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Saturday
Feb092013

Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Overnight Clashes In and Beyond Cairo

See also Syria Live Coverage: The Fighting from Damascus to Idlib
Friday's Tunisia (and Beyond) Live Coverage: General Strike and Marches as Slain Opposition Leader is Buried


1745 GMT: Saudi Arabia. Riyadh Bureau reports that dozens of women and children have been arrested in Riyadh and Buraidah amid protests to demand the release of imprisoned family members.

The demonstrators gathered outside the Human Rights Commission office in Riyadh and the Court of Grievances in Buraidah in the central region of Qassim.

A lawyer confirmed that those arrested include the wife, daughter, and granddaughter of Suleiman al-Rashudi, a political activist who was arrested in December after giving a lecture about the permissibility of protests.

Women in the security bus in Qassim, chanting for the freedom of detainees:

1620 GMT: Tunisia. Several thousand supporters of the ruling Ennadha Party have marched in Tunis, a day after 50,000 people demonstrated at the funeral of assassinated opposition politician Chekri Belaid.

Ennahda had called for a show of support for the Constitutional Assembly, from whom leftist parties have withdrawn their participation. It said the demonstration would also protest "French interference" after Paris's Minister of Interior Manuel Valls denounced Belaid's killing as an attack on "the values of Tunisia's Jasmine revolution".

Protesters gathered in front of the National Theater on Tunis' main Habib Bourguiba Boulevard, waving Ennadha flags and shouting, "Get out, France".

Teacher Fathi Rhayem said the demonstration "shows the Tunisian people's desire to show that it is sovereign, it is independent and is no longer under French protection".

1520 GMT: Oman. The Shura Council has approved a higher minimum wage and curbs on the employment of foreigners.

The private sector minimum wage for Omani citizens will be raised by more than 60% to 325 rials ($844) per month from 1 July.

The government wants to move more citizens into private sector jobs in preparation for an eventual fall in oil revenue. Public sector jobs in Oman pay much higher wages than most jobs with private companies.

The Council approved restricting the number of foreign workers in Oman to 33% of the country's total population "to create an employment balance", although without introducing a timeframe.

Expatriates are now thought to constitute about 39% of Oman's population and are mainly workers who were brought in to do skilled or strenuous jobs in the oil, construction, and services industries.

1320 GMT: Egypt. A Cairo court has ordered a 30-day ban on YouTube. because it permitted the upload of extracts from the US film "The Innocence of Muslims", which denigrated the Prophet Mohammad.

The ruling can be appealed. Past verdicts ordering the blocking of websites deemed offensive in Egypt have not been implemented.

1120 GMT: Mali. A witness said vllagers near Gao in northern Mali have detained two youths alleged to have had explosives strapped to their bodies.

The men were held near the site of a suicide bombing on Friday, the first such attack since French and Malian Government troops launched an offensive on 11 January that has swept insurgents from northern towns and cities.

A Malian soldier was wounded in the attack, claimed by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa.

1105 GMT: Egypt. Police and protesters fought in front of the Presidential Palace and around several governorates overnight.

Security forces at the Palace dispersed a sit-in by a group of demonstrators early Saturday morning with continuous tear gas rounds. In earlier clashes, protesters had removed barbed wire and barricades protecting one of the Palace's gates, with some throwing Molotov cocktails.

Dozens were reportedly injured, most by tear gas, in confrontations in cities such as Mahalla, Tanta, and Kafr El-Zayat. {rotesters attempted to storm governorate offices and a police station.

At least 135 injuries, including 60 policemen, were reported by health ministry officials in Gharbiya Governorate/

In the Delta governorate of Sharqiya, home of President Mohamed Morsi, clashes broke out again Saturday morning. Dozens of protesters attacked the governorate office with rocks and Molotovs, to which police responded with tear gas rounds.

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