• UN human rights chief calls for arrest of violent Egypt troops
• Syrian government signs Arab League peace plan
• Opposition coalition calls for military intervention
• Read a summary of today's key events
Here's a summary of the main developments so far today.
Egypt
• The UN's human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has called for the arrest and prosecution of members of the Egyptian security forces involved in the crackdown on protesters that has left 14 dead and hundreds injured over the past four days (see 4.16pm). Clashes between Egyptian soldiers and protesters in Cairo demanding that the country's military rulers give up power today entered a fourth day (see 3.23pm), with soldiers and protesters reportedly throwing rocks at one another this afternoon.
• The Supreme Council of Armed Forces said there was a plan "to topple the state" and defended soldiers who it claimed had shown "self-restraint" despite provocation. At a press conference, General Adel Emara said:
There is a methodical and prepared plot to topple the state, but Egypt will not fall … What are we supposed to do when protesters break the law? Should we invite people from abroad to govern our nation? ... The media is helping sabotage the state. This is certain.
At the press conference, the military showed footage designed to discredit the protesters. One image showed a female detainee talking about her husband, but then saying she was not married to her partner. Footage showed men apparently rejoicing at setting a government building ablaze. Other images showed a male protester embracing a young woman, and a young protester saying he was being paid $20 a day to throw rocks at security forces. Separately, Egyptian general Abdel Moneim Kato suggested the street protesters deserved to be "thrown into Hitler's ovens". The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party (FJP), the biggest winner in the recent Egyptian elections, blamed the ongoing violence on some ministry of interior chiefs but also on thugs it said had infiltrated the ranks of the youth (see 3.19pm).
Syria
• The Syrian government has signed the Arab League initiative to end the violence in its country. Under the plan it must allow Arab monitors into the country, withdraw the army from towns, release political prisoners and start a dialogue with the opposition. The Syrian foreign minister, Walid al Muallem, said the observers will have a one-month mandate that can be extended by another month if both sides agree. The observers will be "free" in their movements and "under the protection of the Syrian government", he said, but will not be allowed to visit sensitive military sites.
• Nabil Elaraby, the head of the Arab League, said today there was no immediate plan to lift sanctions against Syria, something Damascus had previously demanded as a condition of signing the deal. An advance party, led by a top Arab League official, will head to Syria within two or three days to prepare for the arrival of the monitors, Reuters reports.
• The Syrian National Council, the opposition coalition, called for military intervention to protect civilians from Bashar al-Assad's security forces (see 3.51pm). Burhan Ghalyoun, the SNC's leader, said Assad's agreement to the deal was just about him "buying time" and preventing the Arab League from going to the UN. Activist group the Local Co-ordination Committees said 25 people had been killed by security forces today across the country (see 4.26pm). The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three soldiers were killed in clashes between government troops and defectors in Maaret al-Numan, in the north.
• The US-born Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi has been released on bail two weeks after being arrested en route to a conference on press freedoms in Jordan, according to the Syrian Centre for Media and Free Expression. Ghazzawi is one of the few Syrian bloggers to post under her real name. She had been documenting human rights abuses in recent months before her arrest on 4 December.
Yemen
• Hundreds of thousands of protesters have marched across Yemen to urge the UN security council to help bring outgoing president Ali Abdullah Saleh to justice, witnesses said. The protest organisers said in a statement that "the move comes as part of escalation to urge the UN security council in its upcoming session on Yemen to adopt a resolution against Saleh's crime against the protests". Demonstrations were reportedly held simultaneously in the capital Sana'a and in a number of other cities. Under a Gulf-brokered deal for the transfer of power, Saleh was granted immunity from prosecution.
The Local Co-ordination Committees, the group that reports on Syrian protests, are now saying 25 people have been killed in clashes with security forces: six in Damascus, five in Deraa, four in Homs, four in Idlib, three in Deir Ezzor, two in Saraqeb and one in Hama. Two of the dead are children, according to the LCCs.
