• UN unable to update estimated death toll in Syria
• UN and NGOs slam Libya over 'torture' of detainees
• Egypt imposes 'travel ban' on American NGO workers
• Read the latest summary
More on those nasty reports from Libya.
Responding to the recent warnings from Amnesty, MSF and the UN, David Cameron's office has urged the country's authorities to "live up to the high standards they have set themselves."
They need to ensure a zero tolerance policy on abuse. We are concerned about these reports and are taking the up with the Libyans as a matter of urgency.
Christopher Stokes, the general director of MSF, has given more detail about his decision to suspend operations in Misrata to AP.
The group, which operates in the prisons but not the interrogation centers, said it contacted the National Army Security Service as well as authorities in Misrata...to demand an end to the abuse, but received no official response, prompting MSF to halt its operations in the city's detention centers.
Stokes said the situation was becoming "impossible and unacceptable".
This is not a decision we wanted to take because we have people on treatment basically. But we are not there to patch people up so they can be tortured between torture sessions.
The chief of the Arab League and Qatari prime minister are reportedly to head to New York on Saturday to seek support for an Arab plan for Syria.
Nabil al-Arabi said he and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani would "hold a meeting with the UN Security Council on Monday to seek ratification of the Arab League decision on Syria", AFP reported.
Inspired by the political transition in Yemen, the Arab plan envisages Bashar al-Assad making way for his deputy and the formation of a national unity government.
Amnesty International has called on Bahrain to investigate at least 13 deaths that followed the "misuse" of tear gas by security forces.
In a statement, AI says that a 20-year-old man was seriously injured and hospitalised on Tuesday after being hit on the head by a canister launched by riot police in Manama. This is just the latest instance which begs questions about the security forces' use of tear gas, it says:
A Bahraini human rights group has reported at least 13 deaths resulting from the security forces' use of tear gas against peaceful protesters as well as inside people's homes since February 2011, with a rise in such deaths in recent months.
"The rise in fatalities and eyewitness accounts suggest that tear gas is being used inappropriately by Bahraini security forces, including in people's homes and other confined spaces," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director.
"The Bahraini authorities must investigate and account for the reports of more than a dozen deaths following tear gas use. The security forces must be instructed on how to use tear gas in line with international policing standards."
Lina Ben Mhenni, the Tunisian blogger who played a crucial role in the Jasmine revolution, has said she will not stop writing despite being reportedly placed on a "death list" by Salafist hardliners.
Ben Mhenni, who was nominated for a Nobel peace prize last year, said she was told of the Salafists' move yesterday by a colleague who told her to be "very careful". In a blog post today, she writes:
I was not surprised at all as many other bloggers , human rights activists, journalists went through the same experience, either for denouncing obscurantism and extremism or for criticizing the new government.
The trigger for the move appears to have been some Koranic verses which Ben Mhenni shared online in order, she says, "to show those people how hypocrites (sic) and how far from Islam are they".
I just wanted to say that our religion is a religion of peace and tolerance...
Ben Mhenni updated her Facebook status to send a defiant message to those targeting her:
I was under the live bullets when you did not dare to reveal your ideologies and beliefs, and when you did not dare to have your beards and total veils, so I won't be afraid of you cowards.
She wrote on her blog:
I won't stop writing and denouncing their instrumentalization of our religion for political goals. Nevertheless, if anything happens to any Tunisian or to me because of these cowards, the government would be the sole responsible for this.
Last year Tunisians had a dream and we are going to fulfill it. No one will steal our hopes and wishes.
More diplomatic snippets on Syria:
• Russia will continue to promote its own draft UN resolution on Syria foreign, foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said, according to Reuters. "Russia introduced its own draft and worked on it taking into account amendments (suggested) by our Western colleagues. It remains on the negotiating table. Consultations on the draft continue and we hope this work will continue," it quoted him saying.
• The US State Department's top human rights official Michael Posner said Washington was keen to work with the Arab League to resolve the crisis and suggested that the Arab's timetable could go before the UN Security Council soon, according to the Jerusalem Post.
• Iran's Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi said the crisis in Syria should be resolved internally, according to Lebanon's Daily Star.
The Arab League has repeated its concern about the continuing fighting in Syria, the Kuwait News Agency said.
Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi in a statement issued by his office called for an immediate stop to the acts of violence and for the Syrian government to halt any military or security escalations against civilians.
