A non-UN-sanctioned US assassination drone has crashed into a refugee camp in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Press TVreports. - Refugees and soldiers in Mogadishu's Badbado camp say they watched the unmanned aircraft crash into a hut on Friday. Shortly after the incident, forces from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) closed down the refugee camp, which is in the Dharkenley district of southern Mogadishu, the Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu reported. Somali government officials and African Union forces found the drone after the crash and took it away. The US is using a new kind of drone, called a kamikaze drone, in Somalia. It functions both as a missile and an intelligence-gathering reconnaissance aircraft.

There was a moment in a report from Tunisia by the BBC’s Wyre Davies when I could not stop myself laughing. I was listening to it on the Corporation’s generally excellent World Service radio. (In my view this particular BBC service is generally excellent because unlike all other BBC news and current affairs outlets, radio and tv, it often reflects some of the truth about what is happening in and over Palestine that became Israel)....

The Western-backed overthrow of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi likely provided huge stocks of heavy weapons to terrorist groups and criminal organizations operating in the Sahel region of North Africa, the United Nations confirmed January 26 in a report. Among the groups benefiting from the arms are al-Qaeda and the deadly Islamic terror organization Boko Haram, which is currently on a killing spree in Nigeria. The UN report explained that “due to the Libyan upheaval ... governments in the region are faced with the return of millions of economic migrants, the smuggling of weapons from Libyan stockpiles, terrorist activities, youth unemployment, trafficking in drugs and human beings, and a surge in criminality,” the international body summarized in a press release on its findings.

Libyan judicial police have started taking control of makeshift prisons in the country after human rights organizations complained of rampant torture of inmates, the country's deputy justice minister said on Sunday. - The deputy minister, Khalifa Ashour, said uniformed police have been dispatched to some prisons where former rebels have been holding people accused of being loyalists of deposed ruler Moammar Gadhafi. During last year's civil war, former rebels trying to protect their neighborhoods held anyone deemed suspicious of being a Gadhafi loyalist or mercenary, locking them up in makeshift prisons in schools, homes and empty government buildings. According to the U.N., various former rebel groups are holding as many as 8,000 prisoners in 60 detention centers around the country.

Stephen Lendman: Torture and Abuse in Libya
Stephen Lendman: Violence Rages in Libya

Elders in Bani Walid abolish government-appointed military council and appoint own representatives following gun battle. Negotiations were going on in Bani Walid on Tuesday, a day after fighters seized control of the Libyan town from the militias loyal to the country's provisional government. Elders in Bani Walid said they were appointing their own local government and rejected any interference from the authorities in the capital, Tripoli. On Monday, the fighters drove out militias loyal to Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) in a bloody gun battle, with at least four people reported dead. The elders denied claims they were loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, who was captured and killed in October after weeks on the run.

Jason Ditz: Clashes, Torture on the Rise in ‘Disillusioned’ Libya

Moammar Gadhafi loyalists have seized control of a Libyan town and raised the ousted regime's green flag, an official and commander said Tuesday. - The retaking of Bani Walid comes as Libya's new leaders have struggled to unify the oil-rich North African nation three months after Gadhafi was captured and killed. Hundreds of well-equipped and highly trained remnants of Gadhafi's forces raised the green flag over buildings in the western city late Monday after hours of clashes, said Mubarak al-Fatamni, the head of Bani Walid local council. The bold attacks, which have led authorities to declare states of emergency in several areas, are the latest breakdown in security, three months after Gadhafi's capture and killing. Protests have surged in recent weeks, with people demanding that the interim leaders deliver on promises of transparency and compensation for those injured in the fighting.

Jason Ditz: Gadhafi Loyalists ‘Retake’ Town of Bani Walid

A report released last week by Middle East human rights groups presents extensive evidence of war crimes carried out in Libya by the United States, NATO and their proxy “rebel” forces during last year’s war, which brought down the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The “Report of the Independent Civil Society Fact-Finding Mission to Libya” presents findings of an investigation carried out last November by the Arab Organization for Human Rights, together with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the International Legal Assistance Consortium. Based on interviews with victims of war crimes as well as with witnesses and Libyan officials in Tripoli, Zawiya, Sibrata, Khoms, Zliten, Misrata, Tawergha and Sirte, the report calls for the investigation of evidence that NATO targeted civilian sites, causing many deaths and injuries. Civilian facilities targeted by NATO bombs and missiles included schools, government buildings, at least one food warehouse, and private homes.

