slipped into radioactive water and were transferred by ambulance to a specialized hospital Friday. They are to be treated at the National Institute of Radiological Science after suffering radiation burns on their feet the previous day.
Japan's trade minister, Banri Kaieda, blames a "safety lapse" for exposing the men to 100,000 times the normal level of radiation found in water used for reactor cooling.
Kaieda blames a lack of management supervision by Tokyo Electric Power Company for the exposure. He says the utility needs to improve its radiation oversight at the crippled nuclear power facility.
Japan's defense ministry says pure water and pumps supplied by the United States military will be brought to Fukushima-1 to cool the reactors. It would replace the sea water being used that is causing corrosion because of an accumulation of tons of salt.
Scientists say chloride in the salt could also break open the zirconium alloy layer of protection around the fuel rods which prevents volatile radioactive elements from escaping.
Tokyo Electric Power confirms that zirconium-95 in sea water several hundred meters from the Fukushima plant has been detected since Wednesday when testing began there for additional radioactive elements.
A spokesman for the Japanese prime minister's office tells VOA there is no clear evidence that the cladding has been breached.
Since the March 11 magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami, high radiation levels, fires and explosions at some of the six reactors have slowed efforts to make critical repairs to stabilize the situation.
Japanese government agencies say they are considering raising the assessment of the nuclear crisis to a level six or "serious accident" on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. Currently, the Fukushima accident is rated a level five, which is considered to "have wider consequences."
The official death toll from the March 11 quake and tsunami continues to rise. The national police agency says more than 10,000 fatalities have been confirmed while more about 17,000 people are missing.
Five Brazilian police officers have been arrested after television stations broadcast a video in which some of them appear to shoot a 14-year-old-boy.
The footage - captured by a security camera in the city of Manaus - shows uniformed men pushing the teenager before shooting him in the chest.
The boy survived with several wounds and is now in a witness protection programme along with his family.
The incident happened in August but has only recently come to light.
The boy's family and the person in charge of the security camera, as well as the first reporter to see the footage, initially held the video back because they feared retaliation if it was made public, prosecutors said.
Amazonas state prosecutor Joao Bosco Sa Valente said the officers would face charges of attempted homicide.
"I have been fighting organised crime for 30 years, but every time I see those images I feel indignation and disgust," the prosecutor told the Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.
The images have attracted widespread media attention across Brazil.
Police officers in Brazil are frequently accused of using excessive force against criminal suspects, including extrajudicial execution.
Nato says it has agreed to take over responsibility from the US for enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya.
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said talks would continue on giving Nato a "broader responsibility", with a decision possible in the coming days.
There have been differences of opinion about whether attacks on ground troops should form part of the action.
British jets have launched missiles at Libyan armoured vehicles near Ajdabiya during a sixth night of allied raids.
The UK government said Tornado aircraft fired guided Brimstone missiles at Libyan military units close to the town, where there has been fierce fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi. 'Consensus decision'
The handover of the no-fly mission to Nato could come as early as this weekend.
As Nato prepares to assume leadership of operations, every morning the people of Libya are conducting a new ritual: the assessment of how the night's air raids have gone, and how they have affected the military balance between Muammar Gaddafi and the rebels.
The sounds of explosions have once again been heard around the capital Tripoli and there are reports that French fighter jets bombed a military base deep inside the Libyan desert.
The people of this country now rely for protection on a combination of the world's most sophisticated air forces and a rebel army equipped only with the most rudimentary tools.
In cities like Misrata, where civilians have been terrorised by tanks and government snipers, Col Gaddafi's forces appear to have concealed their heavy weapons in civilian areas, making them hard for pilots to target safely. It remains to be seen if the allies have an answer to that tactic.
Mr Rasmussen said all of Nato had agreed to the move, including Turkey, which had expressed doubts over strikes on a fellow Muslim country.
"The fact is that in Nato we take all decisions by consensus and the decision we are taking today to enforce a no-fly zone is also taken by a consensus which means that all 28 allies support that decision," he told the BBC.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed Nato's decision.
