Egypt‘s ruling military council has said it would clear protesters from a central Cairo square with „firmness and force“ to allow life to return to normal.

Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, a senior military officer blamed trouble in Tahrir Square on „elements that backed the counter-revolution“, a reference to people loyal to the administration of deposed President Hosni Mubarak.

„Looking at Afghanistan and Iraq…, we will take decisions on military involvement elsewhere only when he have a 100 percent conviction that it is absolutely necessary,“ said Tusk, who faces parliamentary elections in the autumn…

Das Bundeskabinett wird am Mittwoch möglicherweise noch nicht über eine Beteiligung der Bundeswehr an einem humanitären Einsatz in Libyen entscheiden.

(24.März) Yemen‘s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, this week received the biggest blow yet to his hopes of staying in power when Yemen‘s top-ranking military commander demanded his resignation and promised to protect anti-regime protesters from assaults by security forces. Few here deny that Major General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar has been a part of all political equations in Yemen for the past three decades.

A billionaire Yemeni sheik met with a high-ranking officer from the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa less than two years ago and revealed a secret plan to overthrow President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s longtime autocratic ruler…
The de facto chief of Yemen’s largest tribal confederation, Ahmar told the U.S. official in August 2009 that his scheme would hinge on persuading a powerful Yemeni general, Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar (no direct relation) to abandon the president and join the opposition. Last month, the general did just that, with Hamid al-Ahmar, now considered a potential presidential candidate, playing a key behind-the-scenes role.

Der frühere Generalinspekteur Harald Kujat warnte indes vor einer weiteren Eskalation. „Wenn man Bodentruppen zum Schutz humanitärer Konvois einsetzt, dann ist es bloß noch ein kleiner Schritt, bis man tatsächlich in Kampfhandlungen verwickelt ist – und sei es nur zur Selbstverteidigung“, sagte er der MZ. „Man kommt damit in eine Situation hinein, in der man richtig Krieg führt. Im Extremfall kann es uns sogar passieren, dass wir Verluste durch eigene Luftangriffe erleiden.“

Der frühere Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr, Harald Kujat, hat vor dem Einsatz von deutschen Bodentruppen in Libyen gewarnt.

Eine Delegation der Afrikanischen Union (AU, Abkürzung wörtlich zu nehmen) hat sich Monate nach Ausbruch des Bürgerkriegs tatsächlich dazu bequemt ihren faulen und korrupten Corpus Delicti nach Libyen zu bewegen.

President Jacob Zuma will travel to Libya on Sunday for a meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said on Friday.

Zuma will participate in the meeting in his capacity as a member of the African Union Ad hoc High Level Committee on Libya.

The union‘s special committee on Libya — comprised of leaders from Mauritania, Congo Republic, Mali, Uganda and South Africa — will meet in Mauritania. The committee will then travel to the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi to meet with the opposition leaders on Sunday and Monday, according to the South African government.

The South African government also said NATO has granted the committee permission to meet with embattled ruler Moammar Gadhafi in the capital city of Tripoli.

A team of African leaders, headed by South African President Jacob Zuma, is heading for Libya this weekend on a key diplomatic mission.

Two reporters from the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper and three TV correspondents from NTV television were captured by Libyan rebels near the town of Adjdabia earlier on Friday. They were last reported being moved to Benghazi in eastern Libya.

El Khabar has suggested that the units might have been involved in a special operation against forces loyal to embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi…
Mission command shifted from the United States to NATO on March 27.

Security forces in Bahrain have arrested and beaten one of the country‘s leading human rights activists, his daughter says. The activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, was seized in the middle of the night and taken away with his two sons-in-law.

Israel hat dem UN-Sicherheitsrat und der EU mit »unilateralen Maßnahmen« gedroht, sollte die UN-Vollversammlung Palästina im September zum unabhängigen und souveränen Staat erklären…
Rund ein Dutzend lateinamerikanischer Staaten hat Palästina inzwischen als unabhängigen Staat anerkannt. Den Anfang machten Kuba, Nicaragua, Costa Rica und Venezuela, in den letzten Monaten folgten Brasilien, Argenti­nien, Bolivien, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Paraguay und Uruguay…
Norwegen hat indes das Büro des palästinensischen Repräsentanten in Oslo von einer allgemeinen zu einer diplomatischen Delegation erhöht.