Bill Van Auken: Human rights groups charge NATO with war crimes in Libya

Attacks by Islamist group Boko Haram have killed at least 935 people since the sect launched a violent campaign in 2009, including 250 this year alone, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. - "More than 935 people have been killed in some 164 suspected attacks” since Boko Haram launched its campaign of shooting and bomb attacks in July 2009, the New York-based global rights group. "In the first three weeks of January 2012 alone, more than 253 people have been killed in 21 separate attacks,” it said. It said 185 police and residents were killed in coordinated attacks targeting mainly police stations in Kano — the country’s second largest city — on January 20, Boko Haram’s deadliest single operation.

Jason Ditz: Boko Haram – An Overview on America’s Latest‘Threat’ [The CIA's latest "Islamist" outfit]

The United States has sent some 12,000 soldiers to Libya, in the first phase of deployments to the oil-rich North African nation. - According to Asharq Alawsat, the troops landed in the eastern oil port city of Brega. Although the deployment is said to be aimed at generating stability and security in the region, the troops are expected to take control of the country's key oil fields and strategic ports. Brega, the site of an important oil refinery, serves as a major export hub for Libyan oil. The town is also one of the five oil terminals in the eastern half of the country. Following the popular uprising of the Libyan people, NATO launched a major air campaign against the forces of the former regime on March 19, 2011 under a UN mandate to “protect the Libyan population.”

US authorities say former Liberian leader Charles Taylor worked for its intelligence agencies, including the CIA, the Boston Globe reports. - The revelation comes in response to a Freedom of Information request by the newspaper. A Globe reporter told the BBC this is the first official confirmation of long-held reports of a relationship between US intelligence and Mr Taylor. Mr Taylor is awaiting a verdict on his trial for alleged war crimes. Rumours of CIA ties were fuelled in July 2009 when Mr Taylor himself told his trial, at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Hague, that US agents had helped him escape from a maximum security prison in Boston in 1985. The CIA at the time denied such claims as "completely absurd". [!]

CAIRO — Swiss archaeologists have discovered the tomb of a female singer dating back almost 3,000 years in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Antiquities Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said on Sunday. The rare find was made accidentally by a team from Switzerland's Basel University headed by Elena Pauline-Grothe and Susanne Bickel in Karnak, near Luxor in Upper Egypt, the minister told the media in Cairo.

The woman, Nehmes Bastet, was a singer for the supreme deity Amon Ra during the Twenty-Second Dynasty (945-712 BC), according to an inscription on a wooden plaque found in the tomb. She was the daughter of the High Priest of Amon, Ibrahim said. The discovery is important because "it shows that the Valley of the Kings was also used for the burial of ordinary individuals and priests of the Twenty-Second Dynasty," he added. Until now the only tombs found in the historic valley were those linked to ancient Egyptian royal families.

Kenyan airstrikes have claimed the lives of at least seven children in southern Somalia, as violence continues to intensify in the African nation, Press TV reports. - The attack took place on Sunday in the town of Jilib, located south of the strategic port city of Kismayo, killing seven children of former government administrator Abdullahi Maalim. Local witnesses say several others have also been injured in the incident. The Kenyan military claims to have killed hundreds of Somali fighters, but eyewitnesses say civilians are the victims of the airstrikes. In October, Kenya dispatched soldiers over its border into Somalia to pursue al-Shabab fighters, which it accuses of being behind the kidnapping of several foreigners in Kenyan territory. Al-Shabab has denied any such involvement. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

IMF confirms sending mission to Egypt next week to discuss possible financial support. - The International Monetary Fund confirmed Thursday it was sending a mission to Egypt to discuss possible financial aid to the country, even as analysts cautioned that the potential lifeline may not be enough to stem serious economic worries that materialized following former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. Egypt turned down a $3 billion IMF load in June, when officials argued that they did not want to saddle a new, post-Mubarak civilian government with additional debt. In the aftermath of the popular uprising that toppled Mubarak with ongoing political unrest and instability, the country’s economic situation has deteriorated sharply over the past year, with net international reserves falling by 50 percent and tourism and foreign investment hammered.

