Dubai TV reports that rival protests have split Yemen on a day called the “Friday of Persistence” by the opposition, and the “Friday of dialogue” by the regime's loyalists. A group of prominent religious and tribal leaders have declared their support for the protest movement, including the chief of the Hashed Tribe of which Saleh is a member. The opposition has rejected the Gulf’s new proposal to attend mediation talks in Riyadh, because it omitted the article which called for the ouster of President Saleh. Instead, the new initiative calls for Saleh to transfer power to his deputy.  

The “Syrian Revolution” Facebook page called on Syrians to take to the streets today in a demonstration that is also called the “Friday of Persistence.” The BBC reports that protests took place in Damascus, Deraa, Banias, Deir ez-Zor, Homs, al-Qamish, and Latakia. This comes a day after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced the formation of a new government and the release of hundreds of detainees. Human Rights Watch has accused Syrian security and intelligence institutions of torturing hundreds of protestors detained during demonstrations throughout the country.

A doctor in the western Libyan city of Misurata said that eight civilians, including children, were killed this morning in a missile attack by Gaddafi’s battalions. Residents say that about 120 missiles hit the besieged city. Al-Jazeera reports that Gaddafi’s forces are using Grad Rockets, which is a kind of rocket that lacks accuracy and causes wide-range destruction. While these kinds of rockets are usually only used in battlefields where there are no civilians, Gaddafi’s forces have been targeting densely populated areas like Misurata, turning the city into a “large graveyard,” where the death toll continues to rise.

Al Alam reports that Bahrainis in Manama are still trying to break through the intense checkpoints around Sulaimaniya Hospital in Manama to allow access to injured people. Meanwhile, Zainab al-Khawaja, the daughter of the detained Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, has been on a hunger strike for days and said the authorities are not allowing the families of the detained to contact them. She added that she has sent a letter to US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, holding them responsible for the blatant human rights violations in Bahrain.

Tonight, al-Iraqiya features a report on the 1988 massacre in Halabja. What is known as the al-Anfal Campaign was a genocidal campaign against the Kurdish people in northern Iraq led by Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath regime. Al-Iraqiya’s report commemorates the anniversary of the massacre in which over 182,000 Kurds were killed and over 4,000 Iraqi villages were destroyed.

The BBC reports that Libyan opposition forces are trying to hold their ground after Gaddafi loyalists regained control of a number of coastal cities, including Ras Lanuf Port in eastern Libya. The fight between Gaddafi’s forces and revolutionaries continues in Bin Jawad, Misurata and a number of cities. US President Barack Obama said that he is looking at all options pertaining to the current crisis in Libya and is not excluding the possibility of providing the Libyan opposition with American weapons. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded by saying that the international forces in Libya have no right to arm the opposition.

A number of people were injured today in Bahrain in an attack by the government's Saudi-supported forces. Meanwhile, the Bahraini people held a march dubbed the ‘March of the Koran’ in order to affirm that it is a popular revolution, not a sectarian one. An al-Alam correspondent reported that Bahraini forces desecrated the Mosque of Imam Ali and also carried out a number of house raids, arresting unarmed civilians and terrorizing women and children. As the number of causalities continues to rise in Bahrain, opposition forces have declared next Saturday a “day of mourning for the country’s martyrs.”

Al-Jazeera reports from Yemen, where thousands demonstrated in Ibb Province demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down. The protestors are holding the president responsible for the violence that occurred in Sana’a on the “Friday of Dignity.” They also blame him for the arms storage facility explosion in Abyan province that killed and wounded dozens of people. Amidst these developments, hundreds of members of the Haima Tribe have announced they will join the revolution.

Under the banner ‘Friday of Perseverance,’ Iraqi residents took to the streets last week to demand political reform, an end to corruption, and an improvement of public services. Meanwhile, the government is preventing demonstrations by arresting civilians. Rafidain TV interviews writer and political analyst Dr. Abdul Karim al-Alluji about the media blackout on the revolutionary events occurring in Iraq. In contrast to the media attention other Arab states have received, he says it is strange that no one is interested in Iraq, “not Arab states, not the media, and not the masses.”

