Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Demonstrations and Deaths

2030 GMT: Thanks to Ali Yenidunya for handling the LiveBlog while I was away on academic business.

Reuters reports that a large candlelit protest is taking place in the Syrian town of Baniyas this evening.

1610 GMT: After UNHRC had called for an urgent investigation by the UN high commissioner for human rights into killings and other human rights violations in Syria, Human Rights Watch said today that Syria should end its violent repression of peaceful protests following unequivocal condemnation of its actions by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

1600 GMT: An update regarding the latest situation in Syria.

1550 GMT: An update on our separate entry, "Libya Snapshot: A Regime Show --- 'We Know We Are Moral' (with Congratulations to William and Kate)"....

Four young Libyan children have congratulated Prince William and his wife on their marriage by approaching to the podium after Qaddafi's spokesman updated media late night yesterday. They were carrying pictures with images of war in the background.

A statement was read out by one of the children:

"To the Duke of Cambridge – Kate Middleton. Under the heavy NATO airstrikes, we congratulate you on behalf of the Libyan children for your best day and your wedding to the successor of the throne of the UK. Under the heavy airstrikes we are not able to follow the details of your news but we know today is your big day.

And the reason we are not following you, as children of Libya, is because of the heavy airstrikes. We are saddened by the people and the casualties of these airstrikes. Day by day we are saddened for our fallen brothers after we had been in peace and prosperity.

1530 GMT: Three more videos from protests in Syria.

1515 GMT: It is claimed that Qaddafi forces (roughly 3000) are currently surrounded, and they have no supplies in Brega. 

1500 GMT: Could the ongoing fight between Qaddafi forces and the opposition turn into a tribal war and get more complicated soon? For instance, the Warfallas have been divided, with one prominent member, Mahmoud Jibril, heading the Benghazi-based transitional government, and Mansour Khalaf, the tribe's paramount leader, voicing support for Col. Gadhafi. Almost 1.5 million out of about seven million Libyans are believed to hail from Warfalla.

George Joffe, a Cambridge University professor who has researched the Warfalla, predicts that if coalition airstrikes and sanctions fail to dislodge Col. Gadhafi, "it will be tensions between the tribes that decide whether he survives."

1450 GMT: Two more videos coming from Syria.

1435 GMT: Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh is not leaving the country to sign the agreement in Saudi Arabia. He is planning to send his advisor due to his fear that a planned coup take place in his absence in the country.

1425 GMT: Women protest in Damascus was near the parliament in which 50 women took part and 11 arrested by security forces. 

1410 GMT: British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomes UNHRC's action. He said:

I welcome the EU’s decision last night to launch an arms embargo against Syria, to take the offer of an Association Agreement off the table and to review all EU cooperation with Syria, including through the European Neighbourhood Partnership. The UK pressed strongly for these steps.

1400 GMT: An anti-Assad protest in the Tahrir Square.

1355 GMT: AFP reports that Syrian troops and snipers have killed six people in Deraa so far. 

1345 GMT: It is claimed that Syrian security forces shoot dead 5 males and 1 female in Latakia this afternoon. No confirmation yet.

1340 GMT: Another video from Syria, most probably from Deraa.

1330 GMT: While Qaddafi was offering a cease-fire, NATO bombed a government complex in Tripoli.

1325 GMT: Amir al-Khuzai, the minister of state for national reconciliation, said that Iraq is hoping to reconcile with any members of Al-Qaeda's front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, in the country who do not have blood on their hands.

1315 GMT: Hamas has denied media reports claiming Damascus asked the movement to relocate its headquarters from Damascus to Qatar.

1300 GMT: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood announces that it decided to form the new Freedom and Justice Party.

1245 GMT: Another video from today's clashed in Aden, Yemen.

1220 GMT: AP's source in Daraa says the assault on the Omari mosque lasted 90 minutes and included tank shelling and heavy machine guns.

Al-Jazeera'a Rula Amin reports that son of Imam Ahmad Sayasneh was killed this morning at his home. Sayasneh is the Imam of the Omari mosque. 

1210 GMT: More than 200 Syrians have crossed the Turkish border. Around 500 Syrians are in Hatay, southern city of Turkey, since yesterday.

After EA reported that around 250 Syrians were welcomed yesterday by the governor of Hatay's Yayladagi local district (see 0945 GMT), Al-Jazeera posted that "Turkish Red Crescent is in the process of building up to 50 tents in Yayladağı for Syrian citizens."

1200 GMT: Two soldiers and three civilians were killed and another 20 were wounded in Aden, south Yemen, today.

1155 GMT: Witness tells AP that Syrian army has taken the Omari mosque in Daraa, at least four dead. 

1145 GMT: Libyan rebels reject Qaddafi's cease-fire offer. 

"Qaddafi's regime has lost all credibility," Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the rebel's transitional national council, said in a statement.

Indeed, NATO rejects Qaddafi's latest ceasefire offer as well and says that Qaddafi must cease all attacks on civilians first.

