Two dead as Bahrain police break up protest camp

MANAMA (Reuters) – Bahraini police broke up a protest camp in a central Manama square early on Thursday, killing at least two people, as they tried to end three days of demonstrations inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, witnesses and the opposition said.

"Police are coming, they are shooting teargas at us," one demonstrator told Reuters by telephone. Another said: "I am wounded, I am bleeding. They are killing us."

One protester said he had driven away two people who had been wounded by rubber bullets.

Thousands of overwhelmingly Shi'ite protesters took to the streets this week demanding more say in the Gulf Arab island kingdom where a family of Sunni Muslims rules over a population that mostly belongs to the Shi'ite sect.

Hundreds had camped out at Pearl Square, a road junction in the capital that they sought to turn into the base of a long-running protest like that at Cairo's Tahrir Square which led to the downfall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

But the square appeared nearly empty of protesters early on Thursday after police moved in and was littered with abandoned tents, blankets and rubbish. The smell of teargas wafted through the air and two ambulances were seen rushing from the scene.

A teenager shepherded a sobbing woman into a car, saying she had been separated from her 2-year-old daughter in the chaos. At a main hospital, about 200 people gathered to mourn and protest.

"I was there... The men were running away, but the women and kids could not run as easily, some are still inside (the square)," said Ibrahim Mattar, a parliamentarian from the main Shi'ite opposition Wefaq party, which has walked out of parliament.

"It is confirmed two have died," he said. "More are in critical condition."

Bahrain's Interior Ministry said on Twitter that security forces had "cleared Pearl roundabout" of demonstrators, and that a section of a main road was temporarily blocked.

On Wednesday the party demanded a new constitution that would move the country toward democracy.

"We're not looking for a religious state. We're looking for a civilian democracy ... in which people are the source of power, and to do that we need a new constitution," the group's general secretary Sheikh Ali Salman told a news conference.

BULWARK

The religious divide that separates Bahrain's ruling family from most of its subjects has led to sporadic unrest since the 1990s, and Bahrain's stability is being closely watched as protest movements blow through North Africa and the Middle East.

It is considered the state most vulnerable to popular unrest in a Gulf Arab region where, in an unwritten pact, rulers have traded a share of their oil wealth for political submission.

Regional power Saudi Arabia, and the United States -- which bases its Fifth Fleet in Bahrain -- both view the ruling Khalifa family as a bulwark against Shi'ite Iran.

King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa introduced a new constitution giving Bahrainis more political rights a decade ago, but the opposition says he has not gone far enough to introduce democracy. Most of the cabinet are still members of his family.

Protesters have called for him to fire his uncle, Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has been prime minister since the modern state was founded in 1971. Wefaq members say they want elections for prime minister.

Protesters' wrath had already been stirred up by the deaths of two of their number during this week's demonstrations, the second killed in clashes at the funeral of the first.

"The people demand the fall of the regime!" protesters chanted outside the hospital.

Protesters who on Wednesday had expressed confidence they were secure in the square, said they had no idea their encampment would be broken up. Opposition parliamentarian Sayed Hadi said dozens were wounded.

"There was no single warning. It was like attacking an enemy. People were sleeping peacefully," one demonstrator said, declining to be named.

King Hamad has expressed condolences to relatives of the two dead men killed on Monday and Tuesday and said a committee would investigate. His government says it has detained people suspected of blame for the deaths.

(Additional reporting by Cynthia Johnston in Manama; Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Egypt-inspired protests gain pace across region

PARIS (Reuters) – Anti-government protests inspired by popular revolts that toppled rulers in Tunisia and Egypt are gaining pace around the Middle East and North Africa despite political and economic concessions by nervous governments.

Clashes were reported in tightly controlled oil producer Libya, sandwiched between Egypt and Tunisia, while new protests erupted in Bahrain, Yemen, Iran and Iraq on Wednesday.

The latest demonstrations against long-serving rulers came after U.S. President Barack Obama, commenting on the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, declared: "The world is changing...if you are governing these countries, you've got to get out ahead of change, you can't be behind the curve."

With young people able to watch pro-democracy uprisings in other countries on satellite television or the Internet, and to communicate with like-minded activists on social networks hard for the secret police to control, authoritarian governments across the region have grounds to fear contagion.