In Egypt, Nile TV reports that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has adopted an interim constitution. The new constitution includes 62 articles and describes the Arab Republic of Egypt as democratic state that will rely on the principles of the Islamic Shari’a laws as a main source of legislation. The constitution guarantees the rights of citizens to form assemblies, associations, unions, and parties but bans political parties based on religious authority. The constitution also states that all people are equal before the law and guarantees freedom of the press, religion, and expression.

Al-Alam reports on developments in Libya, where international coalition forces continue to launch strikes against Gaddafi’s battalions in various areas of the country. Gaddafi forces have confirmed their control of Libya’s third largest city, Misurata. In London, leaders from over 40 nations have formed a contact group that will meet to discuss the situation in Libya. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who participated in the meeting, announced that military strikes launched by coalition forces must continue until Gaddafi completely submits to UN demands. Russia has stated it will not participate in the meeting and condemns NATO’s air raids, warning they could lead to a civil war in Libya.

Al-Jazeera reports that the Syrian government has resigned due to ongoing unrest and protests. Syrian TV said that President Bashar al-Assad accepted the mass resignation. Meanwhile, thousands of Syrians poured into the streets of Damascus and Halab in a demonstration to support President Assad, carrying the Syrian flag and pictures of the president. The demonstrators chanted slogans demanding stability for Syria and supporting the country's plan for reform. Assad has said he will abolish the emergency law that has been in place for nearly forty years.

In Dubai TV’s report, Yemeni medical sources say that the death toll from the explosion at the Abyan weapons factory has risen to 150. According to local officials in the town of Khanfar, factory workers warned residents not to enter the site after it was taken over and looted by members of al-Qaeda. Yemeni authorities say the explosion was caused by metal objects striking barrels containing gunpowder. Meanwhile, the political situation in Yemen has reached a stalemate as President Ali Abdullah Saleh says he will not make any more concessions and the opposition remains unsatisfied.

Thirty-three people were killed and over 100 were wounded in Northern Iraq today in an incident in which 11 armed gunmen disguised as members of the Iraqi military stormed a government building. The BBC reports that the gunmen occupied the building for several hours and took a number of hostages before US and Iraqi forces regained control of the building. Three provincial council members, a brigadier-general, and three police officers were all killed.

Tonight, NBN gives us a profile of the first president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Shukri al-Quwatli. Described as the most prominent advocate of Arab unity in modern times, al-Quwatli is revered for resisting Turkish and French colonization and fighting for Syrian independence. Al-Quwatli was imprisoned and sentenced to death multiple times but was twice elected president by the Syrian people and fought to achieve Arab unity until his death in 1967. 

BBC Arabic reports tonight that the Syrian authority has announced its decision to lift the state of emergency that has been in place in the country since 1963, amidst increased security at protests. However, in the announcement, spokeswoman Bouthaina Shaaban did not mention when the decision would be implemented. Thus, the Syrian people see this as yet another empty promise made by their government. In addition to restricting people’s basic rights, the emergency law allows authorities to arrest anyone seen as a threat to public security, detain people without a trial, to monitor phone calls, letters, and the media.

Al Iraqiya reports from Baghdad's Tahrir Square on the hundreds of protestors who took part in a peaceful rally today, calling for authorities to enhance charges against arrested terror suspects. They also called for the release of prisoners who haven’t received a trial. In the report, al Iraqiya states that the Iraqi protest seemed to be taking a different approach, calling for unity and denouncing a Baathist campaign that seeks to fuel sectarian division among Iraqis.

