• Syrian opposition derides parliamentary poll
• 'Insult' triggers presidential election row in Egypt
• Bahrain human rights activist questioned about tweets
Egypt: Two media rights groups have condemned the Egyptian military for assaulting and arresting journalists who were covering the recent violent crackdown on anti-military protesters in Cairo, AP reports.
Reporters Without Borders said it recorded 32 attacks on journalists during the clashes in the Egyptian capital last week.
The journalists were among 300 people arrested during Friday's violence, which broke out when thousands of protesters marched toward the defence ministry demanding the country's military rulers step down immediately ...
The New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists urged Egypt's ruling military council to investigate allegations that two journalists were "viciously beaten up by soldiers".
Syria: Hama-based activist Mousab Alhamadee told the Guardian the elections were "sarcastic comedy" and claimed shelling has been going on in Hama despite the presence of two UN observers.
Alhamadee is part of the Local Coordination Committees activist network. He said:
Yesterday, there were voting centres inside Hama city but actually yesterday was a strike. It was a full strike in whole districts of Hama. Hama yesterday was like a ghost city. No-one was moving in the streets, all shops were closed, schoolchildren didn't go to school ...voting was a complete failure inside Hama ...
The regime is just trying to make sarcastic comedy by these elections. There are just trying to show the world that they are making reforms but actually even the voting itself is previously decided and we know the results even before the voting ...
We have two UN observers who are staying in Hama but unfortunately they can't stop killing and they can't stop shelling. Actually, here on the ground we feel they are so weak they don't have effective means to stop what the regime is doing here in Hama ...The regime always has pretexts to offer to UN observers and the rest of the world. The regime can't stop killing. This shelling will continue, we know that, we know that UN observers will fail to stop that because if that stops, demonstrations will turn to be so huge, so big and the regime will be in a difficult situation.
Syria: Six youths have been killed by shelling and gunfire in Idlib, in north-west Syria, according to the Local Coordination Committees activist group (LCC). It says dozens more have been injured.
The deaths take the number killed by the security forces across Syria today to 16, according to the LCC. Its reports cannot be independently verified.
Syria: Syria is finding it increasingly hard to buy grain on international markets because sanctions have blocked its access to trade finance. Meanwhile, growing numbers of its citizens are struggling to obtain food after more than a year of conflict, Jonathan Saul of Reuters reports.
The European Union, the United States and other Western countries have imposed sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad's government in response to his bloody crackdown on a revolt that has cost more than 10,000 lives.
The measures, which include asset freezes and financing restrictions, have hurt Syria's vital commercial grain trade.
Syria relies on food imports for almost half of its total needs, with wheat used for food, while maize and barley are used mainly for animal feed.
"Syria has deep problems at the moment finding companies willing to offer grain such as barley. You can't open a letter of credit and the risks associated with any deal seem to be rising all the time," one trade source said.
"The Commercial Bank of Syria (the country's largest state-owned bank) is not accepted any more and there are currency related difficulties, so they are going to find it hard to meet their grain needs."
Syria: A sit-in has been taking place outside the prosecutor's office in the justice department in Aleppo, demanding the release of students arrested in last week's raid on Aleppo University, according to the Local Coordination Committees activist group.
The raid on the university on Wednesday night/Thursday morning last week left at least four students dead with dozens more wounded and scores arrested, according to activists.
Urban unrest: Poor urban infrastructure and high youth unemployment have helped fuel the Arab Spring, a new report by UN Habitat says. The report,
The State of Arab Cities 2012, urges governments across the region to tackle both if they want to prevent further unrest.
Although the primary trigger for unrest across the region in the past year appeared to be a desire for more freedom in the face of entrenched autocracies, the report says social factors intensified people's frustration and need to be addressed along with their political concerns.
The urban population of Arab cities is expected to more than double to 438.6m by 2050, increasing demand for housing, social services and infrastructure.
Syria: In a report from al-Qusayr, in Homs, a section commander in the Free Syrian Army told al-Jazeera that they are using the ceasefire to regroup.
The report also shows a visit by UN observers to the town, which has suffered heavy shelling by government forces.