The US initially agreed to lead enforcement of the UN resolution, but made clear it wanted only a limited role and would hand over responsibility as soon as possible.
The handover to Nato became bogged down when Turkey made clear its view that action should focus directly on enforcing the no-fly zone and arms embargo, rather than allowing any continuing strikes against ground forces.
The resolution authorises the international community to use "all necessary means" to protect Libyan civilians, but the phrase has become open to different interpretations.
Nato ambassadors are also discussing a plan which would see Nato in charge of all military aspects of the action against Libya.
The BBC's Matthew Price in Brussels says it is understood that the entire operation would be overseen by a council of ambassadors and ministers from Nato countries, and importantly, Arab states which support the action.
But it is not clear what power such a council would have and whether it could veto particular military missions, our correspondent adds. UAE joins allies
The allies' efforts to recruit Arab countries to avoid an all-Western military presence received a boost on Thursday as the United Arab Emirates agreed to send 12 planes to help enforce the no-fly zone.
Qatar has already contributed two fighters and two military transport planes to the coalition and is expected to begin flying patrols over Libya this weekend.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the UN-mandated military operation was proving effective in protecting civilians, telling the BBC that he believed it would prevail over Col Gaddafi's forces.
"It has deterred further aggression of military campaign by Libyan authorities and it was able to protect the civilians in Benghazi and some other areas," he said. "But we'll have to see. I believe that the superiority of the military power will prevail."
There were explosions heard late on Thursday around the capital, Tripoli, and there have been reports that French aircraft bombed a Libyan base deep in the desert.
French officials also confirmed they had destroyed a Libyan military plane which had flown in breach of the no-fly zone.
The G-2/Galeb, a training plane with a single engine, had just landed when it was hit by a missile fired by a Rafale jet, a spokesman said.
It was the first such incident of its kind since the operation began.
Fresh fighting has meanwhile been reported in Misrata, scene of a bitter battle for control which has lasted for many days.
Further east in the strategically important city of Ajdabiya, residents described shelling, gunfire and houses on fire.
One report said rebels were moving closer to the city but remained out-gunned by pro-Gaddafi forces.
Syrian leaders have pledged to introduce reforms to meet the demands of protesters, after days of violence in the southern city of Deraa.
Officials promised to study the need for lifting the state of emergency, in place since 1963.
The government also said it would bring to trial those suspected of killing several protesters in Deraa.
President Bashar al-Assad later ordered the release of everyone arrested during the "recent events", state media said.
Presidential spokeswoman Bouthaina Shaaban blamed outside agitators for whipping up trouble, and denied that the government had ordered security forces to open fire on protesters.
Watch: Bouthaina Shaaban said the president expressed his condolences to the people of Deraa
But she said this "did not mean mistakes had not been made".
"We should not confuse the behaviour of an individual, and the desire and determination of President Bashar al-Assad to move Syria to more prosperity," she told a news conference in Damascus. Relaxing restrictions?
A committee would be set up to talk to "our brothers in Deraa" and bring to justice those responsible for killing protesters, Ms Shaaban said.
She also said the government would raise workers' wages, introduce health reforms, allow more political parties to compete in elections, relax media restrictions and establish a new mechanism for fighting corruption.
Ms Shaaban announced a similar package of reforms in 2005, but critics say her pledges were never enacted.
The announcement came as a surprise to many observers here.
Soon after the press conference, some political activists arrested in recent days were released. The prominent writer Louay Husein, arrested two days ago, is now out of detention and with his family.
The president's spokeswoman confessed that mistakes were made in Deraa, but said they were not the responsibility of the leadership. She denied reports that security forces attacked protesters in the city.
A call for a nationwide protest on Friday went out following the violence in Deraa. Those demonstrations will be a test of how the public receives the government concessions.
Opposition groups reacted to the news conference immediately, telling Reuters news agency that the Deraa committee would do nothing to meet the aspirations of the people.
Reuters reported that dissidents in Syria and in exile dismissed the reforms, calling for the immediate scrapping of the state of emergency and freeing of thousands of political prisoners.
