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For the second time in two days, security forces fired live ammunition and lobbed tear gas during protests in Change Square outside Sanaa University on Sunday, Ala'a Al-Khowlani, a witness at the scene, said.

Other witnesses told CNN that at least 10 people were injured.

The clashes began after pro-government demonstrators and security forces set up a road block preventing anti-government protesters from entering Change Square, witnesses said. While protesters were allowed to leave, they were not allowed to re-enter.

Anti-government protesters demanded they be allowed in, and tensions heightened when they forced themselves through the road block, witnesses said. After the protesters made their way in, the shooting started and tear gas was used, they reported.

According to Al-Khowlani, some believe that security forces and police dressed as civilians were shooting into the crowd from nearby rooftops.

In Aden City on Sunday, four protesters were injured by security forces gunfire, witnesses there said.

One day earlier, three people in Aden City died from gunshot wounds when security forces tried to disperse an anti-government rally, a medical official with the group Youth for Change said. A fourth person was killed in Dar Saad, in Aden Province, when a group of anti-government protesters stormed a government complex and set a police station on fire, the medical official said.

A Yemeni Interior Ministry official acknowledged that one person was killed by security forces, but said those who raided the complex were gang members and not protesters.

Regarding the killings in Aden City, a security official called the demonstrators "separatists" rather than protesters, and would not comment on the alleged shootings by security forces.

"The government is trying to keep people as safe as possible," the official said.

Across Yemen, high unemployment fuels much of the anger among a growing young population steeped in poverty. The protesters also cite government corruption and a lack of political freedom.

On Thursday, President Ali Abdullah Saleh -- who has promised not to run for president in the next round of elections -- pledged to bring a new constitution to a vote by the end of the year and transfer government power to an elected parliamentary system.

Human Rights Watch released a statement Saturday, calling on countries that support Saleh to make aid contingent on the government stopping its attacks on demonstrators.

"President Saleh has once again broken his promise to end attacks on peaceful protesters, and those who supply his government with weapons risk complicity in this bloodshed," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at the rights organization

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BAHRAIN

Hundreds of people were injured in Bahrain Friday, when rival groups clashed over an attempted march in the town of Riffa, a residential area where the ruling Al-Khalifa family lives.

The national health ministry said 774 people were injured and 107 were hospitalized in the wake of the fighting.

SAUDI ARABIA

Hundreds turned out in two Saudi Arabian cities Friday to protest on what had been billed as a "day of rage," according to activists, though a planned demonstration in the Middle Eastern nation's capital failed to materialize.

The protests -- both made up largely of Shiite Muslims calling for the release of Shiite prisoners -- occurred despite a Saudi government ban on all kinds of public demonstrations.

Demonstrators in Hofuf, a city about 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, began their march after Friday prayers, two activists told CNN.

By Friday night, about 200 people were out demonstrating near Qatif, a predominantly Shiite city in eastern Saudi Arabia where several protests have taken place in recent days.

These protests come a day after three people were injured when Saudi security forces fired on scores of protesters in the city of Qatif, according to two witnesses and an activist.

YEMEN

John Brennan, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official and an assistant to President Barack Obama, spoke with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, calling on all sectors in the country to engage in serious dialogue to end the current impasse, a White House statement said Friday.

Saleh said he hoped the opposition in Yemen would participate in talks with the government and promised not to use violence against peaceful protesters, the statement said.

LIBYA

The military forces of Moammar Gadhafi on Friday pounded Ras Lanuf, the key oil port once in the hands of rebel forces, with its leadership confidently vowing to retake all territory from the opposition despite growing international pressure.

Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said Friday that Libya has suspended diplomatic relations with France, one day after the French government recognized the newly created Libyan opposition movement as the sole representative of the country.

U.S. President Barack Obama reiterated Friday that he wants the Libyan leader to "step down." He added that he "won't take (the) decision lightly" to decide whether to use military force, including helping enforce a no-fly zone, saying it is critical to "balance costs versus benefits."

MOROCCO

Morocco's King Mohamed VI has pledged sweeping constitutional reforms as neighboring nations face violent uprisings demanding more democracy.

In a rare television appearance on Wednesday, March 9, the king said reforms would include a prime minister elected from the party that wins the most seats in parliament.

