Recap of developments in Middle East, North Africa
AFP
CAIRO- Latest developments in the unrest sweeping the Middle East and North Africa in the past 24 hours:
LIBYA: Libya's government says it is ready to negotiate reforms but only if Moamer Kadhafi stays.
- Kadhafi's forces push back rebels from the eastern oil town of Brega towards the town of Ajdabiya, the first significant loss of territory for rebels in almost a week despite a NATO airstrike on loyalists.
SYRIA: Syria braces for a series of demonstrations organised by a Facebook group to mark "Martyrs Week" in honour of those killed in pro-democracy protests as the southern town of Daraa holds a general strike.
- Seven human rights activists detained by the Syrian authorities in a security crackdown last month are freed.
YEMEN: Five people are killed in a firefight in the capital Sanaa between troops of an army division that has sided with anti-regime protesters and tribesmen close to President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
- Western pressure mounts on Saleh to stand down, with the European Union urging him to begin a political transition "without delay" after at least 24 people are killed in as many hours.
IRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad charges that the United States and its allies pressured Gulf Arab states to accuse Iran of interfering in the regional turmoil as he demands Saudi forces leave Bahrain.
KUWAIT: Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmad Al-Sabah is asked to form his seventh government in five years despite opposition protests.
TUNISIA: Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announces the creation of a binational commission with Tunisia in a bid to halt an immigration wave from the north African nation that ousted its president in January.
ALGERIA: State radio strips top news officials of their duties after an illegal demonstration by about 30 employees, mainly journalists, according to its director general Tewfik Khelladi.
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