Abdul-Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian Human Rights League, later said authorities had released several activists including prominent journalist Mazen Darwish and writer Louay Husein.
Ms Shaaban accused international media, including the BBC and CNN, of exaggerating the crackdown on the protesters.
Estimates vary as to how many people were killed in Wednesday's unrest.
Some reports quoting witnesses and activists have put the figure as high as 100; others have claimed about 15 people were killed.
The government said 10 people had died.
Ms Shaaban accused international news groups of distorting the news
Security forces opened fired on crowds three times in Deraa on Wednesday, activists and witnesses said.
The first clashes took place in the early hours outside a mosque. Later, witnesses said crowds at a funeral for those who were killed were themselves fired on.
Later on Thursday, the US issued a strongly worded statement condemning Syria's "brutal repression" of demonstrations.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the US called on the government in Damascus to "exercise restraint and respect the rights of its people".
President Assad succeeded his father in 2000 and has tolerated little dissent.
Are you in Syria? Have you family in Syria? What do you think of the government's pledge? Send us your comments and experiences.
Tens of thousands of people have gathered in Yemen's capital Sanaa for rival mass rallies, a week after 50 people were shot dead at a protest.
Anti-government protesters predict their biggest rally yet to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power since 1978.
Addressing a rally of his supporters, he said he was ready to hand over power but only to "safe hands".
While condemning bloodshed, he also urged his supporters to "stand firm".
Mr Saleh earlier denied that government forces had played any part in the shooting of demonstrators last week.
Both the government and opposition have set up checkpoints in Sanaa and the streets are full of armed men.
There is real fear of a new confrontation, a BBC correspondent reports from the city.
In public, at least, the man who has ruled Yemen for 32 years remains defiant. After the opposition rejected his offer of an early election, Ali Abdullah Saleh turned to the military units that defected from him, describing their decision to leave as "stupid" and offering them amnesty if they returned.
Mr Saleh is clearly running out of things he can offer the opposition but he still has plenty of military might and he has vowed to protect himself.
Western concern is that any chaos could be exploited by al-Qaeda, which has a presence in Yemen.
Flights out of Sanaa are full as many embassies evacuate their employees.
The opposition are calling the new rally a Friday of Departure but one student activist told me that Friday of Uncertainty would be more appropriate.
According to an AFP news agency report, Friday's crowds number hundreds of thousands.
President Saleh, dressed in a smart suit and sunglasses, took the microphone before a huge crowd.
"We don't want power but we need to hand power over to safe hands, not to sick, resentful or corrupt hands," he said.
"We are against firing a single bullet and when we give concessions this is to ensure there is no bloodshed," he added.
"We will remain steadfast and challenge them with all power we have."
On Wednesday, Yemen's parliament passed sweeping emergency laws giving security forces far-reaching powers to detain suspects and prevent demonstrations.
Mr Saleh has said the unrest risks taking Yemen into civil war.
On Monday a senior general, Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, defected to the protesters and sent troops loyal to him to guard demonstrators encamped in a square in Sanaa.
There are fears there could be clashes between units loyal to the president and those who support the protesters.
Other senior officials have also left Mr Saleh's side to go to the opposition.
There are reports that Gen Mohsen has met with Mr Saleh to discuss his options for leaving.
Yemen is one of a number of countries in the region that have seen unrest since the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were ousted in popular revolts.
The president also faces a separatist movement in the south, a branch of al-Qaeda and a periodic conflict with Shia tribes in the north.
Are you in Yemen? Are you involved in the protests? What do you think about the demonstrations? Send us your comments and experiences.
Tokyo's tap water is unfit for babies to drink after radiation from Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant affected the capital's water supply, officials said.
Radioactive iodine levels in some areas were twice the recommended safe level.
People in Fukushima prefecture, where the nuclear plant is located, have been told not to eat certain vegetables because of contamination worries.
Workers have been temporarily evacuated from the plant after black smoke was seen rising from reactor No 3.
Engineers have been trying to cool the reactors and spent fuel ponds to avoid a major release of radiation, after power to the cooling systems was knocked out by the earthquake and tsunami.