The section commander said:
No doubt we are reinforcing our positions and we are certain once observers leave Assad's army will shell the area, wreak violence, destricution and killing. Any person appearing on your screen will find all his family members killed the next day. We are taking precautions.
Syria: The Syrian government has hailed a "remarkable" turnout in Monday's parliamentary elections, Chinese website People's Daily Online reports.
Syrian Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Sha'ar said Monday that the parliamentary elections were held smoothly with a "remarkable" turnout.
"The voting is moving normally... There is no problem so far except for some matters that usually happen in any electoral climate," he was quoted by the state-run SANA news agency as saying.
Meanwhile, Khalaf al-Azawi, head of the higher committee for elections, said there was no complaint so far about the voting process.
The Guardian's Martin Chulov wrote that "many voting booths in the country's war-torn areas remained closed throughout the day or were poorly attended".
The global campaign group Avaaz claimed 40% people voted in Aleppo, with many dragged out of their offices and forced to vote. The national turnout at the 2007 presidential referendum was said to be 95.86%.
The US said on Monday that the election "borders on ludicrous".
Syria/Lebanon: Lebanese authorities have seized 60,000 rounds of ammunition hidden in two cars on an Italian container ship docked at Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, Reuters reports, citing a security source.
The source did not say where the shipment was heading. But Syria has repeatedly said weapons are being smuggled over its border from Lebanon and other countries to arm rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
The two cars, searched on Monday, held 60,000 bullets including rounds for 9mm pistols and Kalashnikov (AK-47) rifles, the source said. "The ship is Italian but picked up the two cars in (the Egyptian port of) Alexandria," he added.
In late April, Lebanese authorities seized a large consignment of Libyan weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy calibre ammunition from a ship intercepted in the Mediterranean. The ship's owner said the vessel was travelling to Tripoli in Lebanon.
Tripoli, a mainly Sunni Muslim city, has seen regular protests in support of the 14-month uprising against Assad.
Syria: The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has gained permission to visit a second Syrian prison later this month and is rapidly scaling up other aid efforts in Syria. From AP:
ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger says the Red Cross will visit a prison in Aleppo in mid-May, its second to a prison since visiting one in Damascus last year, and aims to push for access to others.
He told reporters Tuesday that the Red Cross still lacks enough information to provide an accurate "overview" of conditions for detainees nationwide.
Syria still has not granted access for Red Cross officials to visit most prisons in the country.
The ICRC has appealed for 24.5m Swiss francs (£16.4m) to support assistance efforts until the end of 2012 for the 1.5m people it says have been affected by the fighting in Syria. Kellenberger said:
We will provide monthly food parcels for around 100,000 particularly vulnerable people and household essentials for up to 25,000 people.
Syria: Syrian security forces have today shelled the central provinces of Hama and Homs killing at least five people, an activist told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
"Four people were killed in the shelling that targeted areas at the outskirts of Hama, while at least six people were wounded when shells fell on al-Rastan in Homs," activist Omar Homsi told dpa.
In areas at the outskirts of the capital Damascus, troops stormed the area of Doumeir, killing a man and arresting at least 20 others, activists reported.
The Local Coordination Committees activist group says two shells fell on Deraa in the south and it also reports that there has been "intense gunfire from combat vehicles at the northern entrance to the town".
The Daily Star Lebanon reports security forces opening fire in Idlib and Homs.
Syrian forces Tuesday swept through a village in Idlib province, firing shells and bursts of gunfire in which two civilians were killed, while another man was shot dead by snipers in Homs, a watchdog said.
The overnight military raid in Al-Tamanaa village killed a man and a 50-year-old woman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP ...
Another civilian died by sniper fire in the central city of Homs, Abdel Rahman said, adding that he was gunned down at a security checkpoint in the neighbourhood of al-Qusair.
Tunisia: Workers at the presidential palace have gone on strike – a development that Tunisia Live describes as "the first of its kind in Tunisian history".
The workers are said to be asking for an increase in their special grant for clothing, a simplification of the procedure for joining a union, and a bonus for working at the presidency.
Syria: The regime's mouthpiece, Addounia TV, was having technical difficulties with its blanket coverage of the country's elections yesterday, Rania Abouzeid writes in an article for Time.
