Israeli forces fired rubber-coated bullets at protesters in the West Bank city of Hebron Feb. 25, leaving at least nine people injured. Four international activists and two Palestinians were detained, organizers said. The military said that only one person was arrested. The demonstration, which called for the reopening of one of the city's main streets, came on the anniversary of the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinians in Hebron by a Jewish extremist.

Protests were held in towns and cities across Iraq Feb. 25, with marchers filling Baghdad's Tahrir Square in a national "day of rage." In Mosul, three were killed when security forces fired on the crowd. Four were also killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in Haweija, a town north of Kirkuk. (AlJazeera, DPA, Feb. 25)

Tens of thousands took to the streets Feb. 25 in Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen and Bahrain to demand political reforms. In Yemen's capital, Sana'a, and the southern port of Aden, thousands marched to demand that President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down. Daily clashes have killed 15 people and wounded scores in Yemen this month. In Tunis, protesters demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi's transitional government in the biggest march since last month's ouster of president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. In Bahrain's capital, Manama, the anti-regime campaign entered its 12th day with a rally to honor seven victims of a deadly police crackdown last week. Thousands also rallied in Jordan's capital, Amman, urging greater political freedoms, and to denounce violence in which eight were injured at a rally last week. (RFE/RL, Feb. 25)

In a televised speech from an undisclosed location Feb. 24, embattled Libyan strongman Moammar Qaddafi addressed the elders of a town west of the capital, where he said a drug-crazed mob of youth spurred on by al-Qaeda had killed four police officers. He urged the elders of az-Zawiyah to bring their youth under control. As a popular uprising seizes control of ever more of the country, leaving Qaddafi-loyal forces in only a shrinking ring around Tripoli, the dictator portrays the revolution as an insidious design by the international terrorist network:

At least 24 people were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a busy market in Spin Boldak, a town in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, Feb. 24. The attack is the latest in a string of suicide blasts to hit Afghanistan. More than 100 people have died in such attacks in the last three weeks. (RFE/RL, Feb. 24) The offensive comes as Steve Coll in the New Yorker of Feb. 28 asserts that the US has entered into exploratory talks with the Taliban. But the Taliban has reportedly set NATO withdrawal as a prerequisite for negotiations, and the US demands a breaking of ties with al-Qaeda. (The News, Pakistan, Feb. 23)

The opposition in Pakistan is expressing outrage over revelations that a US citizen held by the authorities in connection with a shooting incident last month is a security contractor for the CIA. Raymond Davis was taken into custody following the shooting deaths Jan. 27 of two Pakistanis in Lahore. Davis claimed he acted in self-defense during an armed robbery attempt. The US government said Davis was an embassy employee, and should be immediately released on the grounds of diplomatic immunity. Now Washington officials have confirmed reports in the New York Times that Davis was part of a CIA operation tracking the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group. He is also said to have worked for security firm Xe/Blackwater.

The Algerian Council of Ministers on Feb. 22 approved a draft ordinance repealing the country's 19-year state of emergency, delivering on a promise made the week before. The draft ordinance will have the force of law upon publication in the Official Journal of Algeria, which the Council of Ministers said would be "imminent." The state of emergency, which has been in place since a series of decrees in 1992, gave the government power to limit political freedoms and even peaceful protests. Opponents also claimed that the state of emergency gave rise to arbitrary detentions.

Government troops in the Comoros killed or repelled white mercenaries who tried to seize control of part of the Indian Ocean archipelago nation Feb. 22. The apparent coup attempt was launched in the island of Moheli in the early hours by about 20 French-speaking soldiers wearing balaclavas who took over government buildings and cut telephone lines. The troops were reported to have distributed leaflets written in English, linking President Azaly Assoumani to Osama bin Laden.