• Free Syrian Army tell league they want to protect civilians
• Senior official defects from the Assad regime
• Opposition leader calls for international intervention
Here's a summary of the main developments so far today:
Syria
• Defence ministry official Mahmoud Sleiman Hajj Hamad has defected to the opposition. He told Al-Jazeera that more officials wanted to split from the Assad regime.
• Activists claim 10 people have been killed so far today, including up to seven near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor. US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said the Syrian government was to blame for the increase in violence.
• More video footage has emerged of soldiers announcing their defection a day after members of the Free Syrian Army met Arab League observers in Homs. The group insisted that they aimed to protect civilians.
• The Syrian government has released another 552 political prisoners, as part of its deal with the Arab League, taking the number released since the start of November to almost 4,000. Activists claim the regime is still holding at least 25,000 political detainees.
• The Arab League has turned to the United Nations for help after admitting "mistakes" in its Syria monitoring mission, AFP reports. US assistant secretary of state Jeffrey Feltman is due to hold talks with the Arab League about the future of the mission in Cairo today.
• The leader of the opposition Syrian National Council has called on the international community to impose a partial no-fly over Syria to help create a safe zone for defected soldiers and refugees. In an interview with the BBC World Service, Burhan Ghalioun urged the west to examine every option but said the opposition was against a Libya-style all out assault against Syria's air defences. His comments come after the SNC rejected a draft pact with another opposition group which involved a rejection of international interference.
Egypt
• Unofficial counts suggest the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party is once more leading the way in the third and final phase of elections for the lower house of the Egyptian parliament. Many analysts predict that the FJP which won an estimated 47% of the seats up for grabs in the first two rounds could end up with an overall majority at the conclusion of this phase. The FJP said turnout was 50% in the latest round of voting. The official turnout figures for the first and second round were 52% and 67% respectively.
Bahrain
• Footage has emerged of Bahraini police firing large amounts of teargas at apparently peaceful protesters in Sitra. The demonstration on Wednesday was held to protest over the death of a 15-year-old boy, Sayed Hashim Sayed Saeed, who died last week after he was shot in the face with a teargas cannister, according to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights [BCHR). A 55-year-old woman, Fakhria Jassim AlSakran, died on Monday after inhaling teargas, the BCHR said.
Libya
• The incoming UN Security Council president has called for an investigation into human rights abuses committed during NATO's bombing campaign to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. South Africa's UN ambassador Baso Sangqu, who holds the rotating Security Council presidency for January, said he believed Nato overstepped its mandate enforcing a no-fly zone, killing an untold number of innocent civilians.
The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party says turnout in the third and final round of elections to the people's assembly, the lower house of the Egyptian parliament was 50%, although that does not appear to be an official figure.
The figures in the first and second rounds were 52% and 67% respectively.
The FJP also notes "some violations by numerous candidates formerly affiliated with the dismembered NDP [Hosni Mubarak's former National Democratic Party] who ran independently in these elections were recorded".
Powerful footage has emerged purportedly of the moment that Bahraini riot police fired teargas at protesters in Sitra on Wednesday. It shows protesters approaching police lines with their arms outstretched to signal their peaceful intent. The police are then showed firing large quantities of the chemical agent.
The demonstration - mentioned in Wednesday's blog - was held to protest over the death of a 15-year-old boy, Sayed Hashim Sayed Saeed, who died last week after he was shot in the face with a teargas cannister, according to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights [BCHR).
The scenes underline analysts fears that the crackdown has increased in Bahrain since the Kingdom pledged to implement reforms following criticism by an independent inquiry of the way it had handled dissent.
At the demonstration, protesters had earlier unfurled a banner criticising Barack Obama for the appointment of the controversial former Miami police chief John Timoney by the Bahraini government.
Another Bahraini died on Monday as a result of teargas, according to the BCHR. It names the latest victim as 55-year-old Fakhria Jassim AlSakran. It says:
According to testimony taken by BCHR from her son, Fakhria was taken to hospital on 2 Jan 2012 and doctors tried to save her life and said she has shortness of breath before she was announced dead. She had good health and wasn't suffering from illnesses until she inhaled tear-gas on the new year's eve, her health had deteriorated and was taken to the ICU [intensive care unit]. Fakhryia lives in JidAli, an area that is regularly being attacked with excessive amount of tear gas.
The BCHR claims that more than 50 people have been killed at the hands of the security forces since protests against the Bahraini regime began on 14 February last year.
Activists claim 10 people have been killed so far today in Syria, including up to seven near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor.
The Local Coordination Committees in Syria said two others died in Homs and another in Idlib.
