Scores reported dead in bloodiest day of uprising so far as "Great Friday" demonstrations rock towns across country.

As many as 70 people are reported to have been killed in Syria in the bloodiest day since the uprising began, as security forces use live ammunition and tear gas to quell anti-government protests across the country.

Activists sent a list naming 70 people from across the country who they said had been killed by security forces during the "Great Friday" protests. Al Jazeera has been unable to independently verify the exact number of fatalities. Fifteen of the deaths took place in Izraa, near the flashpoint southern town of Daraa, according to the list. Deaths were reported in Douma and Zamalka, near Damascus.

Other places where protesters were killed include Homs, Syria's third largest city, Moadamia and Daraa. Demonstrators marching in peace were surprised by security forces' live ammunition, according to Hazem, a protester who spoke to Al Jazeera via phone from a Damascus suburb. "Demonstrators were going with olive branches, it was peaceful" until they were "surprised by live ammunition from some security forces in one of the flats of the street", Hazem said. The protesters took to the streets to mark what activists dubbed "Great Friday" - the biggest demonstrations against Bashar al-Assad's government to date.

Washington Post: Massive protests in Syria - VIDEO
LA Times: Protesters fill streets of Syria to demand end to regime; security forces unleash deadly violence

ANBAR / Aswat al-Iraq: Lawyers from Falluja city have announced a sit-in demonstration on Thursday, demanding the departure of the American forces from Iraq and the release of detainees, who were not convicted. “Hundreds of Falluja Lawyers have organized a sit-in demonstration at the headquarters of the Lawyers Syndicate, demanding the departure of the U.S. forces from Iraq and the release of innocent detainees from prisons, where they spent several years of their lives without trial,” Lawyer Mohammed al-Mohammady told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The Chairman of the Security & Defense Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, Hassan al-Sunaid, had stated that Dec. 31st shall be the last day for the presence of the last American soldier on Iraqi soil.

WASHINGTON – Ten supporters of accused whistleblower Pfc. Bradley Manning paid at least $5,000 to attend a fundraiser with President Barack Obama Thursday and interrupted his speech with a song protesting soldier's treatment. Obama was speaking at a San Francisco hotel to a room of about 200 donors -- some of whom paid as much as $35,800 to attend the event -- "when a woman in a white suit stood up and said, Mr. President we wrote you a song," according to a White House pool report.

The president tried to convince her to wait, but she and her table ignored him, all ten of them breaking out into a song that protested Manning's detention in a "6x12 cell" for "23 hours a day." They sang, "We paid our dues, where's our change?"

As they began singing, a flustered Obama looked over at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who introduced him, and she reportedly looked equally dumbfounded by what was happening. The woman in the white suit then removed her jacket to show that she was wearing a t-shirt that read "Free Bradley Manning" and had an image of him. The ten singers passed around sheets of paper that read "Free Bradley Manning" or had photos of the soldier accused of passing U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks. "That was a nice song," Obama said after it was over, appearing displeased. "Now where was I?"

[Image]At least nine people have been killed in the latest attack by NATO fighter jets in the Libyan city of Sirte, Libya's state television said.

The attack comes as the US and its allies have stepped up military and diplomatic efforts to further pressure Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi to stop killing opposition forces and quit power. US President Barack Obama has approved the use of armed predator drones to attack targets in Libya. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates says American drones carried out their first mission on Thursday. Meanwhile, Senior US Republicn Senator John McCain visited the opposition-held city of Benghazi in eastern Libya on Friday. No details about the trip have been reported.

The News: Nato air raid kills 7 civilians in Tripoli
Antiwar: Obama Approves Drone Strikes in Libya
PressTV: US begins drone strikes on Libya
WSWS: Obama sends drones to Libya as Britain readies troops

At least 25 people have been killed in yet another US drone attack on the tribal village of Miranshah in northwestern Pakistan. Officials reported that the non-UN-sanctioned attack by a US drone took place at 4:30 a.m. (2030 GMT) Friday, a Press TV correspondent reported. The drone fired six missiles at a house destroying it completely. The death toll may rise as rescue operation is underway to get people from the collapsed building. The US drone continued flying over the area after the attack, creating panic among the local residents. Miranshah attack raised the number of US drone strikes in North Waziristan Agency to 21 in 2011. Reports indicate that the unmanned drone strikes in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt have claimed the lives of more than 1,180 people in 2010 alone.

