Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh, facing growing demands that he step down, said Feb. 2 that he will drop constitutional changes that would allow him to be president for life. "No to hereditary rule and no to life presidency," Saleh said during an emergency session of parliament ahead of a "day of rage" civil society groups and opposition leaders have called. Saleh, whose term is due to end in 2013, urged an opposition alliance known as the Common Forum to halt its street protests. Four people have set themselves on fire in protests in Yemen over the past weeks.

A Chinese court ruled Feb. 1 that the death of a village chief run over by a truck Dec. 25 was an accident—sparking outrage from supporters, who insist he was murdered for his protests over land seizures. Qian Yunhui, 53, was crushed by a truck, and gruesome photos of his body were posted on the web in an online campaign to pressure authorities for justice in the case. Qian had demanded compensation for farmers whose lands in Zhaiqiao village, Zhejiang province, were seized to make way for a power plant. The unlicenced driver of the truck received three-and-a-half years in prison for the "accident."

In their fist official statement, Russian investigators have linked last week's suicide bombing at Moscow's airport to a militant Islamist group from the Russian republic of Dagestan, naming leader Ibrahim-Khalil Daudov as the mastermind of the attack. Violence meanwhile continues unabated in the North Causasus, barely winning international headlines. Four were killed and six wounded when a blast ripped through a cafe in Dagestan Jan. 27. It was the second car bombing in the city of Khasavyurt in the past two weeks. On Jan. 14, a similar attack killed four and wounded five in the city. (SAPA, Jan. 31; Xinhua, Jan. 27)

The Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said Feb. 2 that 2010 was the deadliest year for civilians in the country since the US-led invasion of 2001, with more than 2,400 non-combatants killed. Taliban and other insurgents were responsible for more than 60% of the dead, according to the report. "Almost everything related to the war surged in 2010," said the report, noting that the number of Afghan government and foreign forces surged to some 350,000, as the number of "security incidents" rose to more than 100 per week. Between January and December 2010, "at least 2,421 civilian Afghans were killed and over 3,270 were injured in conflict-related security incidents across Afghanistan," the report finds. By comparison, there were 2,332 civilian deaths as a result of the war in 2009.

An Italian court on Feb. 1 convicted former Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohamed Ben Riadh Nasri on terror charges and sentenced the Tunisian man to six years in prison. Prosecutors accused Nasri of working for a terror group associated with al-Qaeda while living in Milan in the 1990s. The US transferred Nasri, who was arrested in Afghanistan, from Guantánamo Bay to Italy in 2009 along with Abdel Ben Mabrouk as the part of the government's plan to shut down the detention center. Nasri's lawyer said he plans to appeal the conviction.

Supporters of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak—some on horses and camels and armed with whips—charged without warning into the ranks of opposition protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square Feb. 2, sparking running battles that have left hundreds injured and at least one dead. Both sides erected barricades and hurled stones, concrete and other missiles at each other. Government supporters on surrounding rooftops dropped Molotov cocktails on protesters below. Police fired tear gas at protesters, while seemingly leaving the rest to "unofficial" pro-Mubarak forces. Gunfire has been heard repeatedly, but it seems to be police firing into the air to intimidate protesters. The army, with a strong presence around the square, appeared not to interfere. Similar scenes are reported from Alexandria. The pro-government mobs are assumed to be organized by the ruling National Democratic Party, with a probable hand of the Mukhabarat secret police agency. (Middle East Online, AFP, Al-Masry al-Youm, BBC World Service, Feb. 2)

Several hundred thousand protesters filled Cairo's Tahrir Square in a eighth day of defiance of authorities Feb. 1, the biggest outpouring yet demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. A second "march of a million" was held in Alexandria. There were no incidents of violence reported anywhere in the country; army tanks continued to surround Tahrir Square but again did not interfere with the massive protest. Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said Friday Feb. 4 had been set as "departure day" for Mubarak, pledging that there would be no negotiations with the regime until the president "leaves." Chants of "Revolution! Revolution until victory!" filled the square.

Reuters, AFP and other wire services reported Feb. 1 that a synagogue was set aflame by arsonists in the Tunisian city of Ghabes overnight, in a wave of nocturnal violence that also affected the capital. "I condemn this action and I believe those who did it want to create divisions between Jews and Muslims in Tunisia who have lived for decades in peace," said local Jewish community leader Peres Trabelsi. "What especially shocked me was the fact that there was a police force not far from the synagogue when it was attacked," he added. However, later the same day, AFP retracted the story, saying without elaboration that their sources had withdrawn the accusation.