<p>Clashes were reported for the first time in tightly controlled Libya, sandwiched between Egypt and Tunisia, while new protests erupted in Bahrain, Yemen and Iran on Wednesday.<br /><br />The latest demonstrations against long-serving rulers came after US President Barack Obama, commenting on the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, declared: “The world is changing...if you are governing these countries, you’ve got to get out ahead of change, you can’t be behind the curve.”<br /><br />With young people able to watch pro-democracy uprisings in other countries on satellite television or the Internet, and to communicate with like-minded activists on social networks hard for the secret police to control, governments across the region have grounds to fear contagion.<br /><br />Hundreds of opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in power for over 40 years, clashed with police and government supporters in the eastern city of Benghazi overnight, a witness and local media said.<br /><br />Reports from the port city, 1,000 km east of the capital Tripoli, said protesters armed with stones and petrol bombs set fire to vehicles and fought with police in a rare outbreak of unrest in the oil-exporting country.<br /><br />Libyan state television said rallies were held on Wednesday morning across the country in support of Gaddafi, Africa’s longest serving leader. The riot in Libya’s second city was sparked by the arrest of human rights activist Fethi Tarbel, who has worked to free political prisoners, Quryna newspaper said.<br /><br />In a possible concession to the protesters, Libya will free 110 members of the banned militant organisation the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group from Tripoli’s notorious Abu Salim prison on Wednesday, another human rights activist said.<br /><br />Concessions <br /><br />In Yemen, a 21-year old protester died from gunshot wounds after fierce clashes broke out between police and demonstrators in the southern port town of Aden, his father said, as unrest spread across the Arabian Peninsula state.<br /><br />Mohammed Ali Alwani was among two people hit as police fired shots into the air to try to break up around 500 protesters.<br /><br />In the Yemeni capital Sanaa at least 800 anti-government protesters marched against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a US ally in the fight against the al-Qaeda.<br /><br />In power for more than 30 years, Saleh has pledged to step down when his term expires in 2013 and offered dialogue with the opposition, but radical protesters are demanding he go now. <br /><br />In Bahrain, protesters poured into the capital of the Gulf island kingdom, Manama, for a third successive day to mourn a demonstrator killed in clashes with security forces on Tuesday.<br /><br />The oil producing emirate has a history of protest over economic hardship, the lack of political freedom and sectarian discrimination by the Sunni rulers against the Shi’ite majority. Some 2,000 protesters demanding a change of government were encamped at a major road junction in Manama, seeking to emulate rallies on Cairo’s Tahrir Square that toppled Mubarak.<br /><br />In Iran, supporters and opponents of the hardline Islamic system clashed in Tehran during a funeral procession for a student shot at an anti-government rally two days ago, state broadcaster IRIB reported.<br /><br />Monday’s rallies in Tehran and several other Iranian cities were the first staged by the Green pro-democracy movement since security forces crushed huge protests in the months after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed 2009 re-election.<br /><br />Rulers in several countries, drawing lessons from events in Tunisia and Egypt, have announced political changes and moved to cut prices of basic foodstuffs and raise spending on job creation in efforts to pre-empt spreading unrest.<br /><br />Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika promised to lift a 19-year-old state of emergency soon and has acted to reduce the cost of staple foods in the North African oil and gas exporter.<br /><br />Authorities deployed an estimated 30,000 police in Algiers on Saturday to prevent a banned pro-democracy march. Several hundred protesters defied the ban and dozens were detained.<br /><br />A coalition of civil society and human rights groups and an opposition party vowed afterwards to demonstrate every Saturday until the military-backed government is removed.<br /><br />Morocco, where the main banned Islamist opposition movement warned last week that “autocracy” would be swept away unless there were deep democratic reforms, announced on Tuesday it would almost double state subsidies to counter an increase in commodity prices and address social needs.</p>
<p>Clashes were reported for the first time in tightly controlled Libya, sandwiched between Egypt and Tunisia, while new protests erupted in Bahrain, Yemen and Iran on Wednesday.<br /><br />The latest demonstrations against long-serving rulers came after US President Barack Obama, commenting on the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, declared: “The world is changing...if you are governing these countries, you’ve got to get out ahead of change, you can’t be behind the curve.”<br /><br />With young people able to watch pro-democracy uprisings in other countries on satellite television or the Internet, and to communicate with like-minded activists on social networks hard for the secret police to control, governments across the region have grounds to fear contagion.<br /><br />Hundreds of opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in power for over 40 years, clashed with police and government supporters in the eastern city of Benghazi overnight, a witness and local media said.<br /><br />Reports from the port city, 1,000 km east of the capital Tripoli, said protesters armed with stones and petrol bombs set fire to vehicles and fought with police in a rare outbreak of unrest in the oil-exporting country.<br /><br />Libyan state television said rallies were held on Wednesday morning across the country in support of Gaddafi, Africa’s longest serving leader. The riot in Libya’s second city was sparked by the arrest of human rights activist Fethi Tarbel, who has worked to free political prisoners, Quryna newspaper said.<br /><br />In a possible concession to the protesters, Libya will free 110 members of the banned militant organisation the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group from Tripoli’s notorious Abu Salim prison on Wednesday, another human rights activist said.<br /><br />Concessions <br /><br />In Yemen, a 21-year old protester died from gunshot wounds after fierce clashes broke out between police and demonstrators in the southern port town of Aden, his father said, as unrest spread across the Arabian Peninsula state.<br /><br />Mohammed Ali Alwani was among two people hit as police fired shots into the air to try to break up around 500 protesters.<br /><br />In the Yemeni capital Sanaa at least 800 anti-government protesters marched against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a US ally in the fight against the al-Qaeda.<br /><br />In power for more than 30 years, Saleh has pledged to step down when his term expires in 2013 and offered dialogue with the opposition, but radical protesters are demanding he go now. <br /><br />In Bahrain, protesters poured into the capital of the Gulf island kingdom, Manama, for a third successive day to mourn a demonstrator killed in clashes with security forces on Tuesday.<br /><br />The oil producing emirate has a history of protest over economic hardship, the lack of political freedom and sectarian discrimination by the Sunni rulers against the Shi’ite majority. Some 2,000 protesters demanding a change of government were encamped at a major road junction in Manama, seeking to emulate rallies on Cairo’s Tahrir Square that toppled Mubarak.<br /><br />In Iran, supporters and opponents of the hardline Islamic system clashed in Tehran during a funeral procession for a student shot at an anti-government rally two days ago, state broadcaster IRIB reported.<br /><br />Monday’s rallies in Tehran and several other Iranian cities were the first staged by the Green pro-democracy movement since security forces crushed huge protests in the months after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed 2009 re-election.<br /><br />Rulers in several countries, drawing lessons from events in Tunisia and Egypt, have announced political changes and moved to cut prices of basic foodstuffs and raise spending on job creation in efforts to pre-empt spreading unrest.<br /><br />Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika promised to lift a 19-year-old state of emergency soon and has acted to reduce the cost of staple foods in the North African oil and gas exporter.<br /><br />Authorities deployed an estimated 30,000 police in Algiers on Saturday to prevent a banned pro-democracy march. Several hundred protesters defied the ban and dozens were detained.<br /><br />A coalition of civil society and human rights groups and an opposition party vowed afterwards to demonstrate every Saturday until the military-backed government is removed.<br /><br />Morocco, where the main banned Islamist opposition movement warned last week that “autocracy” would be swept away unless there were deep democratic reforms, announced on Tuesday it would almost double state subsidies to counter an increase in commodity prices and address social needs.</p>