It named six of the seven people who died after the security forces stormed the town of Ghariba, in Deir Ezzor province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least four civilians were killed in Ghariba.
Yesterday activists hoisted a large independence flag on a suspension bridge leading to the city of Deir Ezzor.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been accused by many Egyptian revolutionaries of planning to carve up p power with the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (Scaf).
The Brotherhood has not refrained from criticism of the military. But activists claim it is too close the generals as evidenced byits willingness to stick to Scaf's timetable for elections and to not join calls for the presidential election to be brought forward.
Such fears were fuel on Tuesday when a spokesman for the Brotherhood suggested it would back a deal allowing military rulers immunity from prosecution in return for a peaceful handover of power.
In the Washington Post, Leila Fadel writes that analysts believe the Brotherhood is just waiting for the new Islamist-dominated parliament to convene before taking on the military in earnest.
The long-term interests of the military leaders and the Brotherhood "do not converge," said Shadi Hamid, an Egypt expert at the Brookings Doha Center.
"The military wants to effectively stay in power behind the scenes. That certainly is not what the Brotherhood wants."
In the bloody run-up to the elections, which began in November, the Brotherhood faced a storm of criticism from more centrist and liberal revolutionary parties, which alleged that the group was too close to the ruling generals. The Brotherhood's non-Islamist rivals have accused it of turning a blind eye to Mubarak-style human rights abuses at the hands of the military rulers and betraying the cause of the revolution for seats of power ...
But that reluctance to challenge the military rulers will change, analysts said, noting that the convergence of interest between the Brotherhood and the generals is only short-term.
Analysts say the Brotherhood is waiting to be part of a strong elected body, which the group sees as the only legitimate tool to push the generals out of power and to guarantee its own.
"They are purely political animals," said Marc Lynch, a Middle East expert at George Washington University. "They think that the only way to unseat the [generals] is to create an alternative institution, a strong parliament with electoral legitimacy."
Fadel also notes that Mohamed Beltagy, a leading member of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has said that Egypt's, peace treaty with Israel will be respected, at least during the transitional period.
But, he added, "the parliament has the right to revise whatever happened without the public's consent." A report in Haaretz on Monday
quoted Rashad Bayoumi, the deputy head of the Brotherhood, as saying it "will not recognise Israel under any circumstances" and that a referendum would be held on the future of the accords.
It will come as no great surprise that the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party is leading in the third and final round of elections for Egypt's lower house of parliament, according to al-Masry al-Youm.
The report is based on unofficial counts and only has details from a few of the 150 seats up for grabs but already suggests that the results are mirroring those in previous rounds.
In a pattern also reminiscent of the first two phases, the Salafist al-Nour party appears to be in second place. There were 100 party-list seats (where people vote for a party rather than an individual) and 50 individual seats up for grab in the third phase. Where no candidate obtained 50% or more of the vote, run-offs will be held on 10 and 11 January.
After the first two phases, the FJP had won an estimated 47% of the seats voted on, while al-Nour had won an estimated 24%.
Meanwhile, the FJP has sought to reassure critics that it will not use its position of power in the new parliament (some anticipate it will have an outright majority after completion of the third phase) to dominate drafting of the new constitution.
No party will be marginalised when the constitution is drafted. The constitution is for all of Egypt and not just the FJP and it will be chartered by individuals and intellectuals from different parties. All citizens regardless of their ideological and political principles will be represented.
The US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford has denied that his government is encouraging violence in Syria.
In his latest Facebook posting Ford (pictured) suggested that the Syrian government was to blame for the increasing bloodshed.
The question is what started all this violence and how to stop it? Can the Syrian government oppress a large part of the population that demands dignity and respect of basic human rights or is its violence making things even worse?
He said it was "not true" that the US was helping extremists or encouraging violence.
Ford added:
What concerns me the most about Syria right now is that one side refuses to recognise the legitimate grievances of the other side and by calling all peaceful protesters "terrorists" or "gangs" it makes finding a solution even harder.
On Wednesday foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdisi accused the US of
"inflaming and instigating violence" in Syria.
Syrian dissident and blogger Ammar Abdulhamid has more news of defections in his daily round up on the Syrian uprising.
Mahmoud Sleiman Hajj Hamad, the defence ministry official who defected on Wednesday, told al-Jazeera that more officials also wanted to split from the regime, according Abdulhamid.
He said that the Assad regime has so far spent over $35m to support the activities of his loyalist militias. He also said that most Syrian officials are under tight watch making it difficult for them to defect, but, he asserted, most of them want to defect.
Abdulhamid also highlights two video clips, here and here, or army officers declaring their defection at a rallies in Homs.
