SYRIA: Hundreds arrested as crackdown intensifies.
Syrian authorities intensified a crackdown on opposition activists Thursday, arresting hundreds of people ahead of another planned day of demonstrations following weekly prayers, witnesses said.
Syrian soldiers stormed the Damascus suburb Saqba, entering homes and detaining residents, according to witnesses and anti-government activists. In Al-Tal, another Damascus suburb, more than 800 people were arrested Thursday, witnesses said.
At a joint appearance in Rome on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad must be pressured to end the violence. Clinton said the U.S. plans to boost sanctions against Syrian leaders, and Frattini said Italy would support similar measures by the European Union.
EGYPT: Former interior minister gets 12 years in prison.
An Egyptian court sentenced the once-feared former interior minister, Habib el- Adly, to 12 years in prison Thursday and fined him about $4 million, setting a template for a series of high-profile corruption trials of senior figures in the government of ousted President Hosni Mubarak that could include Mubarak himself.
Arguably the most powerful Cabinet minister under Mubarak, el-Adly, 73, personified the government’s repressive tactics. He presided for 14 years over a central security force of nearly 400,000. The security police focused exclusively on suppressing domestic dissent and unrest, specializing in torture and detention without trial.
El-Adly was convicted of profiting illegally from his office and laundering money; the charges involved about $1.2 million. Now he will return to the Tora prison in Cairo to await a second trial on charges relating to his role overseeing the attacks on protesters demonstrating against the Mubarak government in January and February. About 800 people died during the 18-day uprising.
YEMEN: Thousands march amid violence from Saleh supporters.
Thousands of protesters hit the streets to demand that Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down, marching in south and central Yemen.
In the central city of Bayda, activists say supporters of Saleh burned tents in a protest camp in the city’s square as protesters prayed.
In the town of Damt, in the southern province of al-Daleh, supporters of Saleh, waving automatic rifles and sticks, stormed a record store, beating its owner for playing anti- Saleh songs. They also attacked an ice-cream vendor who had wrapped his head in a national flag with the word “go” scribbled over it.
TUNISIA: Security forces disperse demonstrators.
Police fired tear gas at participants in an anti-government demonstration in the heart of the capital, Tunis. Security forces succeeded in breaking up the protest of several hundred people in about an hour. An Associated Press photographer covering the protest, Hassene Dridi, was beaten up and briefly detained by police. Protesters complained that Tunisia’s new caretaker government has not followed through with the people’s revolutionary aspirations.
Denver Post wire services
