China village ends 3 months protest after government compromise

Residents of Wukan, in southern Guangdong province held protests over the death of activist Xue Jinbo, whose family rejects the Chinese government’s position that he died of natural causes after he was arrested for protesting against the seizure of farmland for development.

Egypt’s cabinet resigns in wake of deadly protests: the resignation comes after three days of violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Tahrir Square, but the action failed to satisfy protesters deeply frustrated with the new military rulers.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45383062/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/#.Tst36VZa8dU

Earlier on Monday, Cairo police fought protesters demanding an end to army rule for a third day and morgue officials told Reuters the death toll had risen to 33, making it the worst spasm of violence since the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. More here…

Syria’s protesters turn to Facebook to expose ‘citizen spies’: Activists use the internet to find and unmask those they suspect of reporting their neighbours to security forces

During nearly half a century of one-party rule, Syria’s Ba’ath regime has maintained its iron grip on a nation of 22 million people through a network of civilian informers known as the awainiyya – the watchers.

As the uprising against Assad’s regime approaches its eighth month, security services are relying ever more heavily on their network of citizen spies to suppress protests, activists said.

As the attempted revolution in Syria transforms power relations in one of the world’s last police states, protesters are using social media to fight back. Facebook now hosts dozens of sites run by Syrian activists on which the names, addresses and photos of suspected informers are posted.

More than 700 protesters demonstrating against corporate greed, global warming and social inequality, among other grievances, were arrested Saturday after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge. The group Occupy Wall Street has been camped out in a plaza in Manhattan’s Financial District for nearly two weeks staging various protests.

Misinformation has added to the confusion. For instance, a rumor sprang up on Twitter that the New York Police Department wanted to use tear gas on protesters — a crowd-control tactic the department doesn’t use.

One video surfaced on social media website Youtube of a group of girls shot with pepper spray by NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna. The woman claimed they were abused and demanded the officer resign, and the video has been the subject of several news articles and commentary.

The Arab Spring is turning into a bloody Autumn in Yemen. Eighteen people have been killed in Yemen during more anti-government protests. The surge in violence follows the return of President Ali Abdullah Saleh after a three-month absence. Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall reports.

Social Media and the Arab Spring: What Have We Learned?
By: Raymond Schillinger, of the HuffingtonPost

“…For the legions of critics who had previously dismissed platforms like Facebook and Twitter as vapid troughs of celebrity gossip and self-aggrandizement, the toppling of regimes in Tunisia and Egypt suggested that these tools were as effective for organizing protests and revolutions as they were for organizing keg parties. The movements throughout the Arab world appeared to have imbued social media with an irrevocable sense of legitimacy as a tool for fomenting change.

As the ongoing tumult throughout the Middle East enters a sort of adolescence, however, the true role of social media in the revolutions is undergoing a necessary closer inspection…”

Several Yemeni diplomats have resigned over the government’s bloody crackdown on protesters in their home country. Yemen’s ambassador to France, is one of several to sign a letter to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, urging him to resign. Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan interviews him.

In Syria, the government has denied that a mass grave has been found near the southern city of Deraa. But footage seeming to show bodies being dug up appears to contradict that claim.Dozens are thought to have died when the army moved into Deraa last month to tackle ongoing unrest. This is impossble to verify, as foreign journalists are banned from Syria amidst the popular protests against the dictator regime

I’m still in Oman, kickin it with Amir. Everyone’s talking about the protests in Salalah (2nd largest city) against low wages and unemployment. Clashes over the weekend, shots fired. Sultan Qaboos bin Said has been the ruler of Oman for 40 years! The waves of democratic reform felt across the Arab states are being felt here too. Here’s video taken this weekend by someone there!

Yemeni security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters, killing at least three as international concern rises over the situation in the strategically located nation. Clashes also erupted between anti and pro government protesters. The country’s opposition, inspired by the internet uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, says nothing short of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s immediate departure would end the unrest. Tens of thousands took to the streets in the capital Sanaa and thousands demonstrated in Aden, Ibb, al-Hudaydah, Taiz and other cities where most of the shops were closed in support of the protesters.