• Libya marks first anniversary of uprising against Gaddafi
• Protests grow in Damascus
• Britain promises £2m aid to Syrian civilians
• Latest summary
Here's a brief summary of key developments today:
Libya
• Libyans are celebrating the first anniversary of the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi, though there are still concerns about the transitional government's inability to assert control over local militias.
Syria
•
Heavy shelling is again reported in the Bab Amr district of Homs, though – perhaps more worrying for the Assad regime – protests seem to be growing in Damascus.
• Britain is to provide £2m-worth of food and medical supplies to Syrian civilians suffering as a result of the violent crackdown, prime minister David Cameron announced.
• There have been many tributes to Anthony Shadid, the highly respected New York Times reporter who did yesterday in Syria at the age of 43. He had apparently suffered an asthma attack.
It has often been said that the Syrian regime need not be seriously worried about its survival unless large-scale protests break out in Damascus and Aleppo. Well, perhaps now is the time for Assad to start worrying.
The evidence, inevitably, is impressionistic and anecdotal but it does seem that demonstrations in the capital are becoming bigger and more widespread – especially over the last couple of days. The Enduring America blog thinks so, too.
We're now getting a bit more detail on the anniversary celebrations in Libya. Here's a picture from Tripoli showing a huge flag-waving crowd in Martyrs Square.
Lindsey Hilsum, who covered the Libyan uprising for Channel 4 News last year, finds herself blogging about its anniversary from Moscow:
There's nothing Libyans like more than a party – gathering in a square waving their beloved red-black-green flags, painting the children's faces with the national colours and singing patriotic songs. And shooting their Kalashnikovs into the air. Because one year after the start of the revolution, six months after from the fall of Tripoli, four months after from the killing of Gaddafi militiamen are still armed and on the loose.
The weak National Transitional Council seems unable to restore law and order. The armed groups are fighting each other, and this week Amnesty International reported that they're are imprisoning and torturing people just like Gaddafi's forces did.
Over in Benghazi, Houda Mzioudet writes that Libya's second largest city is "swinging to the rhythm of patriotic songs emanating from cars and shops".
Libyan independence flags adorn the streets, cars, houses, and official buildings on nearly every corner and hundreds of people – men and women, young and old – have filled Ashajara Square in the city centre ...
As the sun set last night, residents of Benghazi began to trickle into Ashajara Square to attend a concert featuring Masood Boseer, a guitarist from Benghazi, who joined the Libyan rebels on the battle front during the war against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
His songs, such as "Sayabqa watani qawiyan, sayabqa watani aliyan", (which translates as "My nation will remain strong, my nation will remain high up in the sky"), became recognised by Libyans around the world for embodying the spirit of the uprising.
Click here for a sample of Boseer's music.
I think this may be first demo of its kind among the Arab countries – with Tunisia once again in the forefront.
Some 4,000 people have signed up on Facebook to attend a "legalise cannabis" protest outside the National Constituent Assembly building in Tunis tomorrow.
The Tunisialive website explains:
The organisers of the event argue that Tunisia's anti-cannabis laws are unnecessarily stringent, and without precedent elsewhere in the world. In Tunisia, if an individual's blood is tested positive for smoking cannabis, the person will be automatically subject to a minimum sentence of one year in jail and a 1000 dinar fine – or as they say in Tunisia "One year and a Vespa" (in reference to a year in prison and a fine equivalent to the price of a Vespa motorcycle).
In the meantime, there's a snag. Tomorrow's demonstration appears not to have been authorised by the interior ministry and may therefore be as illegal as the cannabis (or zatla, as they say in Tunisia) that it is seeking to legalise.
You couldn't make it up. Or perhaps you could. The Assad-friendly Cham Times website has just posted a fascinating bit of regime propaganda (in Arabic).
The gist of it is that a French military battalion is surrounded in the Zabadani area of Syria.
Obviously, this could mess up Sarkozy's re-election prospects, so French foreign minister Juppe is asking Russian foreign minister Lavrov if he will ask the Syrian authorities to let the French troops escape through Lebanon.
Here we see the easily-recognisable shabbiha (government thugs) detaining a protester in the Mezze district of Damascus.