The UN's human rights chief has called for the arrest and prosecution of members of Egyptian security forces involved in the crackdown on protesters that has left 14 people dead and hundreds injured over the past four days, the Associated Press reports.
Navi Pillay called the graphic images of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square being hit on the head and body with clubs long after they stopped resisting "utterly shocking".
Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said today that "these are life-threatening and inhuman acts that cannot possibly be justified under the guise of restoration of security or crowd control".
She said "there must be arrests and prosecutions" and repeated her demand for a full investigation into all killings, torture and use of excessive force in Egypt in recent months.
The picture above shows an Egyptian protester holding a sketch of the now-infamous picture of the woman being beaten by Egyptian soldiers. It reads: "[Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein] Tantawi, get your dogs off me."
Following on the heels of William Hague's comments on Egypt comes a brief statement from the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, on Twitter. She seems clearer about where the blame lies:
All people have a right to peaceful assembly & free expression. We call upon the authorities in #Egypt to respect these universal rights.
The Syrian National Council, the opposition coalition that has been meeting in Tunisia today, has called for military intervention to protect civilians from Bashar al-Assad's security forces.
The opposition group feels Assad has no intention of honouring the Arab League deal his government signed today, which commits him to pulling troops out of cities across the country.
Burhan Ghalyoun, the SNC's leader, said:
Syria's signature of the Arab League agreement is a lie aimed at buying time and discouraging the League from resorting to the United Nations.
The agreement "gives yet a new opportunity to the Syrian regime" that it would twist to cling to power, he added.
We want a firmer position - that the League avoids the traps of this lying regime ... We urge the Arab League and the United Nations to defend Syrians by establishing isolated and secure areas inside Syria.
We need to use force - even in a limited way - or for Arab defence forces to respond ... But we will not leave our destiny in the hands of others, even if it were the United Nations.
Neither the Arab League and the United Nations have shown any interest in initiating the kind of armed intervention that eventually overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. It is thought that Russia and China, two veto-holding members of the UN security council, feel Nato exceeded its brief in the Libya conflict. But Russia did table a draft resolution condemning Assad's crackdown recently.
In response to the violence in Cairo over the past four days, the UK foreign secretary, William Hague, has taken his now familiar stance when it comes to Egypt of expressing concern but refusing to apportion blame between the two sides.
In October, after the crackdown on a march of Coptic Christians that left more than 25 dead he refused to condemn the military, calling on "all Egyptians to refrain from violence". In the last round of violence in November that left more than 40 dead, he refused to call for the military rulers to stand down saying: "We don't take sides". In his latest statement he says:
I am deeply concerned at the clashes in central Cairo. The violent tactics of the security forces are unacceptable, as are the violent actions of some of the protesters, which are inconsistent with the democratic process in which Egypt is now engaged.
Egypt has the chance to build a better future on the basis of democratic participation and choice. I welcome the orderly conduct of the current elections. It is essential not to put this political process in danger.
There has been a fresh outbreak of violence close to Tahrir Square, Cairo, captured in tweets by a number of journalists at the scene. Rana Khazbak from al-Masry al Youm writes:
Soldiers in uniform throwin down ceramics, rocks n molotov on protesters from above mogama3 3elmy http://yfrog.com/obgg1bfj
Protesters throw back rocks n molotov http://yfrog.com/kgrvegzqj
The battle of rocks shifted now to the ground across the wall in Sheikh Rihan #tahrir #occupycabinet #noSCAF
Borzon Daraghi from the FT writes:
#egypt #occupycabinet security force member throws rock at demonstrators yfrog.com/h6lkputj
#egypt #occupycabinet one of security personnel struck with rock and fell on roof of science archive building; since then, they left roof
In a carefully worded statement the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice (FJP) party, the biggest winner in the recent Egyptian elections, blamed the ongoing violence on some ministry of interior chiefs but also on thugs it said had infiltrated the ranks of the youth, "the true examples of patriotism and sacrifice".
