Here's a summary of today's developments:

• Protesters in the Yemeni capital Sana'a are planning a demonstration tomorrow as fighting continues to rage in the city. The violence has forced thousands to flee the city as the government and the tribal leader Sadiq al-Ahmar make competing claims about the battle.

• The US has called for a ceasefire in Yemen and urged to President Saleh to stand down. The French government blamed Saleh for the violence.

• David Cameron denied that using Apache helicopters in Libya would represents a dangerous escalation of the conflict. The Foreign Office has played down reports that the Libya is willing to offer a ceasefire.

• The Syrian opposition has called on the nation's army to join the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime. Leading dissidents are meeting next week in Turkey to set up a transitional council to represent the Syrian revolution.

• HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland were among major global banks which held billions of dollars of Libyan state funds, a leaked report reveals. The world's biggest banks led by France's Société Générale, and including Goldman Sachs and Nomura, were involved in $5bn (£3.1bn) of deals involving Libya, according to an internal report for the Libyan Investment Authority obtained by UK campaign group Global Witness.



• Israel has reacted with alarm to Egypt's decision to open the Rafah crossing into Gaza. Deputy prime minister Silvan Shalom said: "This is a dangerous development that could lead to weapons and al-Qaida smuggling into Gaza."

• A Saudi Arabian woman who posted a video online of her driving her car is facing another 10 days in prison, according to reports from the kingdom. Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year old mother who drove around the eastern city of Khobar last Saturday, had been expecting to be released tomorrow.

Some of the world's leading institutions including the Louvre and Guggenheim museums and the Sorbonne and New York University university have been accused of being complicit in political repression in the United Arab Emirates.

Human Rights Watch claimed that lucrative partnerships with the UAE were preventing the institutions speaking out about the arrest of leading activists including Nasser bin Ghaith, a lecturer at the Abu Dhabi branch of the Sorbonne.

Writing on the Huffington Post, Samer Muscati Middle East researcher for HRW said the Louvre, the Guggenheim, the Sorbonne and the New York University had refused requests to condemn the arrests.

Muscati wrote: "The Sorbonne alone responded, but only, shamefully, to minimize the university's connection to bin Ghaith, claiming he is merely a "lecturer" there, rather than promising to work for his freedom..

"These public institutions claim to be doing more than turning a pretty profit with their glamorous, starchitect-designed outposts in Abu Dhabi. They promised the world that they will serve the public good by creating a powerful UAE center of "ideas, discourse, and critical thinking" and that their branches will serve as a "bridge between civilizations," as the Sorbonne Abu Dhabi motto says."

He added: "By refusing to condemn this repression despite their prominent presence in the UAE, these public institutions are complicit in the abuses of their partner - the UAE government - and do a disservice to their mission of serving the enlightenment of humanity."

Now sixteen academics academics from New York University, including the sociologist Richard Sennett, have highlighted the plight of the detainees.

In a letter to the New York Review of Books they write:

Given the involvement of US and European cultural institutions in the region—notably the Guggenheim Museum, New York University, the Louvre, and the Sorbonne—we feel a special responsibility to draw attention to these attacks on the political freedoms of local intellectuals.

David Cameron denied that using Apache helicopters in Libya would represents a dangerous escalation of the conflict.

In comments to reporters at the G8 summit in Deuville he all but confirmed that the attack helicopters would be used.

We will make a decision on helicopters, we will look at the arguments carefully, but I do want to see us turning up the pressure in the right way so we can make sure that people in Libya can choose their own future.

Asked if the use of the helicopters would mark a dangerous escalation, he said:



No. This is what we are looking at in terms of turning up the pressure of those things that will help us to enforce Resolution 1973 to save more lives and to turn up the pressure on the regime so that actually people in Libya can choose their own future. "

New footage from Sana'a shows people fleeing their homes in the Hasaba, the area controlled by the al-Ahmar tribe. It also shows protesters holding up a banner that reads "President Saleh readies his private jet".

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The International Criminal Court has launched an a website aimed at encouraging more Arab lawyers to become ICC accredited.

The move is part of a campaign by the court to get more greater Arab representation in the permanent tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Lebanese politician Ghassan Moukheiber, told UAE's The National that the court has some way to go to gain acceptance in the Middle East.

Moukheiber said:"The attitude of many Arab countries is, 'Why do I ratify if Israel hasn't ratified?. Why do I ratify if the US hasn't ratified?' [Arab States] are putting it as a quid pro quo - I'll wait for Israel."

