• Russia and China veto UN weakened resolution on Syria
• Leader of Syrian Free Army established in Turkey
• Qatar accused of interfering in post-Gaddafi Libya
• Fourteen injured in clashes in eastern Saudi Arabia
• Read the latest summary
Speaking during a visit to South Africa when Turkey's military meanwhile is due to carry out military exercises near the Syrian border, Erdogan said:
Turkey and either some or all of the European Union nations, and who knows which others, will take steps. It [the UN vote] won't stop our sanctions. Out of necessity, our package of sanctions will come into effect.
Britain's foreign secretary William Hague accused Russia and China of siding with a brutal regime by blocking the UN resolution on Syria.
At his speech to the Tory conference in Manchester, he said:
We and our European allies tabled a resolution in the UN Security Council calling on the Assad regime to stop the violence in Syria, after months of utterly unacceptable killings, torture and abuses. The decision of Russia and China to veto this resolution, and to side with the brutal regime rather than with the people of Syria is deeply mistaken and regrettable.
Here's a summary of the main developments so far.
Syria
• The British and Swedish foreign ministers have joined in US criticism of Russia and China for vetoing an already watered down UN security council resolution on Syria.The US ambassador, Susan Rice, walked out of the chamber and said she was "outraged". UK foreign minister William Hague said Russia and China had dealt a "bitter blow" to the Syrian people. Amnesty also criticised the two powers but an aide of President Assad said it was a "historic day".
• Russia is to host a meeting with the Syrian opposition council in October, al-Arabiya reports. The council will no doubt want to know why Russia vetoed the UN security council resolution on Syria.
• Human Rights Watch and Amnesty are trying to confirm whether Zainab al-Hosni, who human rights groups said had been decapitated, is in fact alive after an interview with her was screened on Syrian TV. Hosni's family confirmed that it was her in the footage but they could not say whether she is alive or was killed subsequent to the interview.
• Syria's former ally Turkey says it has started imposing sanctions on the Assad regime and says it will begin military exercises close to the border. "Oppressed, defenceless people are dying in serious numbers," said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister. "We cannot say 'let these deaths continue'."
• A defected army colonel and leader of the Syrian Free Army has fled to Turkey and called for a united front against the Assad's regime. "Opponent forces in Syria should get united and close ranks until the regime collapses," Colonel Riad Al-Asaad, told Turkey's Anatolia new agency.
• Joe Lieberman has became the first US senator to publicly call for an internationally imposed no-fly zone over parts of Syria. In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine's The Cable he said: "I'd like to see us begin to consider some safe zones inside Syria, particularly along the Turkish and Jordanian borders." When asked if he meant there should be a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, he said. "I'd be in favour of that, yes."
Libya
• There have been heavy clashes between revolutionary forces and pro-Gaddafi forces in the centre of Sirte, al-Arabiya reports. Fighters loyal to the interim government have been promising a "final assault" on the city. The National Transitional Council says it will declare Libya liberated after the fall of Gaddafi's birthplace.
• An arrest warrant has been issued by the Zintan Military Council for Abdelhakim Belhaj, head of the Tripoli Military Council, and his deputy, Mahdi al-Harati, CNN reports, citing an anonymous NTC spokesman. It reports that there was a stand-off between troops from the two groups after a meeting on Monday in which Belhaj called all other military brigades to take their weapons out of Tripoli. Belhaj is a controversial figure who was involved with jihadi groups in the past and has warned that attempts to exclude some participants in the revolution risk alienating Libya's Islamists.
Saudi Arabia
• Activists claim that security forces fired on Shia protesters in the eastern oil rich province of al-Qatif. The Saudi government confirmed that 14 people were injured (11 security personnel and three civilians) blaming a "foreign country [code for Iran]" for inciting the protests.
Bahrain
• More anti-regime protesters have been jailed in Bahrain, taking the total sentenced this week alone to 81, according to AP. The state news agency said that 13 people have each been sentenced to five years in prison for destroying a police station and attempting to set it on fire. Another six people have each been jailed for one year for the same crime.
Given the events at the UN security council, this is interesting news from al-Arabiya:
Russia to host meeting with Syria opposition council in October: official #alarabiya
Amnesty has accused of Russia and China, and the four countries which abstained on the UN vote, of betraying the Syrian people.
Middle East and North Africa Director Malcolm Smart said:
It is shocking that after more than six months of horrific bloodshed on the streets and in the detention centres of Syria, the governments of both Russia and China still felt able to veto what was already a seriously watered-down resolution.Those countries which ducked this decision by abstaining must also bear a heavy responsibility for allowing the brutal crackdown on legitimate dissent in Syria to continue unchecked.
