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Unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, country by country

By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Explosions and anti-aircraft fire thundered in the skies above Tripoli, Libya early Sunday
  • Leader Moammar Gadhafi says Libya will fight back against undeserved "naked aggression"
  • Egyptian presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei attacked at polling station
  • U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls on Bahrain to allow people to demonstrate peacefully
RELATED TOPICS
  • Libya
  • Yemen
  • Bahrain
  • Egypt
  • Tunisia

(CNN) -- Demonstrations have spread across parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Here is the latest from each country and the roots of the unrest.

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NEW DEVELOPMENTS

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LIBYA

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-- The Libyan military on Sunday called an immediate cease-fire after allied forces pounded one of its convoys near Benghazi and, according to U.S. officials, significantly degraded the regime's air defense capability.

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-- U.S. military leaders insisted the air campaign was limited -- enforcement of a United Nations-mandated no-fly zone and preventing troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi from advancing on rebel positions.

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-- There was violence across the country Sunday, with Gadhafi apparently shelling rebels in the west while allied airstrikes destroyed one of Gadhafi's convoys in the east.

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-- Forces loyal to Gadhafi were shelling the city of Misrata on Sunday, using tanks, artillery and cannons, a witness said.

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-- U.S. warplanes, including stealth bombers and fighter jets, conducted strike operations in Libya on Sunday morning, said Lt. Cmdr. James Stockman of U.S. Africa Command.

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-- In a speech on state television, a defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed to fight back and said Libya is prepared for a "long-drawn" war. He said that even women will take up arms to fight coalition forces.

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-- A woman in Tripoli says civilians are getting access to anti-aircraft weapons. CNN could not independently verify the claim.

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Roots of unrest

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-- Protests in Libya started in February when demonstrators, fed up with delays, broke into a housing project the government was building and occupied it. Gadhafi's government, which has ruled since a 1969 coup, responded with a $24 billion fund for housing and development. A month later, more demonstrations were sparked when police detained relatives of those killed in an alleged 1996 massacre at the Abu Salim prison, according to Human Rights Watch. High unemployment and demands for freedom have also fueled the protests.

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YEMEN

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-- Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh dismissed his Cabinet on Sunday, according to Tareq Al-Shami, a spokesman for the country's ruling party, but has asked the officials to stay on until a new Cabinet is appointed.

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-- The move followed what sources said were the weekend resignations of two top Yemeni officials to protest a government crackdown on protesters that left 52 people dead last week.

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-- Yemen's minister of human rights, Huda al-Baan, has resigned after a government crackdown on protesters resulted in the deaths of 52 people last week, an official in her office said Sunday.

-- In addition to the fatalities, more than 100 people were hurt Friday in clashes between tens of thousands of anti-government protesters and security forces outside Sanaa University in the Yemeni capital, medical officials on the scene said.

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Roots of unrest

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-- Protesters have called for the ouster of Saleh, who has ruled Yemen since 1978. The country has been wracked by a Shiite Muslim uprising, a U.S.-aided crackdown on al Qaeda operatives and a looming shortage of water. High unemployment fuels much of the anger among a growing young population steeped in poverty. The protesters also cite government corruption and a lack of political freedom. Saleh has promised not to run for president in the next round of elections.

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SAUDI ARABIA

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-- Security forces in Saudi Arabia arrested several people demonstrating at the interior ministry Sunday, putting them in police cars and buses to take them away, witnesses said. The demonstrators were demanding the release of imprisoned relatives, the second such protest in as many weeks.

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-- About 100 men had gathered to protest at the government office in the capital Riyadh, said activist Mohammed Al-Qahtani and another witness who did not want to be named to protect his safety.

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-- Other than a pledge to set up an anti-corruption agency, the activists said, King Abdullah promised little to meet their demands. Instead, the long list of new measures simply expands powers for the kingdom and the religious establishment.

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Roots of unrest

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-- Demonstrators have demanded the release of Shiite prisoners who they feel are being held without cause. Others have taken to the streets over the creation of a constitutional monarchy, more rights and other reforms. Late last month, King Abdullah announced a series of sweeping measures aimed at relieving economic hardship and meeting with Bahrain's beleaguered monarch.

