Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Return to Violence in Tahrir Square

A protester in Cairo's Tahrir Square last night

2055 GMT: Back to the lead story to wrap up today --- Ahram Online's video recording the clash in Cairo's Tahrir Square between security forces and protesters:

See also Egypt Feature: Clashes in Cairo

2100 GMT: Bahraini authorities have released 20 more medical staff who were detained in connection with the uprising against the regime, but they will still face military trial.

The 20 are among 48 doctors, nurses, and paramedics who were arrested. All by 14 have now been released, although the court proceedings, which have taken place over the last two weeks, will continues.

The release comes days before a "national dialogue" hailed by the regime as a chance for reconciliation.

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The Latest from Iran (29 June): Possibility of a Blackout

2020 GMT: The Dorm Attacks. Fourteen Tehran University students have been given fines, floggings, and prison terms from three to 10 months over an attack by security forces and plainclothes officers on university dormitories three days after the 2009 Presidential election.

Activists claim that five students were killed in the raids, and hundreds were injured and arrested.

Iranian authorities denied the involvement of security forces or any deaths among the students. No regime officer has been punished over the incidents.

1935 GMT: Labour Front. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has honoured Mansur Osanloo, President of the Tehran Bus Workers' Union, by making him an honorary member.

The Teamsters awarded the membership "in recognition of [Osanloo's] struggle for freedom of association". They continued with reference to Iranian workers, "Their struggle is our struggle. The Teamsters will work with unions worldwide to warn all investors, especially those investing workers' capital, of the grave risks of investments in Iran and Iranian controlled enterprises due to the disrespect of basic worker rights and the rule of law in Iran."

Osanloo was sentenced in July 2007 to five years in prison for "acting against national security" and "propaganda against the state" in his union activity. He was recently released on bail.

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Yemen Feature: The Looming Humanitarian Crisis (Kasinof)

While Yemen’s political crisis stagnates — a popular uprising has stalled and a wounded president has not been seen publicly for weeks — its economic crisis has only grown worse.

The breakdown of public services, shortage of fuel and rising prices for food and water have made life exceedingly difficult for most Yemenis, and threaten to become a humanitarian crisis that could overshadow the political one.

“I sat at home for four days because I couldn’t get gasoline for my car,” said Ahmed al-Dubae, a taxi driver. “Those who have money, they can still get around. But those who don’t have money, their only choice is to go home and sleep.”

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Iran Interview: Repression, Protest, and the Women's Movement (Abbasgholizadeh)

Since Iran's 2009 presidential election, the women's movement has focused on the status of female political prisoners and the daily government crackdowns. Women's rights activists have broadened their human rights efforts. They are pursuing their cases not just in Iranian courts, but also in the international arena in their attempt to confront state violence with non-violence.

These activists simultaneously continue to battle gender inequalities, which are getting worse. Inequalities still exist in family laws favoring men, gender segregation in universities, and the exclusion of women from educational opportunities.

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Afghanistan: NATO Helicopters Break Taliban Siege of Intercontinental Hotel; At Least 18 Killed (Pajhwok News)

Complementing this report from Afghanistan's Pajhwok News, the BBC emphasises that the insurgents were killed by a NATO aerial attack on the rooftop of the Intercontinental Hotel. Afghanistan officials say one insurgent, hiding in a hotel room, subsequent blew himself up, also killing two police and a Spanish tourist.

Eight civilians, two policemen and eight Taliban fighters were among 18 killed in a suicide attack on the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel, the Ministry of Interior said.

The attack began around 10:30 PM Tuesday and lasted until 3:00 AM Wednesday morning.

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Egypt Feature: Clashes in Cairo

Protesters in Tahrir Square on Tuesday night (Photo: Ed Ou for The New York Times)

In the Egyptian capital Cairo, there were running clashes overnight between security forces and thousands of protesters, injuring dozens.