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A Saudi Arabian woman who posted a video online of her driving her car is facing another 10 days in prison, write Robert Booth and Mona Mahmoud.

Manal Al Sharif, a 32-year old mother who drove around the eastern city of Khobar last Saturday, had been expecting to be released today after five days in jail on charges her lawyer described as driving without a licence, provoking other women to do the same and provoking public opinion in Saudi Arabia. It is disputed by lawyers whether it is illegal for women to drive under national law but it is socially and religiously unacceptable in many quarters. "The investigator needs another 10 days to complete his investigation," said Al Sharif's lawyer, Adnan Al Salah. "He will decide whether Manal is innocent and has to be released or he will refer her to the prosecution unit, a government organisation and they might refer her to a special prosecutor to deal with the case. I feel the fair and right thing would have been to release her on bail."

The SaudiWoman Weblog has more

The story goes that Manal has broken down sobbingly and said that she was mislead and misinformed by a group of Saudi women, some of whom are in the USA to go ahead with the campaign and driving video. It's also claimed that she requested that they be brought in for questioning too. Her support campaign and personal friends have denied all this and insist that Manal remains strong.

Israel has reacted with alarm to Egypt's decision to open the Rafah crossing into Gaza.

The Jerusalem Post quoted deputy prime minister Silvan Shalom as saying: "This is a dangerous development that could lead to weapons and al-Qaida smuggling into Gaza."

Hamas hailed the move as "a courageous and responsible decision which falls in line with Palestinian and Egyptian public opinion."

European observers have not been invited back to monitor the crossing, Haaretz reports.

The crisis in Yemen is forcing its way to the top of the agenda of the G8 meeting in the French coastal town of Deauville.

The French foreign ministry spokesman told reporters that France blamed Saleh for refusing to stand down

We deplore the fighting that occurred overnight which was a direct result of the current political impasse, for which President Saleh has direct responsibility due to his refusal to sign the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] transition agreement.

Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Satoru Satoh said:



Japan strongly hopes that President Saleh will follow through on his commitments to peacefully transfer power, and that the parties concerned will reach a consensus, leading to the early stabilization of the situation.

Speaking in Paris ahead of the talks US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:

We call on all sides, on all sides, to immediately cease the violence. We continue to support a united and stable Yemen and we continue to support the departure of President Saleh who has consistently agreed that he would be stepping down from power and then consistently reneged on those agreements.

The Syrian opposition has called on the nation's army to join the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime.

AP reports:

The opposition said Thursday on Facebook that protests planned for Friday will honor the "Guardians of the Nation," a reference to the army. The call appears to be an effort to break a stalemate after nearly 10 weeks of protests. During the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the armed forces broke with the regimes and sided with the protesters. Human rights groups say the government's crackdown on dissent has killed more than 1,000 people, including dozens of soldiers over the past two months.

The human rights group Avaaz says one of thousands of protesters detained by the regime has died in custody after being tortured.

The detained protester Mahmoud Mohammad Abedrabboh has died in custody, having been tortured, Avaaz activists have reported. His body was released to his family last night in Hammouriyeh, Damascus. He was arrested by security forces on April 29 in Parliament Square, Jobar, while taking part in a demonstration. He was then transferred to Sednaya prison where he was severely tortured. His mother visited him in prison 10 days ago and was able to confirm this having witnessed clear bodily evidence of torture. The people of Hammouriyeh and Arbeen are holding the regime responsible for the safety of his cousin Mahmoud Ahmad Abedrabboh, who was detained two months ago and has since disappeared. The authorities deny holding him.

Another activist, Najati Tayara, is facing the death penalty it said:



Tayara has been charged with calling on Syrians to demonstrate, false intimidations and talking to "enemy media" that are involved in a "conspiracy" against Syria. According to Avaaz activists, Tayara is currently being held in an "inhumane" underground prison in Homs, along with hundred others who have joined recent anti-government demonstrations.

The New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson delivers scathing criticism of attempts by South African president Jacob Zuma to resolve the Libyan crisis.



If there was ever an opportune moment for an African solution to an African problem (Gaddafi regularly refers to himself as the "King of Africa") or for South Africa's long-awaited leadership role in Africa to reveal itself, this would appear to be it. (Of course, the same might have been said about Zimbabwe.) But, sadly, it seems more likely that history does not intend great things for Jacob Zuma, a leader whose moral impulse has shown itself to be consistently challenged. An example of Zuma's deficiency in this regard was his glaring silence, in his last round of talks with Gaddafi, about the disappearance, on Libya's eastern battlefield, of a South African citizen, Anton Hammerl. Hammerl, a forty-one-year-old photojournalist, and the father (with his wife, Penny Sukhraj) of two young children, vanished from sight on April 5th after he was shot in the stomach and left for dead by Qaddafi's soldiers near the eastern oil town of Brega... After Zuma's first visit with Gaddafi, his spokesman said Hammerl's status was not even discussed, because the agenda was rather Zuma's vaunted "roadmap to peace."