Obama issued a memorandum Tuesday declaring that the U.S. officers could not be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court. Officers will be armed for 'personal protection.' - President Barack Obama is sending five American military officers to South Sudan. The White House said the U.S. forces will join the United Nations mission in the capital of Juba and focus on strategic planning and operations. Obama issued a memorandum Tuesday declaring that the U.S. officers could not be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court during their deployment because South Sudan is not a party to the ICC. The first of the small group of U.S. forces is expected to depart for South Sudan later this week.

John Glaser: Obama’s Military Incursions Across Africa Lie Under the Radar - In the Obama administration’s “new-and-improved” covert war on terror, Africa is front and center. From the Atlantic shore across the Sahara to the Red Sea, the U.S. has deployed Marines and is militarily assisting a spate of African tyrannies engaged in warfare. Murky notions of al Qaeda-like enemies color the stated mission, but these expansions of empire into Africa are mostly secret.

Citing recent ethnic violence and with the apparent certainty that every nation on the planet needs at least a few US boots on the ground, President Obama has announced his intention to send troops to the Republic of South Sudan to help the new government with “strategic planning.” - The deployment, which will only include five troops so far, comes after a report of a massacre was refuted by the United Nations, and also as South Sudan continues to accuse the Sudanese government of preventing it from shipping oil more efficiently. It also comes just days after President Obama announced his intention to sell weapons to the South Sudanese government‘s “People’s Liberation Army” saying that the sales would be a key to “world peace.”

Charles Davis & Medea Benjamin: Obama's Pentagon Strategy: A Leaner, More Efficient Empire

Is it time that the Cape Province rethinks its attachment to the Republic of South Africa? - With the ANC failing dismally to control it's own, and cadre deployment being the cause for the entire bankruptcy of more and more government departments, from the very top all the way down to the lowest levels. And now the call by it's non-government alliance partners to nationalize and scrap the provinces. Especially now with members of the ANC Alliance now calling for the total abolishment of South Africa's provinces is it not also the best opportunity for citezens of the provinces to rethink the union of the republic and call for self governance.

With their common enemy dead and gone, the uniting factor which bound Libya’s former rebels in their fight against Muammar Gaddafi has melted away. Now, in-fighting among the different armed factions is spilling onto the streets. - Meanwhile, thousands of Libyans remain behind bars waiting for the new rulers to try them for their crime of failing to jump ship. One of the first amnesties of the new Libya was when hundreds of men and women, many of them sub-Saharan immigrants, were released from a makeshift prison. Most of them had spent several months in captivity for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Swaziland's King Mswati III accused by activists of human rights abuses and of looting national wealth. - Coca-Cola has been accused of propping up one of Africa's most notorious dictators. The multibillion dollar beverage company owns a concentrate-manufacturing plant in Swaziland, an impoverished kingdom ruled by Africa's last absolute monarch, Mswati III. The king has travelled to Coca-Cola's headquarters in Atlanta in the US, much to the disgust of Swazi political activists who blame him for human rights abuses and looting the nation's wealth. Mary Pais Da Silva, co-ordinator of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign, called for Coca-Cola to pull out of the country immediately.

An Islamist sect known as Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for an attack on a Catholic church during Christmas Mass in Nigeria that has killed up to 35 people. The group has claimed other weekend attacks as well. - A bomb explosion during Christmas Mass at the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Nigeria left as many as 35 people dead on Sunday. Madalla is near the Nigerian capital Abuja. Angry youths gathered around the blast site after the attack as police tried to cordon off the area. The youths lit fires and threatened to burn down a police station before they were dispersed by officers firing rounds into the air. The attack was claimed by an Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which also took responsibility for another bombing near a church on Sunday in the city of Jos.

Russia has renewed a call on the UN Security Council to launch an investigation into the killing of dozens of civilians during NATO's bombing campaign in Libya. - During a meeting of the 15-nation Security Council on Thursday, Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin once again underlined the need for a probe into the NATO bombings in Libya, saying that the airstrikes during the Western military alliance's eight-month operations were "very disturbing." Churkin said a council-mandated investigation is vital, "given the fact that initially we were led to believe by the NATO leaders there are zero civilian casualties of their bombing campaign." He also reiterated that NATO has failed to provide the Security Council with details about civilian casualties.

الثّوّار يصوّرون القذّافي عاريا تماما

Thousands of Egyptians rallied in Cairo and other cities Friday to demand the military give up power and vent their anger after 17 people were killed in protests where troops beat and clubbed women and men even as they lay on the ground. - One image in particular from the five days of clashes that ended this week has stoked their fury: that of soldiers dragging a woman lying on the street so that her bra and torso were exposed, while clubbing and stamping on her. "Anyone who saw her and saw her pain would come to Tahrir," Omar Adel, 27, said in Cairo's Tahrir Square. "Those who did this should be tried. We can't bear this humiliation and abuse."