The Syrian government has released another 552 political prisoners, taking the number released since the start of November to almost 4,000, according to the state news agency Sana.
The figures give an indication of the scale of the arrests since the uprising began. Activists said Syria was still holding at least 25,000 political detainees, according to AP.
Sana said those released were "not involved in terrorist bloody acts of killings and explosions against the Syrians".
Syria agreed to release political prisoners as part of a deal with the Arab League to end its crackdown against dissent.
Soldiers who defected to the opposition after army checkpoints were overrun by armed militia in Idlib on Monday have appeared in video footage uploaded by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The defection video shows around 15 troops, some of whom appear to be teenagers, announcing their allegiance to the opposition and displaying their identity cards.
The Observatory said more than 20 members of the regular army defected after the operation. The raids were seen as a sign that the Assad regime has failed to snuff out armed resistance in Idlib's Jabal al-Zawiya mountains despite reports last month of a massacre of more than a hundred people in the area.
Qatar's prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani has admitted that the Arab League mission to Syria has made "mistakes," according to AFP.
On a visit to the United Nations Jassem (pictured with head of the league Nabil Alaraby) said:
We are coming here for technical help and to see the experience the UN has, because this is the first time the Arab League is involved in sending monitors, and there are some mistakes.
Welcome to Middle East Live. There is lots to catch up on in Syria, so here's a round up of the latest developments:
Syria
The meeting was hosted by local activist Khalid Abou Salah (in the striped blue jumper) who has appeared regularly in videos showing the observers around Homs. Activists claim the defectors insisted that they aim to protect civilians.
• A senior figure has defected from the Assad regime, Now Lebanon reports, citing al-Jazeera's Arabic channel. Mahmoud Sleiman Hajj Hamad, head inspector at the Syrian Defense Ministry and first inspector at the Monetary Center of the Interior Ministry, told Al-Jazeera television that he split from the regime.
• The leader of the opposition Syrian National Council has called on the international community to impose a partial no-fly over Syria to help create a safe zone for defected soldiers and refugees. In an interview with the BBC World Service (not yet available online) Burhan Ghalioun urged the west to examine every option but said the opposition was against a Libya-style all out assault against Syria's air defences. His comments come after the SNC rejected a draft pact with another opposition group which involved a rejection of international interference.
• Members of the Syrian National Council tried to unseat Ghalioun over the proposed pact with the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change, according to Syria watcher Joshua Landis. "Much of the criticism came from opposition members who reject that declarations renunciation of foreign intervention," Landis writes.
• Twenty more Arab League observers are due to arrive in Syria. The reinforcements are made up of 12 Iraqis, two Tunisians, and six Bahrainis.
As long as the observers are in Syria, the regime has no hope whatsoever of subduing the main hotspots. A de facto safe haven is therefore in the making, where defectors can seek shelter, safe from the regime's retribution.
Apparently, someone at the AL has thought things through more thoroughly than junior's conspiracy obsessed advisers have.
[Nabil] Alaraby [head of the league] wants desperately to show that the observer team is producing results. On the surface, his talk of the army completely withdrawing from cities might have seemed strange. But when you think about it, that's all the encouragement a defector-to-be-needs; when he knows that there are areas where his pursuers cannot go to chase him.
• The Syrian opposition and the Free Syrian Army can do little to control the increasing militarisation of the uprising, according to leading analyst Peter Harling from the International Crisis Group. Speaking to Reuters he said:
I don't think the Syrian National Council has much leverage over the Free Syrian Army, and I don't think the Free Syrian Army has much leverage itself over what is happening on the ground. People see a source of legitimacy in this (FSA) label, but what you have is groups emerging on a very local level, mostly composed of civilians, joined by defectors. But it's local dynamics rather than national.
Egypt
• The prosecution in the trial of Hosni Mubarak says Egypt's ousted president, along with his security chief and six top police officers, were the "actual instigators" of the killing of more than 800 protesters during last year's uprising that brought down his regime. Chief prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said the defendants clearly authorised the use of live ammunition and a shoot-to-kill policy against peaceful protesters.
Libya
• The incoming UN Security Council president has called for an investigation into human rights abuses committed during NATO's bombing campaign to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. South Africa's UN ambassador Baso Sangqu, who holds the rotating Security Council presidency for January, said he believed Nato overstepped its mandate enforcing a no-fly zone, killing an untold number of innocent civilians.
Iran
• European governments have agreed in principle to impose a ban on imports of oil from Iran in a significant escalation in the international pressure on Tehran. On Wednesday night a European diplomat said there was now a consensus that the ban on crude imports would be applied, but that there was still debate on the timing and duration of the measures.