Scores From Around the Arab Revolutionary League

Latest developments in Arab political unrest stretching from North Africa to the Persian Gulf AP/Washington Post

SYRIA

Syria’s vice president calls for a transition to democracy in a country ruled for four decades by an authoritarian family dynasty, crediting mass protests with forcing the regime to consider reforms while also warning against further demonstrations. Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa was speaking at a national dialogue. Key opposition figures driving the four-month-old uprising boycott the meeting, refusing to talk until a deadly crackdown on protesters ends.

EGYPT

Army troops firing in the air clash with stone-throwing protesters in the strategic city of Suez after crowds block a key highway to push for faster reform efforts, including probes of alleged abuses during the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. Suez has been hit by days of unrest over calls for swifter action against Mubarak-era officials. In Cairo, protesters block access to the Egyptian capital’s largest government building and threaten to expand sit-ins to other sites.

LIBYA

Moammar Gadhafi’s regime is seeking to show it remains in control of parts of the country’s western mountains and will defend the territory against further rebel advances there. Journalists based in Gadhafi’s stronghold of Tripoli are taken to the mountain gateway town of al-Gharyan and the nearby town of al-Assabaa, where they are shown armed civilians and government troops who vow to defend their land.

YEMEN

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh must “expeditiously” sign a deal that would have him transfer power to his vice president and step down, the White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan tells Saleh in a meeting at a hospital where the Yemeni leader is being treated for serious injuries. It’s the strongest and most public sign yet of U.S. pressure on Saleh, whose rule is being challenged by a five-month-old popular uprising.