Recap of developments in Middle East, North Africa
AFP
CAIRO- Here are the latest developments in unrest sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.
LIBYA: Moamer Kadhafi blamed Al-Qaeda for an insurrection that poses the worst threat to his four decades in power as swathes of the east fell to opposition control and others into lawlessness.
-- World governments scrambled to evacuate expatriates and world crude prices soared close to $120 a barrel.
YEMEN: President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered his forces to offer "full protection" to anti-regime protesters and loyalists, as a second unemployed man died after setting himself ablaze.
-- MPs from his General People's Congress urged Saleh to implement a reform plan and 11 lawmakers from the ruling party resigned.
EGYPT: The prosecution ordered two ex-cabinet ministers and a top member of the former ruling party to face criminal trial for corruption as police made further arrests over alleged graft under the Hosni Mubarak regime.
IRAQ: Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on Iraqis not to participate in planned demonstrations in Baghdad on Friday, describing their organisers as insurgents and loyalists of Saddam Hussein.
JORDAN: The powerful Islamist opposition geared up for a "day of anger" on Friday to demand reforms as Jordan evacuated nearly 1,100 out of its 9,000 citizens from Libya.
TUNISIA: A UN human rights mission called on Tunisia to open investigations immediately into alleged violations carried out by security forces to suppress the country's recent popular uprising.
-- The IOM said more than 30,000 Tunisian and Egyptian migrants have left Libya since Monday, with tens of thousands more expected to leave.
ALGERIA: US envoy William Burns arrived in Algiers to meet President Abdelaziz Bouteflika after Washington called for greater political freedom.
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