AWIP: Egypt women march against army in fury over abuse

The oil company says up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled 75 miles off the coast of the Niger delta. - Nigerian coastal and fishing communities were on Thursday put on alert after Shell admitted to an oil spill that is likely to be the worst in the area for a decade, according to government officials. The company said up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled on Wednesday while it was transferred from a floating oil platform to a tanker 75 miles off the coast of the Niger delta. All production from the Bonga field, which produces around 200,000 barrels a day, was last night suspended. "Early indications show that less than 40,000 barrels of oil have leaked in total. Spill response procedures have been initiated and emergency control and spill risk procedures are up and running," said Tony Okonedo, a Shell Nigeria spokesman.

In a wildlife video that’s making the rounds today, an explorer treking through Uganda’s Bwindi National Park has a hair-raising encounter with a pack of wild baby gorillas as a big male Silverback watches silently.

People are vanishing in broad daylight in Libya, as the country’s new rulers continue to settle accounts with their opponents. Widespread insecurity means the families of the kidnapped can do no more than hope that their loved ones are still alive.

Libya’s conflict is over, and the man who stood in the way of Western-style democracy is dead. Yet atrocities against Muammar Gaddafi’s loyalists continue. The images emerging from Libya are disturbing.

Against this distressing background, Russia is demanding a probe into civilian casualties in Libya caused by NATO bombings. That's Moscow’s reaction to a report by human rights groups which claims dozens were killed in air strikes – despite the alliance saying its operation was "almost flawless".

After the NATO-backed rebels overran Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte, staring death in the face became an everyday experience for residents of the loyalist stronghold. Local men, young and old, were captured by the winners, who delivered a summary verdict – the Colonel’s countrymen were labeled “Gaddafi dogs” – with the associated deadly consequences.

Around 10,000 women marched through central Cairo demanding Egypt's ruling military step down Tuesday in an unprecedented show of outrage over soldiers who dragged women by the hair and stomped on them, and stripped one half-naked in the street during a fierce crackdown on activists the past week.

The dramatic protest, which grew as the women marched from Tahrir Square through downtown, was fueled by the widely circulated images of abuses of women. Many of the marchers touted the photo of the young woman whose clothes were partially pulled off by troops, baring her down to her blue bra, as she struggled on the ground.

"Tantawi stripped your women naked, come join us," the crowd chanted to passers-by, referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the military council that has ruled Egypt since the Feb. 11 fall of Hosni Mubarak. "The daughters of Egypt are a red line," they chanted.

Even before the protest was over, the military council issued an unusually strong statement of regret for what it called "violations" against women — a quick turnaround after days of dismissing the significance of the abuse.

New York Times: Thousands of Women Mass in Major March in Cairo
Danmarks Radio: Pigen i den blå bh har det svært - Video

Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers in riot gear swept through Cairo's Tahrir Square early Dec. 19 and opened fire on protesters demanding an immediate end to military rule. - An injured boy receives help from protesters during clashes with riot police near cabinet offices near Tahrir Square in Cairo December 18, 2011. Protesters and security forces fought in Cairo on Sunday, the third day of clashes that have killed 10 people and exposed rifts over the army's role as it manages Egypt's promised transition from military to civilian rule.

Kayhan: Mubarak Remnants Unleash Reign of Terror

The attack by Egypt's army against the Occupy Cabinet protest has left 9 dead and 340 injured; military seizes area surrounding cabinet headquarters and Tahrir Square. - Health ministry reports nine deaths and around 344 injuries since the bebinning of military attack on protesters sitting in at Cabinet headquarters in Cairo in the early hours of Friday morning. Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri, recently appointed by Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is addressing the nation in response to the violence. He defends that no one can tell how the violence actually erupted. Clashes between army soldiers and Cabinet protesters wound down Saturday morning as the army forcefully dispersed the roughly three-week-long sit-in at the Cabinet headquarters.