Attempts to justify this position by referring to the military intervention in Libya are utterly irresponsible. The Syrian people should not have to suffer because of political disagreements about the situation in a different country. Yesterday's veto was nothing short of a betrayal of the Syrian people.
The actor and director Sean Penn appears to be embarking on political tour of north Africa. On Friday he appeared at protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square (left) where he spoke about the struggles ahead to complete the revolution.
Today he popped up in Tripoli.
He told Associated Press that he admires "the courage to say we want freedom. It's an extraordinary thing."
He says that "an enormous price has been paid but I think that there is no question that they can follow it through."
The Swedish and British foreign ministers have been tweeting their annoyance with Russia and China over the UN Syria vote.
Sweden's Carl Bildt:
Highly regrettable that Russia and China vetoed UN Security Council resolution on Syria. Risk that this encourages repression.
Britain's William Hague:
Russia and China veto has dealt a bitter blow to the people of #Syria http://ow.l
Bahrain's military court continues to jail activists involved in protests against the regime. The state news agency reports that 13 people have each been sentenced to five years in prison for destroying a police station and attempting to set it on fire.
Another six people have each been jailed for one year for the same crime. The news agency reports said the defendants blocked the streets leading to the police station with dustbins and then threw bricks, stones, metal bars and Molotov cocktails at the building.
The sentences bring the number of people jailed this week to 81, according to AP, which says that hundreds of people are facing trial. The sentences follow the jailing of 14 members of the Shia opposition party Amal for between five and 10 years on Tuesday . Last week, there was an international outcry over jail terms of between five and 15 years handed to 20 Bahraini medics who treated activists wounded during anti-government protests.
Bahraini activists claim the majority Shias face widespread discrimination. They accuse the regime of using trumped up charges to punish activists for protests, torturing detainees and denying them fair trials.
Is Nato's campaign in Libya grinding to a halt? It has hit just three targets in the last three days.
It hit one "command and control node" in Bani Walid yesterday; nothing on Monday; and one rocket launcher and an armed vehicle in Sirte on Sunday
Now that the Syrian uprising has turned violent it needs international military protection, writes dissident Ammar Abdulhamid.
In his latest blogpost he acknowledges that the international community can't even agree on statement hinting at sanctions, but he says:
It took Syrian opposition groups 6 months to realize what the protesters have long realized: that toppling the Assad regime requires the immediate ouster of Bashar Al-Assad. I wonder how long it will take them, especially those who joined the SNC, before realizing that the call for protecting civilians requires a certain level of foreign military intervention, and that their attempt at balancing calls for protection with statements rejecting military intervention is all too hypocritical and cowardly. Nonviolence reaches its limits when tanks are set against unarmed civilians, no matter how brave they happen to be. The inability to see that and to realize that international protection was indeed required is exactly what drove some of the protesters, encouraged by defectors and the prospects of more defections, to finally take up arms. True, the international community may not be in a listening mode regarding calls for intervention, but it will never get there unless we do our part in getting it there. And we should get it there, our faith in nonviolence notwithstanding. A large segment of the protest movement has already made up its mind after months of living in the shadows of Assad's tanks, and they are now being exterminated, we cannot just pretend that this is not happening. Assad's genocide might be unfolding in slow-motion, but it is taking place, it is real.
Human Rights Watch, which last week called for a UN investigation into reports that Zainab al-Hosni had be decapitated, is also re-examining the case.
Her family, who are in hiding, have confirmed to Human Rights Watch that the woman in the state TV clip is Zainab.
Syrian activists are sceptical of that state TV broadcast claiming to show Zainab al-Hosni.
The banner carried by a protester in this video says "Syria media lies, this is not the real Zainab," according to dissident Ammar Abdulhamid.
Amnesty is trying to make contact with the family of Zainab al-Hosni to try to establish if she is alive after video of her was broadcast on Syrian state TV.
As we mentioned earlier last month Amnesty said Hosni was the first woman to have died in custody after her mutilated body was discovered by her family.
Amnesty's Syria researcher Neil Sammonds said the video broadcast by Syrian TV could have been recorded before she was killed. He said the clip raised a number of questions.
"Who's body was it that the family saw in the hospital?" he asked.
He added:
They were told by hospital staff that the body was their daughter. The family also identified her as their daughter, admittedly in a terrible state, but sufficiently enough to believe it was her. We are trying to establish contact with the family.For now doubts remain about the timing of the video. It is conceivable that she was forced to do this before she was killed. We know that Syrian regime pressurizes people to make 'confessions' on state TV. There have been several over the last few months, so it is not beyond them. But there is a possibility that it is her and she is distancing herself from her family.