Protests spread across Yemen on Wednesday demanding an end to the president's three decades in power, and a 21-year-old demonstrator died in clashes with police in the south, witnesses and medical sources said.

In Sanaa, capital of the Arabian Peninsula state, hundreds of government loyalists wielding batons and daggers jumped out of cars to chase around 800 protesters marching in the streets.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a U.S. ally against al Qaeda who has been in power in fractious Yemen for 32 years, was quoted by the state news agency as saying the unrest was a foreign plot to foment chaos in Arab countries.

Saleh has pledged to step down when his term expires in 2013 and offered dialogue with the opposition, but radical protesters are demanding he go now.

In Bahrain, protesters poured into the center of the capital Manama on Wednesday for the third successive day to mourn a demonstrator killed in clashes with security forces on Tuesday.

The emirate has a history of protest over economic hardship, the lack of political freedom and sectarian discrimination by the Sunni Muslim rulers against the Shi'ite majority.

Some 2,000 protesters demanding a change of government were encamped at a major road junction in Manama, seeking to emulate rallies on Cairo's Tahrir Square that toppled Mubarak.

Though itself only a minor oil exporter, Bahrain's stability is important for neighboring Saudi Arabia, where oilfields are located in an area populated by an oppressed Shi'ite minority.

DISTURBANCES AT IRAN FUNERAL

In Iran, supporters and opponents of the hardline Islamic system clashed in Tehran during a funeral procession for a student shot at an anti-government rally two days ago, state broadcaster IRIB reported.

Both sides claimed Sanee Zhaleh was a martyr to their cause and blamed the other for his death.

Monday's rallies in Tehran and several other Iranian cities were the first staged by the Green pro-democracy movement since security forces crushed huge protests in the months after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed 2009 re-election.

Hundreds of opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in power since 1969, clashed with police and government supporters in the eastern city of Benghazi in Wednesday's early hours, a witness and local media said.

Reports from the port city, 1,000 km (600 miles) east of the capital Tripoli, said protesters armed with stones and petrol bombs set fire to vehicles and fought with police in a rare outbreak of unrest in the oil-exporting country.

Gaddafi's opponents used the Facebook social network to call for protests across Libya on Thursday.

In Iraq, three people were killed and dozens wounded in the southern city of Kut as protesters demanding better basic services fought with police and set government buildings on fire, hospital and police sources said.

Some shouted, "Down, down (Prime Minister Nuri al-) Maliki's government, down, down with corruption," echoing rallies that have buffeted other parts of the Arab world, although Maliki unlike other Arab leaders was democratically elected.

Iraq is still struggling to get back on its feet almost eight years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Infrastructure is dilapidated, electricity is in short supply and jobs are scarce.

POLITICAL, ECONOMIC CONCESSIONS

Rulers in several countries, drawing lessons from events in Tunisia and Egypt, have announced political changes and moved to cut prices of basic foodstuffs and raise spending on job creation in efforts to pre-empt spreading unrest.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika promised to lift a 19-year-old state of emergency soon and has acted to reduce the cost of staple foods in the North African oil and gas exporter.

Authorities deployed an estimated 30,000 police in Algiers on Saturday to prevent a banned pro-democracy march. Several hundred protesters defied the ban and dozens were detained.

A coalition of civil society and human rights groups and an opposition party vowed afterwards to demonstrate every Saturday until the military-backed government is removed.

Morocco, where the main banned Islamist opposition movement warned last week that "autocracy" would be swept away unless there were deep democratic reforms, announced on Tuesday it would almost double state subsidies to counter an increase in commodity prices and address social needs.

Syria, controlled by the Baath Party for the last 50 years, released a veteran Islamist activist on Tuesday after he went on hunger strike following his arrest 11 days ago for calling for Egyptian-style mass protests, human rights activists said.

Jordan's King Abdullah has sacked his prime minister and appointed a new government led by a former general who promised to widen public freedom in response to anti-government protests.

Countries with oil and gas wealth such as Saudi Arabia and Algeria appear better placed than poorer countries like Egypt and Tunisia to buy social peace.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Yemen protests: 20,000 call for President Saleh to go

More than 20,000 anti-government protesters gathered in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, for a "day of rage" against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The demonstrators called for a change in government and rejected Mr Saleh's offer to step down in 2013 after more than 30 years in power.