Christian Science Monitor: Egypt clashes kill 10, undermine Army narrative of democratic transition

Johannes Stern: Egyptian military cracks down on peaceful protesters - Over the weekend, the US-backed military junta in Egypt launched another deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters, killing at least nine and wounding hundreds. The brutal assault on protesters comes amidst ongoing parliamentary elections, highlighting again the fraudulent character of the elections and the entire “democratic transition” being carried out under the junta’s control.

Claims of Accuracy in Strikes Don't Stand Up to Scrutiny: The NATO air war against Libya, which officials are still crowing about as a “flawless” sort of victory, is coming under renewed scrutiny this weekend after the New York Times investigation into claims of civilian casualties confirmed at least 40 deaths of civilians attributed to NATO air strikes. - The 40 figure is the bare minimum, of course, and all that the cursory examination was able to confirm. The paper reports that the figure could be “perhaps more than 70″ when all is said and done. NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen only last month praised the war, bragging that there were no “confirmed civilian casualties.” The reason there was no confirmation, it seems, is that NATO didn’t really look. And indeed, civilian casualties are particularly damaging in this case, because the war was conducted under a UN Mandate to “protect civilians.”

New York Times: In Strikes on Libya by NATO, an Unspoken Civilian Toll

A video showing a demonstration and a sit-in Sirte, with people shouting their anger against the CNT. Since the fall of Sirte, the inhabitants are isolated in a town completely destroyed by NATO bombing and artillery of the 'rebels’ of Misrata and Benghazi.

The son of Libya’s top general, Khalifa Hiftar, has been kidnapped and is being held by a militia at Tripoli International Airport, the general said today. - Belgassim Hiftar, 30, was kidnapped as he drove to visit his brother Saddam, who was in a Tripoli hospital after being wounded by gunfire yesterday, said his father. “My son is kidnapped, he is being held at the airport,” the general said, speaking to reporters in his fortified compound in southern Tripoli. “We have been making phone calls with them this evening, I don’t know what they want.” The alleged kidnapping comes on the eve of a visit to Libya by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who said in Turkey today that the U.S. must give Libya more time to gain control of its militias.

A documentary giving an insight into the events that led up to NATO intervention in Libya.

Egyptians went to the polls on Wednesday morning in the second stage voting for a new parliament, after the first stage concluded with the Islamic parties being the biggest winners. - The polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. (0600GMT) in Giza, Minufiya, Sharqiya, Ismailia, Beni Suef, Suez, Beheira, Sohag and Aswan governorates. Soldiers and police were deployed in the polling stations to ensure security of the process. This two-day stage has around 18.7 million eligible voters. More than 3,000 party candidates and independents are competing for 180 seats. The first stage saw a high turnout of 60 percent. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party captured 36.6 percent of the 9.73 million valid votes. It was followed by the ultra- conservative Salafist Nour Party, which garnered 24.4 percent of the votes. Islamic parties are so far the biggest winners.

While all eyes were fixed on Muammar Qaddafi's capture, the Libyan rebels murdered their other captives just a few feet away.

Executions of Sirte - Video shows Libyans alive, photos show them dead

Hardline Salafis, forecast to become powerbrokers in Egypt's first post-uprising parliament, are seeking to allay fears in the minority Christian community of an Islamist-dominated assembly. - The Salafis, who mostly eschewed politics during Mubarak's rule, are predicted to win second place after the more moderate Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in the first round of parliamentary elections. The surprise showing by the fundamentalists comes at a time of heightened sectarian tensions followers of Salafi Islam have been blamed for stoking. Salafis, who advocate a strict interpretation of Islamic law, were blamed for bloody clashes around a Cairo church in May that killed 15 people, and attacks on the shrines of Sufis, an esoteric brand of Islam. A spokesman for the leading Salafi Al-Nur party told AFP Thursday that neither Christians nor liberal Muslims have anything to fear from his group, which he says will focus on improving all Egyptians' lives.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party seems set to emerge as the biggest winner in Egypt's elections with some analysts estimating it will capture about 40% of seats in the new legislature. Al-Nour, a more conservative Salafist party, looks likely to secure second place. Official results from the first round will be announced today , before a series of runoff ballots on Monday.

New York Times: Early Results in Egypt Show a Mandate for Islamists

The US government continues exporting tons of tear gas to Egypt, which is being used by the military junta to crack down on protesters across the North African country.