More Syria-related news from the Anglo-French summit in Paris. The Press Association reports:
Britain is to supply £2m-worth of aid to Syrian civilians suffering as a result of the violent crackdown on protests against the Assad regime, prime minister David Cameron announced today.
Mr Cameron said that the money will provide vitally needed medical supplies and food for more than 20,000 people affected by fighting in the city of Homs and elsewhere in Syria.
Two videos said to have been filmed today around the Mustafa mosque in the Mezze district of Damascus. Above, crowds take cover as shots ring out ...
... and an injured man is hustled away from the scene.
Hmmmm! Not sure this was the smartest way to mark the occasion:
Prime minister David Cameron gave French president Nicolas Sarkozy a warship shell casing today as a gift to mark the one year anniversary of the Libyan revolution.
The high-explosive remnant is one of just three recovered from the 209 shells fired from HMS Liverpool during its involvement in Libya.
Mr Cameron holds one and defence secretary Philip Hammond has the other.
Its inscription reads: "Presented by the prime minister to President Sarkozy on the occasion of the UK-France summit and the first anniversary of the Libyan revolution, 17 February 2012."
HMS Liverpool, based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, was the first Navy vessel to be fired on for 30 years while it was off Libya last year.
From the Press Association
Here's a brief summary of developments so far today:
Libya
• Libyans are marking the first anniversary of the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi, though there are still concerns about the transitional government's inability to assert control over local militias.
Syria
• Once again, heavy shelling is reported in the Bab Amr district of Homs. Activists have described it as the heaviest bombardment since the attack began 13 days ago.
• A Chinese envoy is expected to arrive in Damascus today. Meanwhile, China says it has not been invited to an international meeting about Syria next week.
• There have been many tributes to Anthony Shadid, the highly respected New York Times reporter who did yesterday in Syria at the age of 43. He had apparently suffered an asthma attack.
My colleague Paul Owen has been liveblogging David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy's joint press conference in Paris, during which the leaders of Britain and France discussed Syria.
Cameron said the situation in Syria was "appalling" and said the government was "butchering and murdering its own people".
He said that Syria was different to Libya in three ways: in Libya the west had a UN resolution, the Arab League was calling for action, and the opposition represented the whole country, he said.
He called Bashar al-Assad a "brutal dictator". Cameron also announced Britain would send food rations to 20,000 people in Syria.
Sarkozy said they needed to strengthen sanctions against the Syrian government and assist the opposition in coming together and uniting for joint action.
The main obstacle to progress was not Russian and Chinese opposition in the UN but the need for the Syrian people to unite, he said. The revolution cannot come from outside, he said.
A snippet from Reuters about today's anniversary in Libya:
Libyans took to the streets on Friday to celebrate the first anniversary of the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, but some rued the insecurity and disorder that still stalk a country preparing for its first free election.
Flag-waving crowds converging on Martyrs Square in the capital Tripoli or Freedom Square in Benghazi, cradle of the revolt, had to negotiate extra checkpoints set up authorities to stop Gaddafi loyalists from disrupting festivities.
Spontaneous celebrations began on Thursday night when men, women and children emerged on the streets of Tripoli, Benghazi and other towns waving flags and chanting.
"Despite the problems that remain in the country, this is an amazing day and we want to celebrate," a 22-year-old engineering student called Sarah said in Tripoli. "Just look at what was achieved in this past year."
Thousands of people turned out in Damscus yesterday for the funeral of Osama Shaaban who is said to have died of injuries inflicted by the shabbiha (government thugs). The video above shows a huge procession in the Mezze district of the Syrian capital. It is remarkable for its size and also for its location – in what was once considered part of the regime's heartland.
Many tributes on Twitter to New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid:
and
I cannot think of a journalist whose reporting over the past year has affected me more
Craig Kanalley of NBC News has compiled some more on Storify.
Establishing a buffer zone in northern Syria would not create the "safe haven" that many people hope for, Chris Doyle of the Council for Arab-British Understanding warns in a letter to the Economist. Instead, he suggests it would become a battleground, especially if the area were used to train opposition fighters. He continues:
There is also no chance of the Assad regime acquiescing in its establishment. Any soldiers trying to head towards the area would be shelled by the regime. The zone itself would come under fire. It would be the last place Syrian civilians would go to seek safety as it would become the next centre of fighting, where the regime would have the advantage of knowing where all its opponents are going. Many Syrians are actually taking refuge in the cities that have not borne the brunt of fighting, where they do feel safer.
