The High Administrative Court of Egypt ruled Feb. 20 that the voting system used in the recent parliamentary election was unconstitutional. The election was held over three stages from late November to January, and its the elaborate voting system apportioned parliamentary seats between political parties and individuals, with two thirds of the seats going to political parties. Judge Magdy el-Agaty determined the ratio to be in violation of the constitution, that half of the seats should have been held for individuals. Additionally, Agaty stated that political parties should not have been permitted to field candidates for the seats reserved for individuals. During the elections the political parties reported haggled over how many candidates they would field for those seats. It is not clear whether the ruling will lead courts to invalidate the results of the elections, widely viewed as Egypt's freest vote in decades. Agaty has referred parts of the election law to the Supreme Constitutional Court for a final judgment.

The UN General Assembly voted on Feb. 16 to condemn Syria through a non-binding resolution. The resolution supports a plan advanced by the Arab League that aims to bring the situation in Syria to a close as quickly as possible by encouraging President Bashar al-Assad to step down. There were 12 votes against the resolution including Russia, China, Iran and Bolivia.

Security forces in Bahrain fired tear-gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades at protesters gathered on the eve of the first anniversary of the start of pro-democracy demonstrations Feb. 13. Protesters tried to gain control of the Pearl Roundabout in the capital, Manama—the focal point of last year's movement. Riot police pushed them back at a perimeter some two kilometers from the square. Thousands of riot police and other security forces have been deployed across the kingdom. At least 60 people have been killed in protests over the last year. (BBC News, Feb. 13)

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Feb. 10 reiterated its call for international action to protect civilians in Syria, calling for Syrian officials suspected of crimes against humanity to be tried before the International Criminal Court (ICC). High Commissioner Navi Pillay is now scheduled to address the UN General Assembly next week regarding the latest humanitarian developments in Syria, where the ongoing uprising challenging the autocratic rule of President Bashar Assad has resulted in a bloody government crackdown that has seen more than 5,000 people killed since March. Reports of increased violence in recent days prompted Pillay earlier this week to urge international intervention on behalf of the Syrian people.

What's utterly maddening about this is the complete hypocrisy of reactions in the West—both from the establishment, which purports to support democracy and secularism in the Middle East while continuing to arm and underwrite the Saudi regime, and from the "left," which correctly opposes the rise of Christian fundamentalist rule at home while (as have have bemoaned before) it is so caught up in the mutual demonization among rival branches of the Abrahamic tradition that it seems incapable of recognizing the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. Is it only going to be neocons who will rally to the defense of Hamza Kashgari? That would be really depressing. From Global Post, Feb. 10:

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)