Egyptian news sites published documents on Tuesday showing that seven and a half tons of tear gas have already arrived in Suez. The US tear gas exports have created a rift among Egyptian officials, as some port officials have refused to sign and accept the shipments out of concern that the tear gas would be used against peaceful Egyptian protesters. The new documents show that the cargo, which has arrived in 479 barrels, was to be delivered to the Egyptian Interior Ministry. They also show that a second shipment of 14 tons of US tear gas is scheduled to arrive in the country soon, bringing the total to 21 tons in a single week. Last week, thousands of tear gas canisters were fired at Egyptian protesters in downtown Cairo as the Egyptian military staged a massive crackdown on demonstrators demanding that the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) hand over power to a civilian government.

Bikya Masr: Egypt imports 21 tons of tear gas from the US, port staff refuses to sign for it

A U.N. report on Monday detailed lack of due process, torture, and other ill treatment for thousands of mostly black Africans.

Former Libyan fighters are still holding about 7,000 people without charge or trial, some of whom have been subjected to torture and ill treatment, according to a U.N. report Monday. The report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was made public before a Security Council briefing on Libya and says that inmates are not being afforded rights to due process as the country still does not have a functioning judicial system. A large share of those detained are black African migrants, rounded up in the summer and early fall by Libyan fighters accusing them of being mercenaries for former ruler Muammar Gadhafi. Reports came out at the time of beatings, mass arrests, torture, and massive makeshift jails.

A banned chemical agent has reportedly been used by the Egyptian military as the brutal crackdown against tens of thousands of protesters has clouded prospects of a democratic transfer in the country. - Rashes, epileptic-type convulsions, temporary blindness and coughing up blood are among the symptoms being reported by Egyptian protesters who have fallen victim to a potentially lethal form of neuro-toxic nerve gas reportedly being deployed by security forces. After almost a week of protests against the ruling military junta left some 41 people dead, several sources claim scores have died from gas asphyxiation, while thousands more have received medical treatment after possibly being exposed to an agent known as CR gas.

The liberal use of US-manufactured tear gas on protesters in recent days has raised questions about its public health effects - and who is actually ordering its use. - Egyptian security forces are digging deeper into their budget with each volley of increasingly fatal US-made tear gas they launch at demonstrators. The human cost of the violent crackdown in central Cairo is increasingly clear -- among the 39 fatalities reported to date, several are said to have died of asphyxiation caused by tear gas. But the financial background to the use of crowd control weapons raises questions about the extent of Washington's financial assistance to Egypt's military and how this might filter down to the ministry of interior. The USA is the biggest arms supplier to Egypt, providing an average of US$1.3 billion in military and law equipment every year since 2000. Records from the US Department of State show the US supplied $1.7 million of "toxicological agents" -- "including tear gases and riot control agents" -- to Egypt in 2010.

Video: Tahir: The Attack
Video: Tahrir: After the attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemns international supporters of Arab pro-democracy protests, expresses nostalgia for Mubarak regime. - Prime Minister reiterates initial estimate of Arab Spring, according to which widespread popular unrest is a 'Islamic, anti-Western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli and anti-democratic wave.' The prime minister arrived at the Knesset session following the second meeting of the security-diplomatic cabinet, during which ministers were given the annual reviews of Military Intelligence, Mossad, the Foreign Ministry, and the Shin Bet. Almost a year after the Arab Spring began, Netanyahu's speech, his sharpest Knesset comment since the wave of uprisings swept out of Tunisia, provided a glimpse into the prime minister's true views concerning the massive popular unrest movement.

Clashes continued yesterday in cities across Egypt, on the fifth day of mass protests demanding the overthrow of the US-backed Egyptian military junta. The protests started Saturday, when police used live ammunition and rubber bullets against a sit-in by a few hundred protesters in Tahrir Square, in Cairo. - Demonstrations have spread across the country, with hundreds of thousands filling Tahrir Square and clashing with police outside the Interior Ministry, which oversees Egypt’s hated police forces. Demonstrations also shook Alexandria, Port-Said, Qena, Aswan, Assiut, and other cities. There are calls for a million-man march in Cairo tomorrow. These are the most powerful demonstrations since mass strikes and protests in February forced out pro-US dictator President Hosni Mubarak.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's on Thursday pushed Egypt's sovereign credit ratings deeper into junk status, citing the country's dire political and economic situation and the increased risk of civil strife. - The cut is the latest blow to Egypt, whose economy is reeling from nine months of protests and strikes since the mid-February ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak. Last month, Moody's Investors Service also cut its ratings for Egypt, citing the ongoing political challenges and the weak economy. In addition to the current wave of protests against the ruling military council, it cited the erosion of the country's net international reserves and the risk of further unrest stemming from rising expectations. In addition to the current wave of protests against the ruling military council, it cited the erosion of the country's net international reserves and the risk of further unrest stemming from rising expectations.