The authorities are warning people living in Tokyo not to allow babies less than a year old to drink water from the tap.
The level of radiation picked up in tests carried out on Tuesday was more than twice the level that is safe for infants to drink.
Reactor 1: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas explosion. Power lines attached.
Reactor 2: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage suspected. Power lines attached.
Reactor 3: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage possible. Spent fuel pond partly refilled with water after running low. Power lines attached.
Reactor 4: Reactor shut down prior to earthquake. Fires and explosion in spent fuel pond; water level partly restored. Power lines attached.
Reactors 5 & 6: Reactors shut down. Temperature of spent fuel pools now lowered after rising high. Power lines attached.
But officials have stressed that children would have to drink a lot of it before it harmed them. There is no immediate health risk to others.
The government has also ordered people living in Fukushima not to eat 11 types of green leafy vegetable grown locally that have been contaminated by radiation.
Local producers have been ordered not to send the goods to market, and in the neighbouring prefecture of Ibaraki they have been told to halt shipments of milk and parsley with immediate effect.
The Japanese Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said: "Even if these foods are temporarily eaten, there is no health hazard.
"But unfortunately, as the situation is expected to last for the long term, we are asking that shipments stop at an early stage, and it is desirable to avoid intake of the foods as much as possible."
He told a news conference that importers of Japanese foods should take a "logical stance".
The Food and Drug Administration in the US said that all milk and milk products and fresh fruits and vegetables from four Japanese prefectures - Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma - would be stopped from entering the United States.
Countries including China, Taiwan and South Korea have already been carrying out rigorous checks of Japanese food imports. Setbacks
The confirmed death toll from the earthquake and tsunami has risen to 9,408, and more than 14,700 people are listed as missing.
An estimated half a million people have been made homeless and some 300,000 people remain in evacuation centres or temporary housing.
Japan has said it will cost as much as 25 trillion yen ($309bn; £189bn) to rebuild the country after the disaster.
Meanwhile, work has been halted at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after black smoke was seen rising from reactor 3.
Radiation levels were reported to be unusually high before the smoke was spotted; they later fell but remain higher than in recent days.
Engineers were earlier forced to halt testing of the electrical system at reactor 2 after radiation levels spiked. There is also concern about the rising temperature at reactor 1.
Power cables have been connected to all six reactors, and lighting has been restored at reactor 3.
The BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo says the water pollution is a blow for Japan's government
The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), had hoped to try to power up water pumps to reactor 3 on Wednesday but it is unclear whether that will now happen.
Tepco has said restoring power to all the reactor units could take weeks or even months. Engineers' efforts have been frequently hampered by smoke and spikes in radiation.
On Tuesday, an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) senior official, James Lyons, said he could not confirm that the damaged reactors were "totally intact" or if they were cracked and leaking radiation.
"We continue to see radiation coming from the site... and the question is where exactly is that coming from," Mr Lyons told a news conference.
Are you in Japan? Are you taking part in the recovery
北约接掌维护利比亚禁飞区任务
而法新社则引一名拒绝透露姓名的美军军官称，北约组织成员国全体达成一致，除接管禁飞区外，还将负责所有保护利比亚平民的任务。
他特别强调这是一项政治协议。
不过这一说法暂时还没有得到北约组织的官方确认。
北约秘书长拉斯穆森此前透露，接管禁飞区的决定得到包括土耳其在内的所有北约成员国的支持。
土耳其此前曾经表示军事打击同为穆斯林国家的利比亚对其具有一定的政治难度。
拉斯穆森呼吁利比亚军队停止听从卡扎菲的命令。他说，只要他们仍遵守卡扎菲的号令，他们就会是北约的打击目标。
与此同时，欧美联军针对利比亚的空袭已经进入第六夜。
利比亚电视台报道称，利比亚首都的黎波里和附近的塔久拉都遭到袭击。
而在油港米苏拉塔和重要港口班加西以及战略重镇艾季达比耶，利比亚政府军与反政府武装间的冲突仍在持续。