The wider context is a sit-in, including families of those killed during the uprising against President Mubarak, which started outside the State TV building last week. There have been skirmishes with security forces, who reportedly tried to clear the sit-in yesterday. Protesters regrouped Tuesday night outside the Ministry of Interior, where two demonstrators wounded earlier in the day were said to have been taken. Fighting broke out, as protesters threw stones and security forces fired tear gas and blocked off streets.

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The Latest from Iran (28 June): Towards the Next Elections

1810 GMT: Khamenei's Balancing Act? More on the statement of the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, Mojtaba Zolnour (see 1435 GMT)....

While defending Ayatollah Khamenei's support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 election, Zolnour said that the "nezam" (system) was interrogating elements of the "deviant current".

Significantly, Zolnour indicated that the President's right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai was the head of this deviant current and that the Guardian Council would reject him as a Presidential candidate in 2013.

1800 GMT: Ahmadinejad v. Khamenei? The pro-Ahmadinejad Absar News has warned the "aghazade-ha" (sons of influential persons) not to eliminate the President.

So at whom is Absar pointing? Digarban thinks it is Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the Supreme Leader.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Should the Opposition Join a "National Dialogue"?

2039 GMT: After the rebels have advanced near Zintan, capturing a series of underground bunkers south of the city and infusing fresh weapons into their ranks, destroying many Gaddafi heavy vehicles in the process, here is a map of the latest situation in Western Libya.

1925 GMT: As the BBC report we linked to earlier suggested, the Libyan rebels have captured a large weapons cache in the Nafusa Mountains, in western Libya. This infusion of weapons will bolster the rebel ranks, who often find themselves significantly outgunned:

"Long convoys of pickups and tractor trailer trucks could be seen streaming across the desert to the site after the fighting. They were loaded with rockets, ammunition, high-caliber guns and assault rifles before heading back to rebel-held cities. The insurgents also seized dozens of military vehicles at the site, which consisted of dozens of concrete storage mounds scattered across the desert."

Despite these gains, the final hour of the Gaddafi regime may still be a ways off:

1834 GMT: Women protest today on Dablan St, Homs, Syria:

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US Campaign 2012: How Michele Bachmann Confused John Wayne with a Killer Clown

Michele Bachmann is the new darling of many Republicans in the Presidential race for 2012. The Congresswoman was once distinguished by flamboyant remarks such as, "I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence." (The 1976 swine flu scare, which had a sequel in 2009, occurred during the Presidency of Republican Gerald Ford.)

Now, however, Bachmann seems to be been tagged a contender --- she wanted to treated "more seriously than Sarah Palin", according to the BBC --- for the GOP nomination. This appears to have occurred because she trumped six Republican male candidates in the first debate with lines like "As president of the United States, I will not rest until I repeal Obamacare."

Still, the Congresswoman can slip back into her old verbal ways. On Sunday, as she launched her Presidential campaign in front of her childhood home, she told Fox News, "I want [people] to know just like John Wayne is from Waterloo, Iowa, that's the spirit I have too. It's embracing America. It's sacrificing for America."

Only one problem: Marion Mitchell Morrison, later renamed John Wayne, was born 150 miles away in Winterset, Iowa.

Serial murderer John Wayne Gacy, known as the "Killer Clown", lived and worked in Bachmann's native town of Waterloo.

Turkey-Israel Feature: As a New Flotilla Prepares to Sail, Ankara and West Jerusalem Endure the Chill (Slavin)

Turkey and Israel are close to resolving their dispute over last year's flotilla fiasco, but the partnership that existed between them for more than a decade will almost certainly stay submerged.

As a new flotilla of ships prepared to set sail for Gaza Tuesday, Turkish and Israeli officials and analysts said that only a major breakthrough on Israeli-Palestinian peace could begin to revive a relationship that once featured joint military exercises and hordes of Israeli tourists visiting Istanbul. Even then, the officials said, they doubted that the warmth of the 1990s and the mid-2000s would resurface.

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