Thousands of people, including women and children, are being illegally detained by rebel militias in Libya, according to a report by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Many of the prisoners are suffering torture and systematic mistreatment while being held in private jails outside the control of the country's new government. The document, seen by The Independent, states that while political prisoners being held by the Gaddafi regime have been released, their places have been taken by up to 7,000 new “enemies of the state”, "disappeared" in a dysfunctional system, with no recourse to the law. The report will come as uncomfortable reading for the Western governments, including Britain, which backed the campaign to oust Gaddafi. A UN resolution was secured in March in order to protect civilians from abuses by the regime, which was at the time mercilessly suppressing the uprising against the Gaddafi regime.

Dan Kovalik: NATO's Great Victory: Destroying Libya’s Welfare State

Egyptian riot police during a demonstration by protesters
demanding that the ruling military council hand over power
to a civilian authority, Cairo, November 22, 2011.

Egyptian security forces have clashed with anti-regime protesters in Cairo, as the demonstrators continue to demand the immediate transfer of power to a civilian authority, Press TV reports.

Thousands of protesters, who had remained in Cairo's landmark Liberation Square, stood their ground as riot police opened fire on them and used tear gas. The protests came despite an announcement by the military rulers to transfer power immediately to civilian rule via a referendum. The head of the military council, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, said in a televised speech on Tuesday that presidential elections would be held by July 2012, but he did not specifically mention a date for the transfer of power. The pledge came after days of clashes between protesters and security forces that have left over 30 people dead and many others injured. The protesters say they will continue rallying until the military hands power over to a civilian government.

Wendell Steavenson: Tahrir Again: “Everyone Is Angry” - One man came up to show me a tear-gas canister that was made in the U.S. “I was one of the people who thanked the Army in February,” he said. “But the Army took advantage of my love and respect and appreciation, by oppressing the strikers and the revolutionaries.” He clarified, “I have no problem with the Army. My problem is only with the Supreme Council.”

Johannes Stern: Millions protest to demand overthrow of US-backed Egyptian junta
AhramOnline: Breaking: Army Captain Ahmed Shoman joins Tahrir, says SCAF should not be above people

Violence in Cairo's Tahrir Square enters its third day, with at least 24 people killed in clashes between protesters and security forces.

CAIRO - Egypt's army-appointed government handed in its resignation on Monday, trying to stem a spiraling crisis as thousands of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square clashed for the third straight day with security forces in violence that has killed at least 24 people and posed the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of the military. The crowds in Tahrir, which had grown to well over 10,000 after nightfall, broke out into cheers with the news of the cabinet's move, chanting "God is great." But there was no sign the concession would break their determination to protest until the military steps down completely and hands over power to a civilian government. Beating drums, the protesters quickly resumed their chants of "the people want the ouster of the field marshal," a reference to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the council of generals that has ruled the country since the Feb. 11 fall of authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which Tantawi heads, did not immediately announce whether it would accept the mass resignation.

Uruknet: Egyptian police battle protesters, 33 dead - Videos [Reuters]
CBS News: Egyptians are converging on Cairo's central Tahrir Square
Medea Benjamin & Jodie Evans: Obama Must Condemn Egyptian Military

PressTV: US major architect of massacre in Egypt - Ralph Schoenman: I think it's important to understand that the US has not merely supported Mubarak for forty years and exchanged literally billions of dollars between the Pentagon and his military in sustaining him there in close coordination with Israeli Mossad, but the US has played the principal role in sustaining in power the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). And indeed on state television yesterday they cited police action in the US against the Occupy Wall Street movement across this country to justify in Egypt the bloody suppression that is ongoing as we speak.

Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu has strongly condemned a new media law, which South African MPs are set to vote on shortly. - He called it "insulting" and warned it could be used to outlaw "whistle-blowing and investigative journalism". South African journalists wearing black have staged a protest against the so-called "secrecy bill" outside the headquarters of the governing ANC. The ANC says the law will safeguard state secrets and national security. The Protection of State Information Bill proposes tough sentences of up to 25 years on anyone possessing classified government documents, with no defence of acting in the public interest.