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BAHRAIN

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-- The outspoken head of a Bahrain human rights group said Sunday that he was handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten when authorities detained him for about two hours.

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-- Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said about 25 people in about a dozen cars pulled up to his house early Sunday morning and took him to the offices of the interior ministry's investigative department.

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-- "They said that they were looking for a suspect who was armed and thought I might know him," Rajab said. "They beat me, punched me, kicked me, handcuffed me. Blindfolded me."

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-- Security forces on Friday demolished the Pearl Monument, a landmark that had been the site of massive recent anti-government protests.

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Roots of unrest

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-- Protesters initially took to the streets of Manama to demand reform and the introduction of a constitutional monarchy. But some are now calling for the removal of the royal family, which has led the Persian Gulf state since the 18th century. Young members of the country's Shiite Muslim majority have staged protests in recent years to complain about discrimination, unemployment and corruption, issues they say the country's Sunni rulers have done little to address. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights said authorities launched a clampdown on dissent in 2010. It accused the government of torturing some human rights activists.

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EGYPT

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-- Egyptian voters overwhelmingly approved proposed constitutional amendments that pave the way for parliamentary elections in June, according to the head of the judicial committee overseeing the referendum. An estimated 45 million Egyptians were eligible to vote in what was widely viewed as the country's first free election in decades.

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-- The proposed amendments included limiting the president to two four-year terms, capping emergency laws to six months unless they are extended by public referendum, and placing elections under judicial oversight.

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Roots of unrest

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-- Complaints about police corruption and abuses were among the top grievances of demonstrators who forced President Hosni Mubarak from office. Demonstrators also were angry about Mubarak's 30-year rule, a lack of free elections and economic issues, such as high food prices, low wages and high unemployment. Since Mubarak's departure, several thousand people have protested in Cairo's Tahrir Square to urge Egypt's new rulers to implement promised reforms. They pressed Egypt's Supreme Council to end an emergency law and release political prisoners, among other things. They also demanded civilian representation in government.

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SYRIA

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-- One person died Sunday in clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, witnesses told CNN.

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-- Sunday's protests come the same day a delegation from President Bashar al-Assad offered "condolences to the families of the two martyrs who died during the unfortunate events which took place in Daraa on Friday," the Syrian news agency SANA reported.

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-- Two people were killed during demonstrations in the city Friday, according to SANA. According to witnesses, five people have died in Daraa since Friday.

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-- The violence was roundly condemned by the United Nations, the United States and Britain.

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Roots of unrest

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Opponents of the al-Assad government allege massive human rights abuses, and an emergency law has been in effect since 1963. Earlier in March, Syrian human rights attorney Haitham Maleh -- arrested in October 2009 during a government crackdown on lawyers and activists -- was freed, his son said. The move comes amid demands by many citizens for more economic prosperity, political freedom and civil liberty.

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PREVIOUS DEVELOPMENTS

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TUNISIA

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-- In two short months, this country has gone from decades of strict one-party rule to an explosion of more than 30 registered political parties.

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-- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Tunisia on Wednesday, part of a four-day trip that also included stops in France and Egypt.

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-- About 200 people applauded her as she walked into a room at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis. She said the United States supported the Tunisian revolution for democracy, and more loud applause erupted.

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Roots of unrest

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-- The revolt was triggered when an unemployed college graduate set himself ablaze after police confiscated his fruit cart, cutting off his source of income. Protesters complained about high unemployment, corruption, rising prices and political repression. An interim government came to power after an uprising prompted autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to leave the country January 14. Those demonstrations helped spark protests across North Africa and the Middle East.

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ELSEWHERE

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Sporadic demonstrations have erupted in recent weeks in other Middle Eastern and northern African nations, such as Algeria, Djibouti, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Kuwait and Sudan and in the Palestinian territories.

ELSEWHERE

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Sporadic demonstrations have erupted in recent weeks in other Middle Eastern and northern African nations, such as Algeria, Djibouti, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Kuwait and Sudan and in the Palestinian territories.

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