He expressed his utmost confidence in the Arab League observer mission currently operating in Syria, headed by General Mohammed Al-Dabi, hailing their courage and determination under the toughest of circumstances.
Al-Arabi also pledged the League's member states' commitment of the mission.
There is no mention of the statement on the English language version of the Arab League's website.
There is a poll on the site which does nothing to instill confidence in the league's judgement. It asks users to express view of the site. The only options for feedback are: 'excellent', 'very good' or 'good'. 'Useless' is not an option.
The State Department's top human rights official has said that Egypt's move to enforce a travel ban on several American NGO employees could affect US aid.
Michael Posner, US Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights, has said the ban has raised fresh concerns about Egypt's transition to democracy, according to AP.
As Abigail Hauslohner, Time magazine's Cairo correspondent has tweeted, the move is "remarkable" given that Posner has been in Egypt this week.
On Tuesday, Posner met with Abdel Rahman al-Barr, a Muslim Brotherhood official. Barr said he had raised the issue of foreign NGO funding, inquiring whether the US embassy knew how its funding to Egyptian NGOs was spent, Al Masry Al Youm reported.
According to a statement on the Brotherhood's website afterwards, Barr was quoted as saying:
The Egyptian people consider America's claims that it respects democracy and freedom as mere words. US President Obama's promises, made during his visit to Egypt, have not been fulfilled, and Egyptians want to see more concrete steps in this regard.
The Syrian government is holding ceasefire talks with armed groups who have seized some areas near Damascus, a local official told Reuters.
Activists in the restive northeastern suburbs of Douma, Harasta and Irbin, some of which lie within eight km (five miles) of central Damascus, said they heard explosions from overnight clashes between security forces and insurgents.
Gunfire was close enough to be heard from central Damascus during the night.
"Many of them (in the opposition) have been misled. They will eventually come back to the right way," Hussein Makhlouf, governor of Damascus countryside, told Arab League monitors before they headed for Irbin on their first outing in a week.
"We have started a dialogue with them, including some armed groups that are controlling positions there," Makhlouf said.
He told the monitors that the authorities were using "the same approach as in Zabadani, so the same scenario will happen."
This month the military withdrew armoured vehicles encircling the rebel-held town of Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, after negotiating a truce with its defenders.
Doctors Without Borders has announced it is suspending work in Misrata because detainees are "being tortured and denied urgent medical care".
Since beginning work in the city in August, MSF doctors have been increasingly confronted with patients who have suffered injuries caused by torture during interrogation sessions," said a statement.
MSF General Director Christopher Stokes said certain officials had tried to "exploit and obstruct" the organisation's work.
Patients were brought to us for medical care between interrogation sessions, so that they would be fit for further interrogation.
This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions.
First the UN; then Amnesty; now MSF. This is beginning to look like a concerted effort to shine a light into some of Libya's murkiest corners.
Time for a summary of the latest developments across the region.
Syria
• Activists claim the Syrian Army has raided the Damascus suburb of Douma, hours after military defectors told the BBC that they controlled the town. One report said the army faced no resistance in Douma but an activist group said there were heavy clashes between the Free Syrian Army and the regular army.
• Arab League observers have resumed monitoring inspections for the first time since Gulf states pulled out of the mission. League officials are turning to the United Nations for help to resolve the crisis.
• The UN says is unable to update its estimate of 5,000 people killed in Syria since the uprising began more than 10 months ago. Human rights chief Navi Pillay said the death toll was more than that now but that the figure could not be updated because of "fragmentation on the ground". The Violation Documentation Centre, an estimate maintained by activists claims the death toll has reached 6,666.
• The International Committee of the Red Cross has demanded an investigation into the killing of a Red Crescent official. Dr Abd-al-Razzaq Jbeiro was shot while travelling on the Halab-Damascus road in a vehicle that was "clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem". The president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Dr AbdulRahman al-Attar, said that he has "officially requested the Syrian authorities to launch an investigation into the death of Dr Jbeiro." The government blamed terrorists for the killing, opposition activists said he was killed by an army sniper.
Libya
• Libya's new authorities are failing to stop the torture and ill-treatment of suspected pro-Gaddafi fighters and loyalists, Amnesty International said. The organisation said detainees were being subjected to torture on a regular, widespread basis, and that occasionally it was proving fatal. The findings came after UN human rights chief Navi Pillay expressed extreme concern about the treatment of detainees held by the various revolutionary brigades.