In a series of tweets reinforcing the message, the Muslim Brotherhood further said that executive powers must be handed over to the elected parliament no later than February 2012. At present parliament is not due to open for business until March 2012 and the military has been seeking to rein in its powers. Here are the tweets by the Muslim Brotherhood:
Democratic Alliance [the political alliance in which the FJP is the biggest party] decides to stage a sit-in at the Higher Judiciary House until culprits of #Occupycabinet clashes are held accountable
Democratic Alliance demands #SCAF to hand over both legislative and executive power to the elected parliament no later than February 2012.
Democratic Alliance: Military & security leaders accused of assaults on unarmed citizens must be prosecuted by an independent committee
Despite the Syrian government's agreement to a plan supposed to lead to the army's withdrawal from cities throughout the country and the opening of dialogue with the opposition, opposition group the Local Co-ordination Committees report continuing bloodshed today on their Facebook page.
Seventeen people have been killed by security forces today, the LCCs report: five in Deraa, in the south, four in Damascus, three in Deir Ezzor, in the east by the Euphrates, two in Homs, in the west, two in Saraqeb, in the north-west, including a 15-year-old boy, and one in Hama, near Homs.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three soldiers were killed in clashes between government troops and defectors in Maaret al-Numan, in the north.
This map shows where all those places are.
The LCCs also said an oil pipeline was blown up by security forces in Deir Ezzor, and "large-scale incursion[s] amid intense gunfire" in Qalaa Madeek , Attweene village, Shareaa, Hawash and Ain Takka. A funeral procession for a "child martyr" was fired upon in Midan, wounding some mourners, according to the LCCs. They post videos of demonstrations in many places across the country, including this one in Madaya, near the border with Lebanon, and this all-female demonstration in Hama.
A Syrian-based anti-regime activist who goes under the name Abu Hamza told the Associated Press news agency that if the government withdrew from the streets huge demonstrations would take place around the country. "This will automatically lead to the downfall of the regime," Abu Hamza said.
Iran has welcomed the Syrian Arab League mediation plan as "acceptable".
"Whatever is accepted by President Assad is an acceptable act in Iran's view," Iran's deputy foreign minister Amir Abdollahi told Al Alam television.
Al-Jazeera correspondent Rula Amin tweets that the Arab League's mission to Syria will include about 100 observers, including representatives of Arab governments, NGOs, human rights groups, and technical experts.
Amin is also tweeting details of a meeting of the Syrian National Council, the opposition coalition. The leaders of the SNC have dismissed the Syrian government's acceptance of Arab monitors "as just a a manoeuvre for the regime to gain more time and kill more", she reports. She quotes the SNC's leader, Burhan Ghalyoun, as saying the Syrian regime is cornered and under pressure from inside and out. It has no future and will fall sooner or later, Ghalyoun said, according to Amin.
The SNC wants the Arab League to be firmer with Syria, she reports. Ghalyoun also defended the use of violence by the Free Syrian Army, saying it was there to protect civilians and its violence was not equal to the government's, according to Amin. She writes that Ghalyoun says Tunisia is to recognise the SNC and expel the official Syrian ambassador from Tunisia.
Al-Jazeera reports a "show of strength" from the government, with thousands of supporters out on the streets of Damascus today. "A huge crowd gathered in Sabaa Bahrat Square in the city centre, chanting slogans in support of President Bashar al-Assad and against the sanctions ordered by the Arab League." Russia, China, Iran and Hezbollah of Lebanon were all praised by an organiser as allies.
Nobel laureate and Egyptian presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei (pictured left] has criticised comments by General Abdel Moneim Kato, who suggested the street protesters deserve to be "thrown into Hitler's ovens".
On Twitter, ElBaradei said: "The likes of Kato should be in prison, not in power" (Arabic link).
There have been more clashes between the regular Syrian army and the renegade Free Syrian Army, according to activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committees.
The LCC says the fighting took place in Maartet al-Nouman, in Idlib, one of the areas where the FSA is most active, after more defections from the regular army and that three people were killed, although it does not say on which side the fatalities were.
Here's a summary of the main developments so far today.