I am pleased to stand with my colleagues today who are outraged at Nobel Peace Laureate President Obama’s decision to wage war on Africa in Libya. At the outset, let me state that Libya is home to tens of thousands of foreign students and guest workers. The students come from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. The messages I have received from concerned Africans state that these young, innocent people, inaccurately labeled by the U.S. press as “Black mercenaries,” have been trapped in hostile territory and are hated by the U.S.-allied Al Qaeda insurgents. The press forgot that Libya is in Africa and that Libyans are Black!

In den ersten Monaten des Jahres 2011 hat sich das zionistische Verbrecherregime im Vergleich zum Vorjahr etwas zurückgehalten und sch über drei Monate hinweg damit begnügt, insgesamt nur ein paar Dutzend Palästinenser zu ermorden. Nun aber, nachdem die Lobby des zionistischen Regimes den US-geführten Angriffskrieg gegen Libyen organisiert hat und die Weltöffentlichkeit deshalb abgelenkt ist, lässt das zionistische Verbrecherregime seiner Mordlust wieder freien Lauf.

Zwei israelische Raketen hätten das Fahrzeug getroffen, mit dem Tajser Abu Snima und zwei weitere Kämpfer in der Nähe von Rafah unterwegs gewesen seien, erklärte die Hamas.

French helicopter gunships launched rocket attacks on President Laurent Gbagbo’s palace in Ivory Coast’s main city Abidjan on Friday night, according to witnesses.

1) The Army is co-opting the revolution/trying to establish another military dictatorship.
WRONG…please take a minute and stop thinking of the Army as a monolith or an institution, and think of it as a bunch of human beings…
2) The NDP/Mubarak is still controlling the country.
WRONG. The supreme majority of the NDP are shitting in their pants…
3) The Islamists are hijacking the revolution.
WRONG. The Islamists are getting weaker by the day….
4) New Parties are the only way to save the next elections.
WRONG!..
Unbeknownst to most of you, there is a new rising power in the Egyptian street and it’s not affiliated with any party of clique, and it’s called the people’s committees. At first they were formed to protect their areas, but during the referendum they started evolving into a civil force that help campaigns and did their best to monitor the elections. Now those committees are getting in contact with each other and forming coalitions. I have met representatives who have formed coalitions of 40 or 50 such committees all over Egypt, and they are organizing a conference for all of Egypt’s committee reps this June…

Egyptian state prosecutors order that Zakaria Azmi be jailed for 15 days pending a corruption investigation.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered Friday in Cairo‘s Tahrir Square for a protest titled „Day of Justice and Cleansing.“

In an amazing twist, the people of Egypt are returning to Tahir Square in protest at the military rule that replaced the last dictator, Mubarak.

Yemen‘s struggle to overthrow the president has brought stability and peace to a country riven by conflict. This is truly historic.
by Tawakkol Karman

Jüngste Vorschläge von Ouattaras Kämpfern, den belagerten langjährigen Machthaber „auszuhungern“, lehnte der Leiter der UNO-Friedensmissionen ab. Die UNO-Mission in Cote d‘Ivoire (UNOCI) habe kein Mandat für derartige Maßnahmen, sagte Le Roy weiter. „Damit es klar ist: Wir unterstützen das nicht, haben damit auch nichts zu tun“, sagte Le Roy.

Einen Tag vor der Parlamentswahl in Nigeria sind bei einem Bombenanschlag mindestens sechs Menschen ums Leben gekommen. Das bestätigte die Sprecherin des staatlichen Sicherheitsdienstes, Marilyn Ogar…
Der Anschlag auf ein Büro der Wahlkommission ereignete sich am Nachmittag (Ortszeit) in Suleja nahe der Hauptstadt Abuja.