Meanwhile, a similar number of his supporters rallied in a central square.

The gatherings are the largest in two weeks of protests inspired by the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

In an emergency parliament session on Wednesday, Mr Saleh, 64, laid out his plans to move aside, saying he would not seek to extend his presidency when his current term expires in 2013 and pledging not pass on power to his son.

Despite his call to protesters to cancel their planned rallies, both pro- and anti-government demonstrators gathered in different parts of Sanaa.

"The people want regime change," anti-government protesters shouted as they gathered outside Sanaa University. "No to corruption, no to dictatorship."

The so-called "day of rage" was organised by civil society groups and opposition leaders who complain of mounting poverty among a growing, young population and frustration with a lack of political freedoms.

Unemployment in Yemen runs at 40%, and there are rising food prices and acute levels of malnutrition.

The country has also been plagued by a range of security issues, including a separatist movement in the south and an uprising of Shia Houthi rebels in the north.

There are fears that Yemen is becoming a leading al-Qaeda haven, with the high numbers of unemployed youths seen as potential recruits for Islamist militant groups

Two protesters killed in clash with police in Tunisia

Two people were killed and at least 17 others injured in a clash between protesters and police on Staturday night in Kef, a city 220 km west of the Tunisian capital.

Protesters called for the dismissal of the city's police chief, Khaled Ghazouani, due to his relationship with ousted president Ben Ali's powerful RCD party and for abuse of power, state TV reported.

The clash flared up after Ghazouani slapped a woman in a demonstration.

Dozens of people gathered at the government building demanding Ghazouani's dismissal, witnesses said. Police opened fire at the protesters, killing two people.

The incident in Kev is among the most serious in the past few weeks following the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi who set himself on fire last December, sparking nationwide protests which led to the ouster of Ben Ali and the collapse of his regime.

Ceasefire agreed but Thai-Cambodian border 'tense'

PHNOM PENH — Thailand and Cambodia negotiated an end to deadly fighting on their border on Saturday, both armies said, after at least four people were killed in clashes near a disputed temple.

"Thailand and Cambodia have agreed a ceasefire and both sides will not reinforce their troops," Thai army spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd told AFP after military commanders from both sides met for talks in a border town.

A Cambodian general also confirmed the end to hostilities, but added that the "situation right now is still tense".

One Thai soldier was killed in brief morning skirmishes near the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, following two hours of heavy fighting on Friday that left a Cambodian soldier and a Thai civilian dead.

Military sources said a Cambodian civilian who made a living photographing tourists at the temple had also been killed in Friday's clash, although the Cambodian government declined to confirm this.

Reports from the border suggested four captured Thai soldiers were returned following the ceasefire talks. Both sides have reported injured troops.

Thousands of people fled the border area on Friday as villages were evacuated on both sides after fighting between the neighbours erupted for the first time in more than a year when simmering border tensions boiled over.

Both countries have accused the other of starting the latest violence and using heavy weapons such as mortars, rockets and artillery.

Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong has written to the United Nations to draw its attention to the "explosive situation at the border".

Blaming the fighting on "flagrant aggression" by Thai troops, he said "Cambodian troops had no option but to retaliate in self-defence", in a letter addressed to UN Security Council president Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti.

He did not explicitly call for UN intervention.

Thailand, which convened an urgent security meeting on Saturday afternoon, has said it was also considering filing a complaint to the UN.

The United States urged both sides to exercise "maximum restraint".

Thailand has accused Cambodia of shelling a village, while Cambodia said Thai armed forces had fired artillery shells about 20 kilometres (12 miles) inside Cambodian territory.

Cambodia said the fighting had caused "serious" damage to the ancient Preah Vihear temple, which was granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008 straining ties between the neighbours.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that Preah Vihear itself belonged to Cambodia, although its main entrance lies in Thailand and the 4.6-square-kilometre (1.8-square-mile) area around the temple is claimed by both sides.

The Thai-Cambodia border has never been fully demarcated partly because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.

Thailand and Cambodia have been talking tough on the border issue, which some observers say serves nationalist goals at home on both sides.

Tensions between the two countries have flared in recent weeks in the wake of the arrest of seven Thai nationals for illegal entry into Cambodia in late December.

