20111121
Reuters
(Reuters) - Here are the latest details of revolts and protests in the Middle East and North Africa:

SYRIA: President Bashar al-Assad says he has no choice but to pursue his military crackdown on street protesters, who have been seeking an end to 41 years of Assad family rule.

-- Assad says in an interview with Britain's Sunday Times newspaper there would be elections in February or March when Syrians would vote for a parliament to create a new constitution that would include provision for presidential elections.

-- An Arab League deadline for Syria to stop its repression passed on November 19, with no sign of violence abating. Arab states had met on November 12 and suspended Syria after it failed to implement a deal struck on November 2 to end bloodshed and pull its forces out of cities.

-- Syrian authorities have blamed the violence on foreign-backed armed groups which they say have killed some 1,100 soldiers and police. The United Nations has said some 3,500 people have been killed in the unrest.

TUNISIA: Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda party and its two coalition partners have reached an unofficial agreement in principle to share out the top three government posts between them after its first democratic election last month.

-- The Ennahda party will head a government that will focus on democracy, human rights and a free-market economy. Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi offered assurances he will not impose a Muslim moral code, that he will respect women's rights in planned changes to the constitution.

-- Tunisia became the birthplace of the "Arab Spring" uprisings after vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself in an act of protest that swelled into a revolution and ousted former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

YEMEN: Ten months of anti-government protests have paralyzed Yemen, pushing it to the brink of civil war. President Ali Abdullah Saleh has three times agreed to sign a transition deal brokered by neighboring Gulf states only to back out at the last minute. A U.N. Security Council resolution adopted last month called on Saleh to immediately sign the initiative.

-- Progress was made in Sunday talks with government representatives, mediated by U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar, with efforts moving closer to an agreement on the Gulf Arab plan.

-- Saleh's General People's Congress said on November 19 that an agreement to implement the Gulf initiative could be finalized within two days and signed in Riyadh. However an opposition official subsequently dismissed prospects of an imminent deal.

-- Thousands of Yemeni worshippers gathered on November 18 in Sanaa for Friday prayers, demanding Saleh be tried for alleged use of violence against demonstrators.

LIBYA: Saif al-Islam, Muammar Gaddafi's son and one-time heir apparent, was captured early on November 19 in southern Libya; meanwhile, the Libyan the prime minister-designate, Abdurrahim El-Keib, tried to put together a new government which will balance the interests of the competing groups.

-- Gaddafi's former intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, was negotiating his surrender in the south on November 20.

-- Muammar Gaddafi and an another son Mo'tassim were buried in the desert on October 25, five days after the deposed Libyan leader was captured, killed and his body put on public display.

Gaddafi's death allowed the NTC to declare Libya's "liberation" on October 23 and meant an end to eight months of war.

EGYPT: Protesters demanding an end to army rule battled police on Sunday, presenting Egypt's ruling generals with their biggest security challenge yet, a week before parliamentary elections.

-- Elections for the lower house are due to start on November 28 and the vote for the upper house on January 22, with each vote being held in three stages.

-- Two people were killed and hundreds wounded in late night clashes reminiscent of some of the worst violence during the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in February.

-- The former president is on trial, accused of conspiring to kill protesters - 850 people were killed in the uprising which ended with Mubarak stepping down last February.

-- Trial proceedings are on hold while the courts assess a request to change the judges' panel. The next hearing in that case is December 26.

-- The military was welcomed in February, but it has revived the emergency law used by Mubarak and is regarded with suspicion.

BAHRAIN: Tension has remained high in Bahrain and on November 19 crowds confronted police after a teenager protester was killed by police the day before.

-- The Shi'ite majority is keeping up protests against the Sunni-dominated monarchy while political stalemate in the Gulf Arab state persists.

-- A report by an independent rights commission into unrest after the authorities crushed democracy protests has been delayed until November 23.

-- The report could offer the government and opposition the chance to restart dialogue or it could trigger an escalation.

-- Troops from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states went into Bahrain in March to help quell the protests, in which at least 30 people, including four policemen, were killed.