Al Jazeera: Deaths in US drone attack in Pakistan

An invitation by US Republican lawmakers for the Israeli prime minister to address the Congress has exposed an Israeli plan to divide senior officials within the US government. The Republican invitation for Tel Aviv's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a high-profile speech at a joint session of the US Congress next month underscores standing rifts between US President Barack Obama and the Israeli premier and sets in motion a “bizarre diplomatic race” over which party will be the first to offer a plan to reignite the deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian talks, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli Ministry of Housing has laid down plans to build a new neighborhood including 800 houses in the Givat Ze'ev settlement northwest of occupied Jerusalem, Israeli Army Radio reported on Thursday.

What makes the neighborhood special is its strategic geographical placement, as it is designed to connect the outlying settlement and make it an integral part of the holy city.

The ministry had announced designating a budget for the plan ahead of implementation on the ground.

Israeli Army Radio said exclusive sources told it that the plan is linked to the approval of the Israeli war minister Ehud Barak, but Housing Minister Ariel Attias vowed to press ahead with the plan in order to reach the stage of application on the ground.

News sources inside the 1948-occupied territories said that international pressure has caused Israel to avoid announcements of new settlement plans in the West Bank. But what is actually happening during the current stalemate in the political process is that the government has been funding plans that have accumulated, waiting for the moment when it is able to implement such strategic plans on the ground.

espite call after call on FaceBook and other Internet sites for a Third Intifada to start on the 15th of May, The defunct ‘President’ of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas will not allow it to happen.

“I won’t allow any security or military flare-up in the West Bank or any other Palestinian area,” he said, adding that he wants to preserve the life of the Palestinians. “Those who speak about resistance or armed intifada let them do that away from the Palestinian people,” he said.

“Preserve the life of the Palestinians” ….. where is this guy living??? One thing he is right about is that most of the calls are from places away from the Palestinian people. Freedom WILL come to Palestine, from within…. NOT from FaceBook, and definitely NOT from Abbas. (Source)

What we saw in Tel Aviv today is an exercise in Jewish identity politics. A few so-called ‘Leftists’ engaged in a superficial self-loving pseudo ethical Hasbara campaign. The Israeli so-called ‘Leftists’ are welcoming the expected Palestinian State as long as the Palestinians stay behind the wall and do not exercise their right of return. Someone should remind the Israeli ‘doves’ that the whole of Israel is located on historic Palestine. The Israeli humanists basically endorse the Palestinian diplomatic initiative so they can keep dwelling on Palestinian land forever. I am not impressed at all.

An Israeli soldier gets ready to fire a tear gas canister at
Palestinian houses in Nabi Saleh village, northwest of
Ramallah

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (14 – 20 April 2011)

Shooting: A Palestinian civilian from the Gaza Strip died of wounds that he sustained last week and three Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded in peaceful protests in the West Bank. In addition, a Palestinian was wounded in a new attack launched by Israeli settlers in the south of Nablus.

In the Gaza Strip, on 14 April 2011, medical sources at Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, announced that Mahdi Jumaa Abu Athreh, 22, from al-Shouka village in the southeast of Rafah, died of his wounds. According to PCHR's investigations, at approximately 08:00 on Friday, 08 April 2011, IOF fired two artillery shells at the vicinity of Gaza International Airport. Four Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded as a result. Medical sources at Abu Yousif al-Najjar hospital described the wounds of two of them, including Abu Athreh, to be serious.

In the West Bank, during the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, 3 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded in Bil'ein weekly protest in the west of Ramallah.

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 40 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 12 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children and two women.

During the reporting period, IOF have continued to attempt to prevent international human rights defenders from participating in peaceful assemblies against settlement activities and construction of the annexation wall. As part of these attempts, IOF arrested three participants in peaceful protests, including two international human rights defenders and a Palestinian civilian.

IOF also raided a house belonging to Ahmed Khalil Abu Hashem, 43, Secretary of the National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron. IOF held Abu Hashem and his nine-member family in one room. They ill-treated two of his sons, one of whom is a child. Abu Hashem told the PCHR fieldworker that an IOF officer explicitly asked him to stop protests organized by the National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements especially in the vicinity of "Karmi Tsur" settlement, south of Beit Ummar. Abu Hashem also reported that this raid is the twenty second one conducted by IOF within fifty days and that these raids are aimed at forcing him to stop his peaceful activities against the wall and settlements.

Restrictions on Movement: Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.