Arming the opposition has only helped to increase the bloodshed. The regime, in its bloodthirsty fashion, has upped its firepower to quash opponents with weaponry they cannot match. Whatever the outside powers do for Syria it must not make matters worse than they already are.
Shelling in Homs this morning is described as intensive. The video above is said to have been filmed in the Bab Amr district at 7am.
It's hard to be sure what Libyans as a whole think of their situation a year after the uprising began, but one of the few opinion polls suggests that in the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi and Misrata at least they are broadly positive.
The poll by ORB International, conducted towards the end of last year with a sample of 1,249 people, found that 80% thought the country was "going in the right direction", though they also thought "overall security" (34%) and "disarming rebels" (21%) were the most urgent issues.
The vast majority (82%) were either fairly satisfied or very satisfied with "life in Libya these days" and 85% said they "strongly support" the removal of the Gaddafi regime.
Not unexpectedly, there are reports that shelling of the Bab Amr district in Homs has resumed this morning. Al-Jazeera says shelling is also reportedly directed at the neighbourhoods of Khaldiyeh, Bayada and Inshaat.
Ammar Abdulhamid's Syrian Revolution Digest puts yesterday's death toll at 70, "including 19 political detainees who were executed by loyalist militias along the Ariha-Jisr Ashoughour Highway in Idlib province". The Guardian is unable to verify these figures independently.
China has so far not received a formal invitation to the international meeting in Tunis which is scheduled for next week to discuss the Syria crisis, Reuters reports.
The meeting on 24 February – under the auspices of the newly-created "Friends of Syria Group" – will be attended by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, European and Arab League foreign ministers.
"According to my knowledge, China has not yet received a formal invitation, so I'm afraid at this point it is hard to say whether China will send a representative," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told a daily news briefing.
The Chinese deputy foreign minister, Zhai Jun, is due in Syria today as part of Beijing's own diplomatic efforts to end the crisis.
Reporting from Tripoli on the anniversary of the uprising against Gaddafi, Maggie Michael of the Associated Press presents a chaotic picture:
Hundreds of armed militias are the real power on the ground in the country, and the government that took the longtime strongman's place is largely impotent, unable to rein in fighters, rebuild decimated institutions or stop widespread corruption ...
Libya has been flipped upside down, from a country where all power was in the hands of one man, Gaddafi, to one where it has been broken up into hundreds of different hands, each taking its own decisions.
Meanwhile, Amanda Kadlec of the Carnegie Middle East Center acknowledges the problems but suggests the situation is gradually improving, with most of the militia rivalries less pronounced than they are in Tripoli.
Many expect that inter-militia tensions will dissipate following the election of a constituent assembly and a universally acknowledged central authority.
The presence of weapons also does not necessarily indicate that militias have a need to use them; given the militias' degree of fragmentation, no group is capable of decisively defeating the others, leading to a general incentive to refrain from violence rather than induce it. For the most part (aside from isolated turf scuffles that appear unrelated to tribal affiliation) militias have sought to provide security to their respective localities, not disrupt it.
Furthermore, though a comprehensive long-term strategy for disarmament and reintegration has yet to be developed, it is happening, albeit on an ad hoc and uncoordinated basis.
Good morning and welcome to Middle East live. Today is the one-year anniversary of the uprising against the Gaddafi regime in Libya. We shall be keeping our eyes on events there, as well as the continuing bloodshed in Syria.
Here's a brief summary of developments so far:
Syria
• The UN general assembly has approved a resolution backing the Arab League's plan for Syria and calling on President Assad to step down. It also strongly condemned human rights violations by his regime. Voting was 137 in favour with 12 against and 17 abstentions.
• There are many tributes this morning to Anthony Shadid, the highly respected New York Times reporter who did yesterday in Syria at the age of 43. He had apparently suffered an asthma attack.
Libya
• It's exactly one year since the start of the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi – and a moment to take stock of what has happened in Libya since then. Here's an assessment written by the late Anthony Shadid little more than a week ago.