Egypt
• Egyptian authorities have slapped a travel ban on 10 staff members of US-funded NGOs- including the son of Barack Obama's transportation secretary- officials said. In a move likely to raise tensions between the two countries, staff at the International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI) have been told not to leave Egypt. Reuters reported that Sam LaHood, son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, was among those targeted. The ban is understood to relate to an ongoing investigation into foreign funding of NGOs.
• Scores of youths camped out overnight in Cairo's Tahrir Square and vowed to stay put until the army hands power to civilians, Reuters reported. A day after hundreds of thousands flooded the streets to mark the revolution's first anniversary, the square remained occupied by peaceful protesters.
Bahrain
• A man accused of "acts of sabotage" died in hospital while in police custody, according to the Interior Ministry. The MoI was reported by Reuters to have written about the death on its Twitter feed. It is not said to have elaborated on the cause of death.
• The head of the independent commission which criticised the Bahraini authorities' "excessive force" against protesters has said people would be "perfectly justified" in calling the government's subsequent investigations into human rights abuses "a whitewash". Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni told his university's American television channel that the government was exposing itself to criticism.
A Bahraini man accused of "acts of sabotage" has died in hospital while in police custody, according to the Interior Ministry.
The MoI is reported by Reuters to have written about the death on its Twitter feed. It is not said to have elaborated on the cause of death.
Egyptian authorities have slapped a travel ban on 10 staff members of US-funded NGOs- including the son of Barack Obama's transportation secretary.
In a move likely to raise tensions between the two countries, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI) say that the staff concerned had been told not to leave Egypt. Reuters reports:
The [NGOs] said the orders were related to judicial investigations launched last month into a number of NGOs for alleged violations of rules relating to the registration of organisations in Egypt.
Among those targeted is Sam LaHood, Egypt director of the International Republican Institute (IRI), whose father Ray LaHood is U.S. Transportation Secretary. The order affects four IRI staff, including three Americans, and six from the National Democratic Institute (NDI), also including three U.S. citizens.
Sam LaHood had tried to fly out from Cairo on Saturday and was told that he could not leave, one NGO official said.
Both organisations receive funding from US government agencies and are loosely affiliated to the two major US political parties. Last month Egyptian authorities launched raids on around 17 NGOs in an investigation into foreign funding. Reuters adds:
The judges investigating the case have charged the four members of the IRI with managing an unregistered NGO and being paid employees of an unregistered organisation, charges that could carry up to five years in jail, one NGO member said.
More grim news from Libya.
Hot on the heels of the UN's verdict on the country's detention centres, Amnesty International are reporting today that several detainees have died after being subjected to torture amid widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspected pro-Gaddafi fighters and loyalists.
AI delegates say they have met detainees being held in and around Tripoli, Misratah and Gheryan who showed "visible marks indicating torture inflicted in recent days and weeks".
Their injuries included open wounds on the head, limbs, back and other parts of the body.The torture is being carried out by officially recognized military and security entities as well by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework.
Amnesty says its delegates met a man in detention in Misratah on January 23. He told them:
This morning they took me for interrogation upstairs. Five men in plain clothes took turns beating and whipping me… They suspended me from the top of the door by my wrists for about an hour and kept beating me. They also kicked me.
The torture can be fatal, Amnesty adds. It cites two examples of men whose bodies, when returned to their families, showed signs of torture.
Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's Senior Crisis Adviser, said she did not underestimate the challenge facing Libya's new authorities- but criticised them nonethless for failing to improve detention conditions.
After all the promises to get detention centres under control, it is horrifying to find that there has been no progress to stop the use of torture. We are not aware of any proper investigations into cases of torture, and neither the survivors or relatives of those who have died in detention have had any recourse to justice or redress for what they have suffered.
The head of the independent commission which in November criticised the Bahraini authorities for using "excessive force" against protesters has said people would be "perfectly justified" in calling the government's subsequent investigations into human rights abuses "a whitewash".
Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, under whose guidance a 500-page report detailing abuses during the protests was published, told his university's American television channel that the government was exposing itself to criticism.
I think the public is going to come out in the end and say 'you know what? You're holding all these investigations behind closed doors. This is a whitewash'. And I think they would be perfectly justified in saying so.
He added that there would have to be major economic, political and constitutional reforms.
You have to choose between maintaining the unity of the family or the regime, or the unity of the country.
Protests are continuing in the Gulf state- and so are security force tactics which human rights activists denounce as brutal and disproportionate.
