YEMEN: Security forces kill 16.
Yemeni government forces on Wednesday fired mortars at tens of thousands of mourners at funerals held for protesters killed in clashes and attacked an opposition base, shattering a cease-fire negotiated a day earlier to end the Arab nation’s latest bout of deadly violence. The two attacks killed 16 people.
NIGER: Libyan neighbors fear unrest.
On the southern edge of the Sahara desert, 600 miles from the Libyan border, residents of the dusty town of Agadez are worried. Truckloads of soldiers and workers from Libya are flooding into this town, a hub of the Tuareg ethnic group, many of whose leaders found shelter in Moammar Gadhafi’s army and now are returning home.
Weaponry is on the loose, and loyalties are uncertain. Authorities and residents fear that the sea of heavy arms, combined with the swarm of for-hire youths and the likelihood of an unstable Libya, will prove a major boon for the region’s terrorist and criminal networks.
EGYPT: Military refuses to lift emergency rule.
Egypt’s caretaker military government announced Wednesday that the emergency law that allows it to jail people without charges and try civilians before military courts will not be lifted until the middle of next year.
The announcement angered political activists and human- rights advocates, who warned that continuation of emergency rule ran counter to the goals of the movement that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
SYRIA: No letup in brutal crackdown.
Syrian security forces moved Wednesday against several schools and detained students who demonstrated against President Bashar Assad’s regime, while troops shot dead at least four people in central Syria. Students have been demonstrating against Assad’s regime since Sunday, the first day of the school year.
Denver Post wire services