Syria
• The Syrian government has signed the Arab League initiative to end the violence in its country. Under the plan it must allow Arab monitors into the country, withdraw the army from towns, release political prisoners and start a dialogue with the opposition. The Syrian foreign minister, Walid al Muallem, said the observers will have a one-month mandate that can be extended by another month if both sides agree. The observers will be "free" in their movements and "under the protection of the Syrian government", he said, but will not be allowed to visit sensitive military sites.
• Nabil Elaraby, the head of the Arab League, said today there was no immediate plan to lift sanctions against Syria, something Damascus had previously demanded as a condition of signing the deal. An advance party, led by a top Arab League official, will head to Syria within two or three days to prepare for the arrival of the monitors, Reuters reports. Meanwhile the Local Co-ordination Committees say 13 people have been killed by security forces today – four in Dera'a, three each in al-Midan (Damascus) and Deir Ezzor and one each in Hama, Homs and Saqba.
• The US-born Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi has been released on bail two weeks after being arrested en route to a conference on press freedoms in Jordan, according to the Syrian Centre for Media and Free Expression. Ghazzawi is one of the few Syrian bloggers to post under her real name. She had been documenting human rights abuses in recent months before her arrest on 4 December.
Egypt
• Clashes between Egyptian soldiers and protesters demanding that the country's military rulers give up power have entered a fourth day. In the early hours of Monday morning, hundreds of Egyptian soldiers in riot gear swept through Tahrir Square and opened fire on protesters. Demonstrators were driven out of the square but hundreds returned later as security forces retreated behind barricades in streets leading to parliament, the cabinet office and the interior ministry.
• Egypt's health ministry says at least three more protesters have been killed in clashes with army soldiers in central Cairo, bringing the four-day death toll to at least 14, according to AP. A doctor at a field hospital in Tahrir Square claimed six people were killed, all by gunshots, on Sunday. More than 700 people have been injured and more than 400 taken to hospital, according to the ministry. An army source said 164 people had been detained.
• The Supreme Council of Armed Forces said there was a plan "to topple the state" and defended soldiers who it claimed had shown "self-restraint" despite provocation. At a press conference, General Adel Emara said:
There is a methodical and prepared plot to topple the state, but Egypt will not fall … What are we supposed to do when protesters break the law? Should we invite people from abroad to govern our nation? ... The media is helping sabotage the state. This is certain.
Yemen
• Hundreds of thousands of protesters have marched across Yemen to urge the UN security council to help bring outgoing president Ali Abdullah Saleh to justice, witnesses said. The protest organisers said in a statement that "the move comes as part of escalation to urge the UN security council in its upcoming session on Yemen to adopt a resolution against Saleh's crime against the protests". Demonstrations were reportedly held simultaneously in the capital Sana'a and in a number of other cities, including the restive southern city of Taiz (see below).
Under a Gulf-brokered deal for the transfer of power, Saleh was granted immunity from prosecution.
Another letter by the Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah (pictured left with his wife Manal Hassan) has been smuggled out of the jail where he is being held.
Abd El Fattah, one of Egypt's most prominent anti-regime voices and a former political prisoner under the Mubarak dictatorship, was taken into military custody on 30 October, accused of "inciting violence against the army" following the bloodshed in downtown Cairo on the night of 9 October, when at least 27 people were killed during a Coptic Christian protest. He had accused the army of unprovoked violence on the night in question.
His latest piece is entitled Half an Hour with Khaled, a reference to a visit from his newborn son, whose birth Abd El Fattah missed because he was in custody, a judge having rejected his appeal. He wrote:
Manal stood in front of the judge and asked that I should be released to be with her at the birth. But my civil judge looked at her strangely. I think I knew when I saw that look that he would not do right by me.
My morale collapsed completely. I drowned in fear and worry for Khaled and his mother. For the first time I was sorry for myself. My imprisonment had become a kind of absurdity, and my mind and my heart could not bear absurdity. I understand why a state security prosecutor would jail me, but why would the civil judge jail me? What's the enmity between me and him? And what's to become of me now? Will I turn into one of the thousands of miserable creatures in Torah Investigation Jail?