1140 GMT: After Cairo said that it intended to permanently open the border crossing with Gaza, Israeli officials warned that it would be a violation of an agreement reached in 2005 between the United States, Israel, Egypt, and the European Union, which gives EU monitors access to the crossing,

However, Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces General Sami Anan's response is sharp: "Don't interfere with opening of the crossing!"

1130 GMT: The deployment of thousands of heavily armed troops in Iraq's Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya has halted the daily protests of February. 

1115 GMT: Thousands of Bahraini Shia Muslims have gathered to protest death sentences given to anti-government protestors. According to the military court's verdict, four men accused of killing two policemen in violent protests last month. 

1100 GMT: Deraa is totally besieged now. It is reported that four tanks, 20 armored personnel carriers and a military ambulance rumbled into Daraa early in the morning.

1030 GMT: Another confirmation that Deraa hit by shelling and heavy gunfire, as funeral processions for scores of people killed in protests get underway. Meanwhile, new protests, starting from Sunday, are being planned.

A witness from Deraa reportedly said: "We are totally besieged, snipers are everywhere."

1015 GMT: Everyone is not as lucky as Yemen's Saleh. Egypt's justice minister, Mohammed el-Guindi, says that ousted President Hosni Mubarak would face the death penalty if convicted of ordering the shooting of protesters during the uprisings that brought him down.

1000 GMT: Libya's government has threatened to attack any ships approaching the western rebel outpost of Misurata.

0945 GMT: Yesterday, a group of Syrians crossed the Turkish border and were stopped by border guards. We receive information that around 250 Syrians were welcomed by the governor of Hatay's Yayladagi local district and given hot meal, baby food and soup. Having had the night in a sport building, the Red Crescent of Turkey is reported to have been building a small tent city in local districts near Syrian border. 

Meanwhile some Syrians fled to Lebanon where they have relatives as well. 

0930 GMT: What are the problems of the transition deal between Yemeni President Saleh and the opposition brokered by Gulf Cooperation Council states? Although the agreement is due to be formally signed on Monday, these are the shortcomings:

- Saleh has threatened to call off the deal if Qatar attends the ceremony. And Saleh will not leave the country but he will send Abdel-Karim al-Iryani, the party's vice-president, to sign the deal. How is this mistrust to be overcome? With no trust, how will this deal work?

- The terms of the deal are unsatisfactory since both GCC states and Washington have focused on the country's "stability" following Saleh's stepping down rather than the needs of the people and the reasons of the "revolution". The first step after the signing is supposed to be a parliamentary vote granting immunity from prosecution to Saleh, his family and associates. 

- Saleh is then supposed to tender his resignation to parliament and leave office within 30 days. However, what if Saleh's majority in the parliament rejects his resignation? According to the constitution, he may re-submit his resignation in three months and the parliament is obliged to accept it. However, the agreement does say nothing regarding this process as well. 

0900 GMT: According to a resident, Syrian army is using heavy gun fire against neighborhoods in the old town since 6 am. Al-Jazeera confirms the gun fire in Daraa.

0700 GMT: Activists have listed the names of 66 people who allegedly died in yesterday's protests.

0650 GMT: Among the Syrian officials named in US sanctions --- the director of the regime's intelligence service, Ali Mamluk, the President's brother Maher al-Assad, who is a brigade commander in Syria’s 4th Armored Division, and Atif Najib, the President’s cousin.

0510 GMT: In Libya, Muammar Gaddafi has declared on State TV that the regime is prepared for a cease-fire if it is by both sides, while calling for a halt to NATO airstrikes, "We did not attack them or cross the sea ... why are they attacking us? Let us negotiate with you, the countries that attack us. Let us negotiate."

At the same time, Qaddafi maintained the call of defiance, "What is happening today with all the evil forces fighting against the brave Libyan people and its leader, it is just one phase of its bright history and it was shows in the past by our brave people against the abject Italian occupation." He added, "I'm not leaving my country. No one can force me to leave my country and no one can tell me not to fight for my country."

On the military front, the Friday headline was the clash in the northwest, which spilled over into Tunisia as the regime and insurgents fought for control of border posts. NATO airstrikes hit regime troops attacking Zintan with a volley of 20 rockets.

The regime declared that the port of Misurata is "non-functional", with NATO accusing Qaddafi's forces of mining the harbour to block aid ships.

0500 GMT: Despite the Syrian regime's crackdown on communications, videos on Friday (see separate entry) testified to the defiances of tens of thousands of people across the country, who came out in protest in the face of this week's military occupations.

And reports testified to the regime's continuing response with force: at least 42 people were killed in clashes, and some claims put the number much higher, with one asserting that there were 83 deaths in the southern town of Daraa alone.

Meanwhile, on the international front, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning the regime for its crackdown on protesters,  as a team from the HRC entered the country to enquire into the violence. US President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order imposing sanctions against senior Syrian officials but --- for the moment --- not naming President Assad.

Al Jazeera English's report on the Friday protests: