SYRIA: Arab League won’t lift sanctions in order to admit observers.
The Arab League said it won’t lift sanctions imposed on Syria after President Bashar Assad’s government demanded the removal of the league’s punitive measures as a condition for admitting observers.
Separately, the U.S. plans a show of support for Syrians pressing to end Assad’s rule. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scheduled to meet Monday with seven Syrian opposition figures in Geneva, according to a U.S. official who was authorized to speak on condition of anonymity. It was to be only the second time that Clinton has held such talks.
YEMEN: Protesters say pro-government forces fired on demonstration.
Protesters said pro-government snipers opened fire on a demonstration Monday in Taiz, killing a 20-year-old student, Ruwaya al-Shaybani, who friends said had been a regular at the protests, and injuring at least seven others.
The killing threatened to reignite days of bloody clashes between government forces and tribesmen supportive of the protesters. Over three days last week, at least 18 people were killed as government forces shelled neighborhoods, responding to what officials claimed was a bid to take over the city by the tribesmen.
And it cast a shadow over the recent agreement by the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for 33 years, to hand over power to his deputy. Anti-government activists say ongoing violence by Saleh’s security forces raised doubts about his commitment to the agreement.
EGYPT: Turnout for runoff vote takes a dive
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Turnout plunged Monday as Egyptians in Cairo, Alexandria and seven other governorates voted in runoffs to decide the initial round of the first parliamentary elections since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. The lines at the polls were far shorter than when the voting began a week before, and at the same time, the Egyptian election commission said the turnout last week was in fact much lower than initially reported.
Fifty-two percent of eligible voters turned out last week, the commission said, explaining that it had made a mathematical error when it previously put turnout at 62 percent a few days ago.
The ruling military council has sought to use the high turnout figures as evidence of its support for its legitimacy.
Because of an unexpectedly strong showing by Islamist parties in last week’s vote, many of Monday’s runoffs pitted members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s mainstream Islamist group, against a faction of ultraconservatives known as Salafis.
Denver Post wire services