We wait for months, sometimes years for a judgment that never comes, from the hands of judges whom the law tells that we are innocent until proven guilty, and whom the constitution tells that our freedom and our rights cannot be constrained except by court order. But they do not hear. Our imprisonment continues, our cases never end, and we are forgotten by the world that stretches out beyond the prison walls. Everyone in the jail is faded and miserable; even the cats are pale, their movements slow, their eyes spent and broken.
The Associated Press has quotes from Walid al Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister, who spoke about the signing of the Arab League deal in Damascus this morning. He said:
The signing of the protocol is the beginning of cooperation between us and the Arab League and we will welcome the Arab League observers.
He said the observers will have a one-month mandate that can be extended by another month if both sides agree. The observers will be "free" in their movements and "under the protection of the Syrian government", he said, but will not be allowed to visit sensitive military sites.
The agreement was signed at the Arab League's Cairo headquarters after the 22-member bloc accepted amendments demanded by Syria, al Muallem said. An Arab League official in Cairo told AP that Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, had signed the deal.
Al Muallem said Syria would deal with the mission with "all seriousness, professionalism and objectivity," adding he would be coordinating "on daily basis" with the Arab League's secretary-general, Nabil Elaraby.
Al Muallem also tried to reinforce the government's line that "armed terrorist groups" are the ones behind the uprising in Syria - not protesters seeking more freedom from the totalitarian government.
The observers will come to see with their own eyes that there are armed terrorist groups that are doing sabotage and killing people.
Asked whether Arab sanctions would be lifted, which was one of the conditions placed by the Syrian government earlier, al Muallem said: "The Arabs imposed these sanctions, and they should be lifted, but we will leave it up to them and their concern for the Syrian people if they are honest about it."
Nabil Elaraby, the head of the Arab League, said today there was no immediate plan to lift sanctions. Elaraby said the Arab League monitors would determine whether Syria's government was complying with the sanctions.
An advance party, led by a top Arab League official, will head to Syria within two or three days to prepare for the arrival of the monitors, Reuters reports.
Elaraby said a meeting of Arab foreign ministers planned for this week, which had been due to discuss action against Damascus, would now be "indefinitely postponed".
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been at the forefront of efforts to get Syria to sign, Reuters reports. "Some countries played a helping hand in signing the protocol including Russia," Elaraby said.
Brian Whitaker, the Guardian's former Middle East editor, sends his analysis of Syria's signing of the Arab League deal. He says that the deal should take much of the heat out of this inter-Arab diplomatic confrontation – but whether it will achieve anything on the ground is another matter.
The Arab League's observers will spend only a month in Syria and we can expect a cat-and-mouse game between them and the Syrian security apparatus.
Syria's prolonged quibbling over signing the agreement is reminiscent of what happened in Yemen between the Gulf Cooperation Council and President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who backed off from signing the deal at the last minute on several occasions.
Bashar al-Assad hasn't been quite as obstructive as Saleh was but his stalling tactics have bought him more time to kill more protesters - as happened in Yemen too.
It appears that the Arab League document hasn't actually been signed by Assad. He could easily have done so in Damascus. Sending his deputy foreign minister (not even his foreign minister) to Cairo to sign it probably reflects his real view of the agreement: as a nuisance to be got out of the way rather than something to be observed in both letter and spirit.
WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT. In the comments, zerozero has posted the full video of the unnamed woman being beaten by Egyptian soldiers in Cairo. It is quite horrendous, but shows exactly how violent the attack on her is. The video also shows many other violent attacks on protesters by soldiers.
The woman photographed being beaten is an activist who does not want her name revealed because of her shame at the way she was treated, according to those who were with her at the time.
Hassan Mahmoud, a journalist with the newspaper Al Badeel who was there, said the woman stumbled as she tried to flee from the military police, who managed to grab her and beat her. "It was clear to me that they wanted to take her away from us but then a few brave protesters came in and started hurling stones and that was the one thing that saved her from their hands."