My colleague Paul Owen has just been in touch with the UK Foreign Office (see 11.52am) regarding the Independent's Libya ceasefire story, which the Spanish government has partially confirmed.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the government was "not aware of a letter or Libya reaching out on this". He said: "Our position is clear: Gaddafi has got to go. Gaddafi has called countless ceasefires, all of which have been total shams."

Thanks for your suggestion on the meaning of those chairs in the Saleh cartoon (see 12.10pm).

ScepticalMuslim writes:

The chairs around Saleh's waist refer to the fact that he is not prepared to give up his seat (as head of state) and he would rather destroy himself, and the country, before relinquishing this.



leloveluck tweets:

Perhaps the chairs around Saleh's belt (in the cartoon) are GCC seats?

Yemen's crisis is a power struggle between elites, argues Ginny Hill, Yemen expert and associate fellow at the foreign policy thinktank Chatham House.

Speaking as she was about to board a plane at Heathrow airport, she said:

This is not a conflict between the government and the tribes. This is a conflict between elite factions. On the one hand you have the president and his family, his sons and his nephews who receive military assistance from western governments... and another very powerful group within Yemen's aristocracy the al-Ahmar family who bring with them the support of the Hashid tribal confederation. And sitting in the middle is General Ali Mohsin, who defected from Saleh in March, when there was an attack on the protest camp. Ali Mohsin's loyalties and allegiances are going to be extremely important in deciding the balance of power between these elite factions.

Asked if Riyadh would intervene, Hill said: "Saudi Arabia certainly identifies its self interest in a more secure situation in Yemen where the borders are contained and the threat from al-Qaida is contained."

The emphasis of Saudi policy towards Yemen is shifting towards the Ministry of Interior which has responsibility for counter-terrorism, she said.

"There's a very strong focus on the security problem. And a perception right across the board in Riyadh that the biggest threat to them is the operations and activities of al-Qaida in Yemen."

Saudi Arabia has extensive networks of informal influence within Yemen, she pointed out.

Certainly Yemeni's believe that Saudi Arabia's is going to use these relationship to try to influence the outcome of this political struggle.

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The Saudi Gazette depicts Yemen's President Saleh as a suicide bomber threatening to blow himself up. We are not quite sure of the symbolism of the chairs strapped round his middle. If you have any suggestions please post them in the comments section.

Is Saudi Arabia losing patience with Saleh?

It is difficult to tell from the Saudi Press, but the Arab News reported that Saudi Arabia is preparing to defend its borders.

Saudi Arabia is well prepared to defend its borders and safeguard it stability, said Prince Khaled bin Sultan, assistant minister of defense and aviation, on Wednesday when asked by reporters whether the worsening political crisis in neighboring Yemen would have any negative impact on the Kingdom.

Yemen's conflict prompts fears of a economic collapse and food shortages, writes Madeleine Bunting on the Guardian's Poverty Matters blog.

The problem is that the crisis is exacerbating a long-term humanitarian problem of food insecurity. A third of the country is "undernourished" while 2.7 million people are "severely food insecure". In terms of the stunting of child development, Yemen is second only to Afghanistan as the worst in the world; it is third worst in terms of malnutrition. Half of all under five-year-olds are seriously malnourished. The paradox is that it has levels of hunger more often associated with Africa and yet it is an Arab country with some of the richest countries in the world for neighbours ... No one quite knows what economic collapse in the Yemeni context could mean. Unlike African countries that have experienced comparable levels of food insecurity, there is no subsistence agriculture to provide rural communities with some resilience. If Yemen doesn't have the money to buy oil and food, millions of people could tip over a very precarious boundary from food insecure to starving.

The Spanish government has confirmed that it has received a ceasefire proposal form Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, the Libyan prime minister, as the Independent reported this morning (see 8.10am). Spain is one of several Nato allies involved in Libya. A spokesman for the Spanish prime minister's office told Reuters news agency:

We've received the message and our position lies with the rest of Europe. Everyone is anxious for there to be an agreement ... but certain steps have to be taken first and so far they haven't been taken.