Egyptian gov't in talks with Muslim Brotherhood

The Egyptian government will hold talks with Muslim Brotherhood, after the influential opposition group finally agreed to have dialogues with Vice President Omar Suleiman in a bid to end the country's political turmoil, officials said on Saturday.

In what would be the first dialogue of its kind between the two sides, Suleiman will meet members of Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday at the Egyptian cabinet, officials from the brotherhood told reporters.

The topics will be centered on power transition and the future of the country, they said.

The group, which had been rejecting the government's offer for talks, changed its mind after the top executive committee of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party, including President Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal Mubarak, resigned on Saturday, the 12th day of Egypt's unrest, which saw fewer protesters in Cairo's downtown Tahrir square.

The resignation of the ruling party leadership was Mubarak's latest move to appease protestors demanding his resignation as president. According to analysts, it erased any chances for Gamal Mubarak to succeed the presidency.

Before the Muslim Brotherhood, two other main Egyptian opposition parties, namely El Wafd and El Tagammu, consented to dialogues with the new cabinet on Saturday, in response to calls from Suleiman.

With the Muslim Brotherhood on board, almost all legal political parties have agreed to dialogue with the government.

Earlier, the group and top opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei said that they would not accept any dialogue before the immediate departure of Mubarak.

Mubarak announced on Tuesday that he did not intend to run for next term. But he insisted on staying in power until his term ends after presidential elections in September.

The military, which is crucial for deciding whether the embattled president will step down, has so far given no hint of its stance.

The 12th day of the nationwide anti-government demonstration seemed to be relatively quiet, with a few thousands of protestors still sitting in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo.

Rise of Islamist movements is a price Egypt will have to pay

One of the most interesting developments in Cairo's Tahrir Squre over the weekend was the request made yesterday by an Egyptian commander, who asked the crowds to disperse "to save Egypt." The general stood before the masses, in a scene free from violence or confrontation, imploring the people in the square to go home. But they refused his entreaties, responding with: "The people want Mubarak out."

Opponents of the regime, as well as the country as a whole, are entering a dangerous interim phase - one in which no dramatic developments or decisions will be made. Time is working against the opposition, and against Egypt itself. By deciding on Friday not to march on the presidential palace, and to stay instead in Tahrir Square, the opposition decided to forgo driving Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak out by force.

For its part, the army has allowed masses to assemble in the square and has not interfered there, on the reasonable assumption that the hundreds of thousands who gathered on Friday, which reduced to tens of thousands yesterday, will thin out to just thousands during the course of the week, until the protests there finally dissipate altogether.

But in the meantime, Egypt has been paralyzed. Every day that the country's institutions fail to function, the economy suffers huge losses.

The opposition is also in distress for a variety of reasons, of which exhaustion is only one. The demonstrations have already raged for 12 days, some more violent, some less. The most central problem for opponents of the Mubarak regime, however, is the absence of a unified central leadership that can set goals and strategies.

The former head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, is not particularly charismatic and despite his efforts to portray himself as a future president, he has not managed to unite the opposition. Some see him as a foreign transplant, someone who jumped on the bandwagon and linked himself too quickly with the Muslim Brotherhood.

A clear divide is also apparent within the ranks of the opposition, between the small secular organizations represented in the parliament on the one hand, and the Muslim Brotherhood and 26 smaller organizations leading protests on the square on the other. While the organizations that participated in the elections have now agreed to negotiate reforms with newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman in advance of proposed September elections, the other camp has given no such consent. One of leaders of the demonstrations in the square, Mohammed Al-Hadiri, has said the protesters will remain in the square until Mubarak is driven out completely.

A group of young demonstrators has made an effort to close ranks by appointing a committee that will represent them - including ElBaradei, Arab League chief Amr Moussa and Nobel Prize-winnning chemist Ahmed Zewail - none of whom have concealed their desire to run for president at the appropriate time.

In addition, members of the so-called "moderate" opposition have also been exposed to the rhetoric of Muslim Brotherhood spokesmen, such as Rashad al-Bayoumi, who has argued that after Mubarak departs and a temporary government is installed, the peace treaty with Israel must be rescinded. Some secular opponents of the regime understand the price Egypt will pay "the day after" - in the form of the rising political power of the Islamic factions.