Two attempts to provide live broadcasts from its correspondent in the hardscrabble Syrian province of al-Raqqa had failed. Still, the journalist Hussein Makki, decked out in a neat cream-colored jacket over a pale blue shirt, waited patiently to deliver his report from a near-empty polling booth in a local school.
"The news from Raqqa is very good, there have been crowds of people at the polling stations from this morning," he said when the feed went up. "It's clear Syria is heading toward democracy, and God willing, it will become an Arab model, an Arab dream."
... Addounia had back-to-back coverage of the election throughout the day, splitting its screen four ways (and sometimes six) to present images from polling stations across the country.
Many of the feeds were tight shots focused on the election monitors seated behind ballot boxes. At one point, a shot from a town on the outskirts of the capital Damascus went black, after the minutes-long feed showed that the station appeared empty. Three officials were idly waiting for voters who didn't show up during the live transmission.
Egypt: Saudi Arabia says it will not involve itself in the Egyptian presidential election and does not back any candidate.
In an interview with al-Arabiya news channel (reported by al-Masry al-Youm), the Saudi ambassador to Egypt, Ahmed al-Qattan, denied rumours that the kingdom supports Amr Moussa, though he described the former Arab League chief as a statesman who has broad support.
Bahrain: The pro-government Gulf Daily News reports a claim by anonymous sources that "an illegal network of saboteurs has been carrying out attacks in Bahrain based on instructions from abroad".
Rioters in trouble hotspots co-ordinate with a local ringleader who passes on directions from the London-based outlawed opposition group the Bahrain Freedom Movement, said sources involved in investigating attacks against policemen and collecting evidence.
The report goes on to say that some youths have been paid to protest. Its source is quoted as saying:
They pay these young men money starting from BD5 ($13) to attack policemen by stones, homemade weapons and Molotov cocktails.
Some youths are contacted by these protest leaders to attack policemen in villages.
They have no idea what their actions could lead to and are told to keep a low profile after the incident until they receive new instructions.
Most of these youths have expensive photography equipment, which they use to capture videos or images that are posted on their social networking websites.
Good morning. Welcome to Middle East Live. During the day we shall be monitoring unrest in Syria, Egypt, Bahrain and other parts of the region. Here is a summary of the latest developments.
Syria
• Syrians voted yesterday in parliamentary elections that were hailed by the government as a landmark in the country's reform programme, but derided as a sham by groups opposed to the current regime, who refused to take part.
Polls to elect members of Syria's 250-member parliament opened at 7am on Monday and closed 13 hours later, although many voting booths in the country's war-torn areas remained closed throughout the day or were poorly attended, Guardian reporter Martin Chulov writes.
Egypt
• Investigating judges sent 293 Egyptians to trial Monday on charges of resisting authorities, damaging public property and carrying knives and fire bombs during an anti-government protest last year, the Associated Press reports.
A three-week sit-in in December outside the cabinet building turned violent when troops badly beat a protester. In four days of clashes that followed, 14 people were killed and hundreds injured.
The defendants, including 24 minors, are also accused of burning a research centre housing old manuscripts, attempting to storm the interior ministry and practising medicine without a permit a reference to the protesters setting up field hospitals to treat hundreds of wounded.
• Egypt's presidential elections committee said it would stop its work in preparation for presidential elections due later this month after what it said was an insult to the committee by members of parliament during its session on Monday.
The committee said it would not meet today as planned with presidential candidates and media figures pending "suitable conditions for the meeting", Reuters reports.
Bahrain
• Police arrested Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), on return from Beirut on Saturday evening.
A member of the BCHR told Reuters that prosecutors then questioned him extensively about his posts on Twitter before he was taken to court on Sunday morning on previous charges of organising a protest inside Manama in March.
"The police arrested him near the plane's door. They said they had an arrest warrant from the public prosecutions office... At the prosecutor's office, it was all about tweets," the BCHR member said, adding it was not clear if the questioning about messages on Twitter would lead to new charges.
Several hundred protesters gathered outside Rajab's home on Sunday evening, chanting "down with (king) Hamad" and slogans demanding his release.