The Independent reported that al-Mahmoudi had written to a number of foreign governments proposing an immediate ceasefire to be monitored by the UN and the African Union. According to the paper the letter also requested unconditional talks with the opposition, amnesty for both sides in the conflict and the drafting of a new constitution, but made no mention of Muammar Gaddafi's role in the country's future.

I've asked the UK Foreign Office to confirm whether they received the letter too. I'll let you know what they say.

"I can hear machine-gun fire and mortar fire and its been going on for about 12 hours," Tom Finn reports from the Yemeni capital Sana'a.

In an Audioboo update he reports:

Last night the sky was lighting up with huge explosions. It was really quite terrifying. I've seen lots of Yemenis in the old city packing up their stuff and leaving for their villages. There seems to be a mass exodus. With the gunfire ringing out people have decided it has reach the stage when its no longer safe to stay here. I was at the central bank earlier and there was queues of people lining up to take money out. The clashes seem to be intensifying; both sides firing mortars at each other. The other concern is that both sides are starting to spread out and occupy more space in the capital. They [the al-Ahmar tribesmen] are thought to be occupying five ministerial buildings and a number of blocks. There are rumours that last night a camp belonging to the defected general Ali Mohsin was shelled by government forces. If that's the case it is incredibly worrying because that would mean the military may end up getting dragged into this and we would have factions within the military fighting each other.

Tom visited the house of Sadiq al-Ahmar yesterday, he says.

I saw police cars and armoured cars which looked like they belonged to the military. There were guys in military uniforms in that house. But there are often very blurry lines in Yemen between who is in the military and who's not.

On predictions that Saudi Arabia is poised to intervene, Tom said: "I heard the same thing from an opposition MP yesterday, he told me adamantly that Saudi would not be willing to put up with this for more than four or five days. Other says the Saudis are far more likely just to start barricading their borders with Yemen."

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Events are moving fast in the Yemeni capital Sana'a amid competing claims from the government and al-Ahmar clan about the fighting.

Here is a round up of the latest reports:

• Yemen's defence ministry says 28 have been killed in an explosion at a weapons storage facility in western Sana'a. Thursday's blast occurred in an area close to a neighbourhood where government troops have clashed with tribesmen for four straight days. The opposition, however, disputes the government's account and says the latest deaths were caused by heavy shelling of a residential area in the capital by troops loyal to Yemen's embattled president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

• The Yemen Rights Monitor lists 38 key buildings in Sana'a now thought to be under control of the Al-Ahmar tribesmen.

• Clan leader Sadiq al-Ahmar told al-Jazeera that he is protected by Hashed tribesmen and has captured 70 government soldiers.

• Saleh has ordered the arrest of Sadiq al-Ahmar. In his interview with Al-Jazeera al-Ahmar scoffed at the order. "Neither him nor friends good enough for that", he is reported to have said. "I'm here, surrounded 2km from each direction by fierce fighters. Saleh is too silly for words to claim he can arrest me", activist Abdulkader Alguneid reported him saying.

• There are reports of a run on the banks in Sana'a.

What's going to happen next in Sana'a? Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen analyst from Princeton University, gives his take in a post on his Waq al-Waq blog:

My suspicion is that Saleh's planning is to defeat the al-Ahmar family decisively - his troops got beat early - hope to maintain [Major General] Ali Muhsin al-Ahmar's neutrality, and then when the dust settles call for new elections. What would happen in such a scenario? Could the US really walk back its call for Saleh to step down if he or a family member won such a presidential race? Would it want to? Think what Yemen would look like, certainly not what it looks like now. What if the al-Ahmar family defeated Saleh, and if it goes on long enough at its current trajectory they very well might. Does the US want to trade one family's rule in Yemen for another? The protesters certainly don't want to, many of them distrust the family. What can be done: at the moment, not much. Hopefully that will change in the future. The UN secretary general called for an immediate ceasefire. Probably more out of habit than the hope that it will make any difference on the ground. Yemen is in for a rough road.

Syrian dissidents and opposition groups are to gather in Turkey next week to plot the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime and set up a transitional council to represent the Syrian revolution on the international stage.