Maryam Alkhwaja of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) wrote on Twitter yesterday that she was waiting to see whether three recent deaths would be attributed by doctors to "regime violence".
If they were, she said, it would mean "the highest number of deaths in one month since march 2011."
Nabeel Rajab, president of the BCHR- who says he was himself badly beaten by security forces earlier this month- posted this Tweet:
worried seeing the escalation of violence and see the regime responsible 1 for it - let us work hard to stop it #bahrain
Has the crisis in Syria reached the level of "civil war"?
US Senate foreign relations committee chairman John Kerry told Foreign Policy magazine that it is getting "pretty close" to a civil war.
"It certainly has the feel of [a civil war]," said Kerry, who just returned from an 11-day trip around the Middle East. He said that the escalating violence in Syria was the number one topic of discussion in his meetings with regional officials, but wouldn't commit to advocating any specific US actions, such as directly aiding the opposition or establishing humanitarian safe zones near the border.
The crisis could "quickly mutate into an open ended civil war", according to Peter Harling from the International Crisis Group.
A Security Council resolution is the one available lever that could be brought to bear on a Syrian leadership that feels sheltered by the prevailing divisions on the international scene, and would rather take the country down the road to civil war than negotiate in order to obtain what still can be achieved (not least guarantees for the Alawite community, a phased hand-over of power, and the assurance of institutional continuity) at the cost of giving up on the hope that hunkering down and making reforms that only satisfy its supporters somehow will enable it to stay in power.
Enduring America prefers the term "insurrection":
For months we have held back from the term "civil war" to describe the situation in Syria --- that emotive term, in which "civil" might or might not be read as "sectarian", did not necessarily match up to the evolving state of affairs on the ground.
Now, however, we are prepared to put the political and military clashes within the framework of insurrection. After last week's claiming of two towns, Zabadani and Kafar Souseh, by the opposition, there is the prospect of others slipping beyond the control of the regime.
The activist group, the Local Coordination Committees in Syria have a new update on today's raid in Douma.
Security forces are conducting a widespread raid and arrest campaign in Hajjarieh, Abdel-Raouf, and Martyrs' Square. There is a heavy security presence all over the city; regime forces and their machine guns are stationed at all major points. The entrances to the city are sealed off, and all communications have been cut.
Video footage from Arbeen, a suburb that lies between Damascus and Douma, purports to show the area coming under assault.
The clip, which cannot be independently verified, was uploaded on Wednesday.
Arab League observers in Syria have resumed monitoring inspections for the first time since Gulf states pulled out of the mission, al-Arabiya reports.
Meanwhile the Arab League is reported to be turning its focus on the United Nations to help resolve the crisis, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
The Security Council could vote as early as next week on a new Syria resolution, according to Reuters.
Here's that BBC report from the Damascus suburb of Douma, recorded while the area was under the control of the Free Syrian Army.
"Thank God Douma is ours" a Free Syrian Army commander told reporter Jeremy Bowen. "Welcome, welcome BBC," protesters chanted.
There were reports today that Douma has been raided by the army [see 9.30am].
Yemen Election? What election? asks my colleague Brian Whitaker on his own blog al-Bab.
There's a woefully misleading report about Yemen from AFP this morning. It begins:
"Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh will stay in the United States beyond the election next month that will choose his successor ..."
Let's get this straight once and for all. The so-called election, scheduled for February 21, will not "choose" Saleh's successor. The successor has already been chosen. He is Vice-President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Hadi's name will be the only one on the ballot papers, because no other candidates have been allowed.
The "election" itself is illegal and invalid because the Yemeni constitution states very clearly that there must be more than one candidate. Even Saleh accepted that principle in two previous presidential elections (while of course ensuring that opposition candidates never stood a chance of winning).
Thanks to the diplomatic efforts of the Americans and the Saudis, this is turning into one of the more shameful episodes of the Arab Spring. Both countries are manipulating events in Yemen for the sake of their own short-term interests, with flagrant disregard for the long-term aspirations of the Yemeni people.
Saleh, who has been granted immunity from prosecution by the Yemeni parliament, headed for the United States on Wednesday after spending a few days in Oman. He is said to be on a private medical visit.