He said she was treated for hand and leg wounds, then taken to a centre for rehabilitation of violence victims called El Nadeem Centre, before being taken home.
Mahmoud said she told him: "It doesn't matter if I talk [to the media] or not, their stripping me is enough to reveal them [the army] and tell enough to those who still believe them."
By signing the Arab League deal, Syria is likely to avoid having the UN take action, the Associated Press reports. Instead fellow Arabs will take the lead in trying to resolve the nine-month crisis. Many opponents of the regime believe Bashar al-Assad, the country's president, is merely trying to gain time by signing.
More on Syria signing the Arab League deal. Walid al Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister, said the agreement was signed "a while ago" in Cairo after the Arab League accepted amendments to the deal demanded by Syria.
Syria has signed the Arab League initiative, al-Jazeera reports. Syrian foreign minister Walid al Muallem has just been announcing the signing in Damascus.
Arab monitors will now be allowed into Syria - but for one month, not two as was originally planned.
The initiative calls for the following:
• Withdrawing the army from towns.
• Freeing thousands of political prisoners.
• Starting up a dialogue with the opposition.
• Letting Arab monitors into the country.
More details soon ...
The Supreme Council of Armed Forces is giving a press conference on the latest round of violence in Egypt.
The message from General Adel Emara is familiar.
He says the army did not attack or use violence against protesters but it was thugs who caused the clashes.
He blames the media for working against the national interests and said the integrity of Scaf, which answers only to God, could not be questioned.
Emara also seems to suggest that the disturbances have been the work of an unnamed outside entity.
A number of people are live-tweeting the ongoing press conference, including Sultan al-Qassemi, Omnia al-Desoukie and Daily News Egypt.
The US-based Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid, a vocal critic of the Syrian National Council, the Syrian opposition coalition, has used his latest blogpost to urge the SNC not to focus on gaining international recognition over gaining the acceptance of the Syrian people as a legitimate voice.
Abudlhamid writes:
Getting international recognition at this stage is not as important as consolidating our base of support and legitimacy on the ground. For this, our discourse and our actions need to be carefully modulated so as to garner popular support and respect. We all also need to find ways to support protest communities and the local resistance, especially the armed resistance. Some in the international community may not like it, but armed resistance has become a fact on the ground, even if it is still in its infancy. No political group aspiring to lead the revolution and the transitional period beyond can afford to let armed resistance take place outside its purview and its controls.
A political group that has no real control over armed resistance cannot hold the country together in that most critical period of transition that lies ahead. As such, we are not just talking about creating the façade of control, but the reality of it. SNC leaders have excelled in creating façades but not realities. That's good for them, but it is not good for the country.
Our priority at this stage should be to get internal recognition, not international one. When that is truly "in the bag", international recognition will follow. We should also remember that the real challenge is not about achieving some sort of haphazard unity, but about projecting the needed leadership, vision and representation, it's about the quality of work, and of who we are.
Egypt's health ministry says at least three more protesters have been killed in clashes with army soldiers in central Cairo, bringing the four-day death toll to at least 14, AP reports.
A doctor at a field hospital in Tahrir Square puts the toll from Monday's violence at six. Ahmed Saad says all of them were killed by gunshots. The discrepancy could not be immediately reconciled, says AP.
The Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi (pictured left) has been released on bail two weeks after being arrested en route to a conference on press freedoms in Jordan, AFP reports.
It quotes the Syrian Centre for Media and Free Expression as saying:
"Razan Ghazzawi was released from detention at 10.30pm (8.30pm GMT) Sunday on bail of 15,000 Syrian pounds (around $300)."
US born Ghazzawi is one of the few Syrian bloggers to post under her real name. The 31-year-old had been documenting human rights abuses in recent months, and was arrested on 4 December at the border while on her way to Jordan for a conference on press freedoms.
On 12 December, the Syrian authorities charged her with trying to incite sectarian strife, spreading false information and weakening national sentiment.
Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, has arrived in Cairo, an Egyptian airport official has told the Associated Press. He is expected to sign an agreement allowing Arab observers into the country.
