Some 20 gathered to protest Feb. 2 outside the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Manhattan's Central Park South, where the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is said to be staying. Protesters decried Saleh's his trip to New York City for medical treatment, and a deal he received that granted him immunity from prosecution for repression during the uprising last year. The rally was organized by a group calling itself the Yemeni American Coalition for Change. "We are greatly dissatisfied that the US chose to side with a dictator,” said Summer Nasser, a member of the coalition. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman spoke to the group from Yemen via cellphone and an interpreter. She accused Saleh of orchestrating violence in Yemen while in New York, and concluded: "We call on the US to hold Saleh accountable and not to allow him to rule Yemen from the US." (NYT City Room blog, Feb. 2)

At least 200 were reported killed Feb. 2 in the Syrian city of Homs as security forces pursued their campaign to take back opposition-held areas on the eve of a UN Security Council vote on a much-disputed resolution on the country's crisis. Woman and children were among the dead in shelling of the city's Khalidya district, according to the the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (The Guardian, Feb. 3) That same day, Syrian security forces tightened their grip on the city of Hama (just to the north of Homs, see map) as protesters splashed red paint symbolizing blood in the streets to mark the 30th anniversary of the famous massacre carried out there by President Bashar Assad's father and predecessor Hafez Assad. The 1982 Hama massacre, in which entire neighborhoods were levelled to put down a local rebbellion, has become a rallying cry for the Syrian uprising that began nearly 11 months ago. Amnesty International estimates up to 25,000 were killed in the massacre. Graffiti on the walls this week read: "Hafez died, and Hama didn't. Bashar will die, and Hama won't." (AP, Feb. 2)

Two people were shot dead by police in Suez and more than 400 injured in protests across Egypt Feb. 2, sparked by the deaths of 74 people in a riot following a football match in Port Said the previous day. In Cairo, thousands of protesters marched on the interior ministry, where security forces fired tear gas to keep them back. Protesters hold the military-led authorities responsible for the bloodshed in Port Said, with Muslim Brotherhood militants and others charging the violence was a provocation organized by Mubarak-loyalsists. (BBC World Service, BBC News, Reuters, Feb. 3)

Four accused assassins of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri will be tried in absentia, a UN tribunal said Feb. 1. The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) at The Hague said that after considering the efforts taken by the prosecution and the authorities to apprehend the suspects, they would move forward with the trial. The four alleged Hezbollah members are accused of involvement in a February 2005 truck bomb that killed Hariri and 22 other people. The STL determined that the prosecution took "all reasonable steps" to apprehend and inform the accused, and that the proceedings were a "last resort":

With a growing number of defections in the Syrian army, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is taking control of territory in places like Jabal al-Zawiyah in the northwestern province of Idlid, in Zabadani just 20 kilometers from Damascus, and in Douma, one of the biggest suburbs outside the tightly-controlled capital. On Jan. 25, Dr. Abd-al-Razzaq Jbeiro, secretary general of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, was shot dead while traveling on the Halab-Damascus highway in a vehicle "clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem," according to a statement by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Also that day, Rev. Basilious Nasser of the Greek Orthodox Church was killed in fighting in the city of Hama. Syria's state news agency blamed an "armed terrorist group" for the killing, while opposition activists said he was shot by a regime sniper. (AlJazeera, NYT, Jan. 25)

At least 20,000 marched in Istanbul Jan. 19 to mark five years since the murder of prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink—and to protest the lack of justice in his case. Marchers carried black signs reading "We are all Hrant, we are all Armenian," written in Turkish and Armenian. Three people have been imprisoned in the slaying of the writer, but charges of official negligence or state collusion were rejected. A 17-year-old Turkish nationalist soccer player was convicted of the killing, but earlier this week an Istanbul court acquitted 19 suspected accomplices.The journalist, shot dead outside the Istanbul offices of Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, had angered Turkish nationalists by describing the mass killing of Armenians a century ago as genocide. (CNN, BBC News, Jan. 19)

A Russian naval flotilla led by an aircraft carrier docked in the Syrian port of Tartus for a six-day visit Jan. 8, in what Damascus state media hailed as a show of solidarity by Moscow. Syrian Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha visited Russian carrier Kuznetsov at the port, where Russia has a recently expanded a naval base. Russian ambassador to Syria Azamat Kulmukhametov said the visit by the Russian vessels highlighted the strong ties between the two countries, but added: "Russia is very interested in achieving the aspirations of the Syrian people in democracy and stresses the importance of implementing the comprehensive reform program." (Xinhua, Jan. 9) Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan meanwhile warned that Syria is heading towards civil war, and that NATO member Turkey should play a leading role in preventing this. "The situation in Syria is heading towards a religious, sectarian, racial war, and this needs to be prevented," Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara. "Turkey has to take on a leadership role here, because the current situation poses a threat to Turkey." (Reuters, Jan. 9)

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Dec. 19 condemned the brutal crackdown on protesters by military and security forces in Cairo. Since Friday the 16th, the suppression of demonstrations has led to 11 deaths and more than 500 injuries. This is the second time since November that Pillay has condemned the use of excessive violence in Egypt. In November she issued a statement denouncing the deaths of 30 protesters at the hands of security and military forces. She expressed particularly strong concern over what seems to be a deliberate targeting of peaceful women protesters.