Leading US-based dissident Ammar Abdulhamid will be attending the three days of talks in the city of Antalya. Writing on his blog, he says:

This will be a major test for the Syrian opposition groups and their ability to remain relevant to the current goings-on in the country. Success will be premised on their ability to court the support of protest leaders and committees acting inside the country. Should they fail to do so, it will be to their detriment, rather than that of the revolution. This is the dawn of a new age in Syrian politics, it's not only the regime that's being rejected, but traditional politics based on personalities and ideologies rather than issues and platforms. Opposition groups and figures still have a chance to reinvent themselves, while the Assads and their establishment do not. I think the activists amongst [us] understand that, but let's see if the traditional opposition figures have managed to do so as well. As such, the conference comes as referendum on the opposition's ability to rejuvenate itself and rise to the challenges at hand, it's not an indicator of where the revolution is going. The revolution has only one way to go: forward until the Regime is toppled. Its ability to do so might be hampered somewhat by the inability of the opposition to play a positive role, but the overall progress made and the course itself will not be reversed.

The Guardian's Tom Finn filmed this footage from inside the compound of Sadeq Al-Ahmar as his Hashid tribe continued to fight with government troops.

It shows the destruction caused after the government shelled it on Tuesday night. Gunfire can be heard in the background as the stand-off continues. The film also shows injured tribesman being treated in a makeshift field hospital.

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In an update on the latest fighting Tom writes:

I'm still hearing shelling now after more than 12 hours of continuous fighting in Sana'a. The local hospitals are filled with the injured. A doctor said that 26 tribesmen were killed last night, mostly from sniper fire. The opposition television station Suhail TV is no longer broadcasting after its main office was shelled last night by government troops. Lots of Yemenis are leaving the capital in cars and buses with luggage piled up on the roof. The airport is still open.

The fighting in Yemen appears to have escalated overnight.

There are reports that the headquarters of an opposition TV station have been destroyed.

The Yemen Post reports:

The Saleh government succeeded in hitting the opposition TV channel (Suhail) with RPGs late last night ending its feeds. The channel is currently out of service in Sana'a. This is a big blow to the tribes of Ahmar, as the channel was owned by Hameed al-Ahmar, the brother of Hashed's tribal leader.

It also reports that more than 50 people were killed in clashes overnight.

Reuters is reporting a similar death toll.

Dozens of Yemenis were killed in overnight fighting in the capital, a government official said on Thursday as fighting aimed at toppling President Ali Abdullah Saleh threatened to ignite civil war. Witnesses said separately that the compound of a tribal leader who is a major force in the fighting was severely damaged in the latest round of clashes that started on Monday and have already left scores dead.

Welcome to Middle East Live. Yemen and Libya look set to be the main focal points today as fighting continues to rage in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, and reports claim that Tripoli is preparing to offer a ceasefire.

The violence in Sana'a has forced the US to order out its diplomats.

In a statement the US state department warned:

The security threat level in Yemen is extremely high due to terrorist activities and civil unrest. There is ongoing civil unrest throughout the country and large-scale protests in major cities. Violent clashes are taking place in Sana'a, and may escalate without notice. Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence. US citizens are urged to avoid the areas of demonstrations if possible, and to exercise caution if within the vicinity of a demonstration.

Is the Libyan government preparing to sue for peace? The Independent's lead story says:

The Libyan regime is preparing to make a fresh overture to the international community, offering concessions designed to end the bloodshed of the three-month-long civil war. The Independent has obtained a copy of a letter from the country's prime minister, Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, being sent to a number of foreign governments. It proposes an immediate ceasefire to be monitored by the United Nations and the African Union, unconditional talks with the opposition, amnesty for both sides in the conflict, and the drafting of a new constitution.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that Gaddafi might step down as military and diplomatic pressure on Tripoli intensifies.

Khaled Kaim, deputy foreign minister, for the first time admitted that all political options were on the table in future negotiations over the country's future. "This is for the Libyan people to decide," he told the Daily Telegraph.

Here's a round up of the main developments today:

• Barack Obama said that winning the war in Libya would be a "slow, steady process". And he played down hopes of an early breakthrough saying there were no secret weapons available to oust Muammar Gaddafi.

• Ministers will announce the deployment of Apache attack helicopters to Libya later today in a move seen as a significant escalation of Britain's role in the conflict. HMS Ocean, with four Apaches on board, is expected off the Libyan coast within days.

• Some of the world's biggest financial institutions held billions of dollars of Libyan state funds, an FT investigation has found. Libya lost billions of dollars on financial products sold to Gaddafi's sovereign wealth fund.

• Egypt will open its crossing with the Gaza Strip this weekend, Cairo's interim military government has announced. The move will significantly ease a four-year blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory, but sets up a potential conflict with Israel.

• European nations are urging the UN's security council to pass a resolution condemning Syria for its bloody crackdown against pro-democracy protesters. Britain, France, Germany and Portugal circulated a draft resolution to the 15-nation council despite the risk of a veto by Russia.