Here's video footage of the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, expressing anger over China and Russia's veto of the Syria resolution.
"Today two member have vetoed a vastly watered down text that doesn't even mention sanctions," she said.
Welcome to Middle East Live. Syria looks set to be the main focus today. Here's a round up of the latest developments.
Syria
• Russia and China have vetoed an already watered down UN security council resolution that threatened action against the Assad regime if it did not immediately halt its military crackdown against civilians. It would have been the first legally binding resolution adopted by the security council since Syrian military began using tanks and soldiers against protesters in mid-March.
• The US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, expressed "outrage" at the vote and walked out of the chamber as the Syrian ambassador was speaking. She said: "The United States is outraged that this council has utterly failed to address an urgent moral challenge and a growing threat to regional peace and security."
• Syria's former ally Turkey says it has started imposing sanctions on the Assad regime and says it will begin military exercises close to the border. "Oppressed, defenceless people are dying in serious numbers," said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister. "We cannot say 'let these deaths continue'."
• A defected army colonel and leader of the Syrian Free Army has fled to Turkey and called for a united front against the Assad's regime. "Opponent forces in Syria should get united and close ranks until the regime collapses," Colonel Riad Al-Asaad, told Turkey's Anatolia new agency. Arab News quoted him saying: "In Turkey, we have no problem. We are living here comfortably, we are happy. "The regime has said they launched an operation to capture me in Rastan. I deny and condemn all the lies disseminated by the regime."
• A woman claiming to be Zainab al-Hosni, who human rights groups said had been decapitated, has appeared on Syrian TV, Angry Arab reports. Horrific details about the mutilation of Hosni were highlighted by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty.
But the woman claiming to be Hosni said she ran away from home because her brothers were beating her.
• The Syrian poet Adonis, an outspoken critic of the Assad regime, is in the running for the Nobel prize for literature, the Washington's Middle East Institute reports. He is an obvious candidate as the as perhaps the most prominent living Arab poet, it says.
• Joe Lieberman has became the first US senator to publicly call for an internationally imposed no-fly zone over parts of Syria. In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine's The Cable he said: "I'd like to see us begin to consider some safe zones inside Syria, particularly along the Turkish and Jordanian borders." When asked if he meant there should be a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, he said. "I'd be in favour of that, yes."
Saudi Arabia
The Saudi government has revealed details of clashes in a Shia area that left 14 people injured, after activists claimed security forces fired live rounds. The interior ministry blamed "instigators inspired by a foreign country [code for Iran]" for the trouble in the village of al-Awwamiya village near the city of al-Qatif. It said 11 security personnel were injured and three civilians. There have been previous protests in Qatif this year but they have been largely overshadowed by events elsewhere in the Arab world.
This video, purportedly filmed in Awwamiya, shows small fires burning in the street as protesters, many with scarves over their heads, throw projectiles at vehicles belonging to the security forces. Shots can be heard in the background.
Patrick Cockburn in the Independent says local activists claimed unrest began on Sunday when Saudi security forces arrested a 60-year-old man in attempt to force his activist son to hand himself in.
Ahmad Al-Rayah, a spokesman for the Society for Development and Change, which is based in the area, said that most of the civilians hit were wounded in heavy firing by the security forces after 8pm on Monday. "A crowd was throwing stones at a police station and when a local human rights activist named Fadel al-Mansaf went into the station to talk to them and was arrested," he said.
Rayah added that "there have been protests for democracy and civil rights since February, but in the past the police fired into the air. This is the first time they have fired live rounds directly into a crowd." He could not confirm if anybody had been killed.
Libya
There is growing concern among the National Transitional Council and western officials that Qatar, which supplied arms to Libyan revolutionaries, is pursuing its own postwar agenda at the cost of wider efforts to bring political stability to the country, writes Peter Beaumont in Tripoli.
At the centre of concerns are allegations that, rather than supporting the NTC, Qatar has chosen to back favoured key figures with financial and other resources. Most prominent among these would be the Islamist head of Tripoli's military council, Abdul-Aziz Belhaj … Of particular concern over the last month has been how Qatar has chosen to throw its weight behind a group of Libyan individuals including Sheikh Ali Salabi, a Libyan cleric who resides in Doha and has close relations with Belhaj.
Bahrain
Bahrain is in danger of becoming "the Berlin of the Middle East", Britain's defence secretary Liam Fox told a fringe meeting of the Tory conference in Manchester. "My worry is that if we don't get a resolution in Bahrain you can see, on a Sunni-Shia front, that it almost becomes the Berlin of the Middle East," Fox said.