By granting him a visa and allowing him into the country without threat of arrest the US is now – in effect – playing along with the Yemeni parliament's disgraceful immunity deal. Last month, the White House said he would only be allowed into the country for "legitimate medical treatment" but that charade has now been more or less abandoned. It appears that Saleh will be "seeing consultants" in New York in connection with the bomb injuries he received last June but will not be staying in hospital. It's not even clear that he will receive any actual treatment.
The real purpose of Saleh's American sojourn was explained by Gerald Feierstein, the unpopular US ambassador in Sana'a, when he said: "We think that him not being here [in Yemen] will help the transition, we think it will improve the atmosphere."
There are suggestions that Saleh will return to Yemen after the non-election, for the swearing-in of President Hadi. Presumably the idea is that Saleh's attendance will give a public signal that Saleh accepts the transfer of presidential power from himself to Hadi. However, it is difficult to see how that will enhance Hadi's legitimacy. In the eyes of many Yemenis it will simply be a sign that the old system is changing its face while remaining largely intact.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay expressed concern about the controversial immunity deal that Saleh signed in return for pledging to transfer power. In a press conference last night she said: "I'm concerned about amnesty provisions that violate international law". [see 8.37am]
Hezbollah and Iranian snipers are helping the Assad regime crush dissent, a senior defector told the Times [behind a paywall].
It quotes Mahmoud Haj Hamad, a former defence ministry official who fled Syria last month, as saying.
The Syrian intelligence weren't qualified, they didn't have decent snipers or equipment. They needed qualified snipers from Hezbollah and Iran.
At the beginning there were hundreds, then when things started to get worse they started to bring in more outsiders. The numbers were huge — in the thousands.
Hours after the BBC reported from Douma, activists claim troops have stormed the Damascus suburb, AP reports.
Activist and resident Mohammed al-Saeed says thousands of troops, mostly in plainclothes, fanned out across his neighbourhood of Douma on Thursday morning, facing no resistance.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says "a large force" entered Douma. Regime troops left Douma on Sunday, following clashes with army defectors.
Last night the activist group the Local Coordination Committee in Syria had this update on Douma:
Heavy clashes with medium to heavy machine guns between the Free Syrian Army and the regime's security forces are reported amid a wave of new defections. The sounds of explosions were heard at the Jarra checkpoint after a complete electricity blackout. There are chants of Allahu Akbar coming from multiple areas.
Welcome to Middle East Live. It's a bit of mixed bag today. Here's a round up of the latest developments:
Syria
• The UN says is unable to update its estimate of 5,000 people killed in Syria since the uprising began more than 10 months ago. Human rights chief Navi Pillay said the death toll was more than that now but that the figure could not be updated because of "fragmentation on the ground".
The Violation Documentation Centre, an estimate maintained by activists claims the death toll has reached 6,666.
• The Free Syria Army controls a town a few miles north of the capital Damascus, the BBC's Jeremy Bowen reports from Douma. Douma is in the hands of the FSA and the people, Bowen tweeted.
• The International Committee of the Red Cross has demanded an investigation into the killing of a Red Crescent official. Dr Abd-al-Razzaq Jbeiro was shot while travelling on the Halab-Damascus road in a vehicle that was "clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem". The president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, Dr AbdulRahman al-Attar, said that he has "officially requested the Syrian authorities to launch an investigation into the death of Dr Jbeiro." The government blamed terrorists for the killing, opposition activists said he was killed by an army sniper.
The group is named after a a female Islamic warrior Khawla Bin Al-Azwar, according to dissident blogger Ammar Abdulhamid.
Egypt
Egypt's military council, which has promised to surrender power to a democratically-elected president by the summer, envisaged this most emotive of anniversaries as a celebration. But few who took to the streets believe their army's promises, and even fewer were in any mood for a party. Abdel Latif Ahmed, a 32-year-old poet, said: "But this just shows you that the revolution never went away – it is here, it is alive, and it is stronger than ever."
Libya
• The UN's human rights chief Navi Pillay has expressed extreme concern about the treatment of detainees held by the various revolutionary brigades. "The lack of oversight by the central authorities creates an environment conducive to torture and ill-treatment," she said, adding that her staff had received alarming reports on what was happening in places of detention.
Saudi Arabia
• A woman reported killed in car crash in Saudi Arabia has told the Guardian she is alive, and the real victim was an unnamed member of a desert community. Manal al-Sharif, the figurehead of a Saudi female driving campaign, said the woman who died in the fatal accident near Jeddah on Monday was not part of a group trying to overturn laws that ban women from taking the wheel.