As last year, May Day saw clashes between workers and police in Istanbul and other Turkish cities. In Istanbul, police fired tear gas and water cannons to prevent workers from marching to Taksim Square where they planned to hold a mass gathering. A total of 530 were detained by police, with 38 reported injured in the city. The Turkish government rejected petitions to lift the decades-long ban and open Taksim for celebrations. The Labor Unions Confederation (DISK), Confederation of Public Sector Unions (KESK) and Turkish Confederation of Labor (Turk-Is) decided jointly to march on the square in defiance of the ban. Street clashes were also reported between police and followers of the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP) in Ankara. (Hurriyet, May 2)

There have been two explosions near the local headquarters the Canadian Nexen oil company in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a. The grenade blasts took place on April 6 and 9, and caused no casualties. Nexen began oil exploration in Sana'a in 1988 and started producing oil there in 1993. The company operates Yemen's largest oil project and produced 71,600 barrels per day in 2007. The blasts come amid ongoing unrest in Yemen, with riot police still deployed against rioters in many towns in the south. (CanWest News Service, April 10)

Tanks have been deployed in parts of southern Yemen after a fifth day of angry protests by thousands of mostly young people. Youth are blocking roads and burning tires, and up to 100 have been arrested. In al-Dalea, two police station were torched, and military vehicles burned, while riot police fired into the air and used tanks against street barricades. In response, armed protesters threw up roadblocks on the main road between the capital, Sanaa, and the port of Aden, halting traffic.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak has ordered the army to start baking more bread following a series of clashes breaking out at long lines for government-subsidized loaves. Acute shortages of the flat, round bread which is a staple of the Egyptian diet—made available to the poor at one cent a loaf—have led to explosions of violence in poor neighborhoods in recent weeks. At least seven people have died, according to authorities. Two were stabbed in fights between customers in line; the others died of exhaustion or other medical problems aggravated by waiting in the spring heat. (AP, March 24)

From Human Rights Watch, Feb. 14:

King Abdullah should halt the execution of Fawza Falih and void her conviction for "witchcraft," Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Saudi king.

Rival mass tributes were held in Beirut Feb. 14 despite bad weather to commemorate the third anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the Feb. 12 car-bomb slaying of senior Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressed his followers at the Mughniyeh funeral: "Zionists, if you want this kind of open war, then let the whole world listen: Let this war be open." (Lebanon Daily Star, Feb. 15) CNN news anchor Jim Clancy theorizes that Mughniyeh, who was on the US "Most Wanted Terrorists" list, faked his own death. (CNN, Feb. 14)

In an important ruling, an Egyptian court has allowed two converts to Islam to return to their original Coptic Orthodox faith. In the past many Copts who become Muslims in order to secure divorces (which is not permissible under Coptic practice) were allowed to reconvert to Christianity. However, a hardening of religious feeling in Egypt has made such delicate issues as conversion away from Islam much trickier. The ruling provides human rights and minority rights campaigners with hope that minority religious rights will be upheld and protected in Egypt.

Human Rights Watch criticized Egypt Feb. 6 for eight arrests prompted by one man's statement that he was HIV-positive, saying the detentions embodied "both ignorance and injustice." The men, all arrested since October, were given HIV tests without their consent, and two were subjected to forensic anal tests to look for evidence of homosexual conduct, which HRW said amounted to torture. Three who tested HIV-positive are reportedly being held in hospital handcuffed to their beds and "only unchained for an hour each day."