The pro-government Syrian newspaper al-Watan reported that Mekdad will sign the agreement in Cairo.
The Arab League has given Syria until Wednesday to sign the deal, the latest in a series of deadlines it has set.
Welcome to Middle East Live. Once more the focus is on Syria, with reports once more that Bashar al-Assad is ready to sign the Arab League peace plan, and Egypt, where there has been more bloodshed in Tahrir Square.
Egypt
• Clashes between Egypt's ruling military and protesters insisting that they cede power have continued in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a fourth day. Police and soldiers using guns and batons drove stone-throwing protesters out of the square during the night, as could be seen on on video uploaded to YouTube:
But by dawn protesters had trickled back into the square, according to Reuters.
The health ministry said on Sunday that 10 people had been killed in the violence since Friday. Some activists have put the number of people killed at 13. There have also been reports that five people were killed overnight. The health ministry said there were 200 injuries overnight, bringing the total to over 700, with more than 400 taken to hospital. In Sunday's clashes, protesters and troops battled on two main streets off Tahrir Square, trading volleys of stones and firebombs around barriers that the military set up to block the two central avenues. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has blamed the violence on hooligans. It said two soldiers were in hospital after being captured by protesters on Sunday. Protesters said three soldiers were captured but have since been released.
Mohammed Mohie Hussein, who was among some 200 people being held in a Cairo court after being arrested at the clashes died on Sunday within an hour of his interrogation in the presence of several defence lawyers, according to human rights lawyer Ahmed Ragheb.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said she was "deeply concerned" about the violence and urged the security forces "to respect and protect the universal rights of all Egyptians. She also called on protesters "to refrain from acts of violence".
Ban Ki-moon's office said the UN secretary general "is highly alarmed by the excessive use of force employed by the security forces against protesters, and calls for the transitional authorities to act with restraint and uphold human rights, including the right to peaceful protest".
• The shocking image of the unknown woman being dragged and beaten by soldiers in Tahrir Square during the clashes is a potent symbol that the revolution is far from over, the Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif writes for Comment is Free:
They [the military rulers] killed 10 people, injured more than 200, and they dragged the unconscious young woman in the blue jeans – with her upper half stripped – through the streets.
The message is: everything you rose up against is here, is worse. Don't put your hopes in the revolution or parliament. We are the regime and we're back ...
The young woman in the blue jeans has chosen so far to retain her privacy. But her image has already become icon. As the tortured face of Khaled Said broke any credibility the ministry of the interior might have had, so the young woman in the blue jeans has destroyed the military's reputation.
Syria
• Gulf leaders holding a summit in Saudi Arabia hope that Bashar al-Assad will finally sign an Arab League peace deal aimed at ending his crackdown on protests and averting a civil war. Al-Arabiya reported that Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said:
We have information that indicates that he will sign the initiative. If this is true or not true we'll see. If they don't sign we will take the matter to the [UN] security council to adopt all the resolutions which have been taken by the Arab League.
• There have been more heavy gun battles between Syrian security forces and army defectors. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an army officer was among the six soldiers killed on Sunday in the town of Qusair in Homs province, near the border with Lebanon. Heavy gun battles were also reported in several villages in the restive Jabal al-Zawiya region in the northern Idlib province near the Turkish border, where many defectors are believed to be operating. Another activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committees, said there were clashes in Tadmur in Homs, after an entire platoon defected. The LCCs put the death toll on Sunday at 20: 11 in Homs, eight in Idlib, and one in Dara'a.
Bahrain
• Police in Bahrain on Sunday fired tear gas at thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-government slogans after the funeral of an elderly man who witnesses say died from tear gas inhalation. Amir al-Mouali said his 73-year-old neighbour, Abdulali Ali Ahmed, was taken to a hospital on Saturday morning after struggling to breath during a night of heavy clashes near his home along the Budaiya highway, which connects a string of Shia villages west of Manama. Al-Mouali said Ahmed died on Saturday evening. In a statement on Sunday, Bahrain's interior ministry said Ahmed died of natural causes.