The U.S. government applauded the moves, with State Department spokesman Mark Toner saying the decision marks "a moment of profound change."

TUNISIA

A Tunisian court issued a ruling Wednesday, March 9 dissolving the Rally for Constitutional Democracy, the party of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

This is "an accomplishment to the Tunisian revolution and to the Tunisians who had always suffered from this party," said Rabeea Ben Taareet, a Tunisian lawyer.

This comes after Tunisia's Interior Ministry announced Monday, March 7 that it is dissolving its "political police" and the entire State Security Division, which was widely unpopular under the former regime, according to the country's news agency, Tunis Afrique Presse.

EGYPT

Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei announced that he will run for president in upcoming elections. The dissident reformist who served as director-general of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency from 1997 to 2009, announced his decision on ONTV, a privately owned Egyptian television channel.

Pro-democracy activists in Cairo's Tahrir Square endured waves of attacks by people armed with machetes, knives, Molotov cocktails and horsewhips, according to opposition forces and witnesses.

The assaults, which began late Tuesday, March 8, left at least 44 people injured, opposition activists said.

The violence continued into Wednesday, March 9, in the square, which was the center of the Egyptian protest movement that led to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak last month

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

A group of 133 United Arab Emirates nationals have petitioned the president of the country for direct elections, one of the petitioners said Wednesday, March 9. The group includes academics, former government officials, journalists and activists, said Ahmed Mansoor, one of the petitioners.

MAURITANIA

At least 18 people were injured Tuesday, March 8, during protests in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, a hospital official said.
Riot police with tear gas and sticks cracked down on a peaceful sit-in organized by hundreds of youth in the heart of the capital. Police occupied a city square and prevented the youth from coming to it.

Rabi Ould Idoumou, one of the leaders of the opposition movement, said protests will continue as long as the people endure unemployment and poverty.

"Social, political and economic reforms must be made in Mauritania as soon as possible. Otherwise, the protests will continue," he said.

IRAN

Security forces in Iran's capital used tear gas to disperse protesters near Revolution Square Tuesday, March 8, according to the website of opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi.

Iran's opposition movement called for demonstrations to mark International Women's Day, and the security presence and car honking was widespread throughout Tehran.

Thousands of Basij security forces patrolled Revolution Square and other major squares and intersections in Tehran. Security agents were seen ripping off the license plate of one car that was honking.

The driver apologized and the plate was returned. Two young women in a car said something to several members of the Basij. The agents took out cell phones and photographed their license plate before they drove off.

Some of those patrolling appeared to be teens.

SYRIA

A prominent Syrian human rights lawyer has been released from prison.

Attorney Haitham Maleh -- arrested in October 2009 during a government crackdown on lawyers and activists -- has been freed, his son told CNN Tuesday, March 8.

"I just talked to him on (the) phone and he was on his way home," Iyas Maleh said, confirming the release.

The release came as Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad issued pardons for prisoners, including some who are elderly and ill. Such pardons are made annually during this time of year, the anniversary of the Baathist party seizure of power in Syria.

The 80-year-old Maleh and other prisoners were not identified in a Syrian News Agency report announcing the pardons. The move comes amid demands by many restive citizens for more economic prosperity, political freedom and civil liberty.

IRAQ

Masked attackers burned tents of protesters overnight in the main city of Iraq's Kurdistan region, police said Sunday, March 6.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered later in the day in Sulaimaniya for another protest against Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional government, witnesses told CNN.

The unrest in northern Iraq that erupted three weeks ago has killed five people and injured 158 so far, said the head of the emergency health department, Dr. Nozad Ahmed.

Separately, the head of an independent Kurdish radio station in Kalar, 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Sulaimaniya, said that gunmen attacked the broadcast facility and destroyed or stole equipment overnight.

Protesters in the Kurdish region, mostly in Sulaimaniya, are demanding political reforms from Barzani's regional government and the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party. Like protests in other areas of Iraq, the demonstrators also complain of corruption, unemployment and poor public services.

ELSEWHERE

Sporadic demonstrations have erupted in recent weeks in other Middle Eastern and northern African nations, such as Algeria, Djibouti, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Kuwait and Sudan, and in the Palestinian territories.

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