Al-Jazeera reports from the coastal Syrian city of Banias, where women activists organized a protest demanding the release of hundreds of people arrested yesterday by security forces in Baida. According to the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, approximately 350 women were arrested. Eyewitnesses say that the city has been besieged by tanks and is suffering a food and fuel shortage.

The BBC reports that an international contact group on Libya met in the Qatari capital of Doha and has demanded that Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi step down. Participants of the meeting also stipulated that Gaddafi's troops withdraw from occupied cities. The British government faced criticism for allowing Libya's former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who fled to Britain last month, to leave the country to attend the international contact group meeting.

Several more people were killed today in clashes between Yemeni security forces and the "Youth of the Revolution" in the cities of Sana’a and Aden. Al-Alam reports that throughout Yemen, demonstrators chanted slogans demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh immediately step down and be prosecuted. They also publicly rejected the initiative proposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council because it excludes taking legal action against Saleh and does not ensure his removal from office until the next presidential election in 2013.

Dubai TV reports that the Egyptian state prosecutor has ordered the detention of former President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons for 15 days, pending an investigation into allegations of corruption and inciting the murder of protestors. While Gamal and Alaa Mubarak were taken to Tora Prison in Cairo, Hosni Mubarak was taken to the hospital yesterday after suffering from a heart attack during questioning.

Bahraini authorities have ordered the deportation of a group of Lebanese citizens to occur within the week, according to Future TV. The Lebanese ambassador to Bahrain, Aziz al-Qazi, announced that 19 Lebanese citizens have been told to leave Bahrain without being given a reason. Among them is Anis Hamdan, the son of former Lebanese ambassador Zuheir Hamdan, who has lived in Bahrain for six years.

Syria TV reports today from the West Bank, where Israeli occupation forces continue the siege on Orda village, east of Nablus, after claiming the village was a closed military zone. According to the report, occupation forces imposed a curfew, searched a number of homes, and arrested a young Palestinian and his brother. Syria TV also interviews the Freedom Flotilla II Coalition, who say they will sail to Gaza as scheduled in mid-May despite continued threats from Israel.