Al-Jazeera reports that at least 110 people were killed in explosions at an arms factory in Abyan province, Yemen. Medical sources say that the death toll is expected to rise as more bodies are recovered from the factory. A group of armed men seized control of the factory yesterday and looted its contents after the Yemeni army withdrew. The gunmen are now patrolling the streets of the city in armored military vehicles, armed with automatic weapons seized from the factory.

NBN reports on a new crime committed by Muammar Gaddafi and his regime: the rape of Iman al-Obeidi, “a lawyer who embodies the model Libyan woman, but who bothered the regime by being a free woman.” Iman was detained and raped by 15 of Gaddafi's mercenaries. The spokesman for Gaddafi's regime, Moussa Ibrahim, accused al-Obeidi of being drunk and mentally ill. The regime also called al-Obeidi's parents to ask that their daughter change her statement in exchange for financial compensation. Their request was denied. Meanwhile, activists on Facebook created a page in solidarity with Iman, entitled "We are all Iman al-Obeidi."

Al-Alalm also reports from Libya, where revolutionaries say they are engaged in battles with Gaddafi's battalions in the outskirts of Nawfaliyah, 120 kilometers east of Gaddafi’s tribal and military base in Sirte city. Gaddafi’s forces in Sirte are in a state of high alert, expecting attacks from revolutionaries in the near future. Meanwhile, coalition forces have launched a number of strikes on Gaddafi’s military bases in the city. Libyan state TV reports that Gaddafi’s regime has not killed any civilians, despite this ongoing violence.

This week gunmen overran a Christian church in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad during Sunday services, instantly murdering a priest and an acolyte. In the hostage siege that ensued, more than 50 people were killed and dozens were wounded when attackers sprayed bullets and set off suicide vests. The Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq took responsibility and released a statement warning of more attacks to come against Christians.

During the rule of Saddam Hussein, there were an estimated 1.4 million Christians living in Iraq -- many of them Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians, but also a smaller number of Roman Catholics.

Two-thirds of Iraq's Christians have left the country since 2003, according to some estimates -- leaving fewer than 450,000 Iraqi Christians there today. Tragically, more Iraqi Christians may now join the exodus as a result of Sunday’s massacre. They know that without a government to enforce law and order and with the Americans on the way out, there will probably be more attacks.

Al Qaeda militants want the exodus to continue. Al Qaeda in Iraq has declared war on half a million Iraqi Christians because two Egyptian women, who supposedly converted from Coptic Christianity to Islam, are rumored to be held prisoner by Coptic monks somewhere in Egypt. Al Qaeda in Iraq posted an internet statement saying "the killing sword will not be lifted" from the necks of Christians, in Iraq and across the region.

The speaker said his group will go after "your children" in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, adding there are hundreds of thousands of Christians and hundreds of churches on Islamic soil.  He said they will be targeted if Christians do not submit to his group's demands.

Leaders of the Coptic Church deny the women are being held anywhere, calling the assertion "an illusion in the minds of sick people.” Even if this story about the Coptic monks is true, it is utterly mind boggling why Iraqi Christians are held responsible for something done in Egypt? However, there has not been any logic behind all the death and destruction that have become a part of Iraqi daily lives.

Two days after the Sunday massacre, more than 70 people were killed and 250 wounded as sixteen car bombs and roadside bombs detonated across the city on Tuesday. The coordinated bombings seemed designed to demonstrate that Al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups still have a significant presence in the capital.

"For the last four months we have seen attacks around Baghdad, but now they are inside (the city)," Mohamed al-Rubeiy, a Baghdad provincial council member for Karrada was quoted saying by the Associated Press. "Karrada is the center of Baghdad and Baghdad is the center of the government. That means the terrorists are sending a message to the world: 'We are back and we are here'."

Religious leaders from around the world condemned the attacks, including Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani. 

Condemnation, however, is not enough. Iraqi leaders and security forces must do more to protect a Christian population whose roots in the country reach back in history. Moreover Iraq's current security and political dysfunction could prove a liability to the entire region, becoming a deadly breeding ground for terrorist groups with global aspirations.

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