20111224
Reuters
(Reuters) - Here are the latest details of the revolts in the Middle East and North Africa and their aftermath:

SYRIA

An advance team from the Arab League arrived in Syria on Thursday ahead of the deployment of monitors to judge whether Damascus is implementing a peace plan it agreed last month. At least two people were killed earlier in the day.

- British-based rights group Avaaz said on Thursday more than 6,000 people have been killed in Syria's nine-month crackdown on an anti-government uprising and 37,000 have been detained. Syria says 2,000 soldiers and members of its security forces have been killed.

- The United Nations has said more than 5,000 people have been killed. Assad told the U.S. television channel ABC that only a "crazy" leader kills his own people.

EGYPT

At least 15 people were killed in five days of clashes between protesters and police in Cairo before calm was restored.

- Activists are planning a new mass march to Tahrir Square on December 23 to protest against army rule.

- Violence has overshadowed the election that is set to give Islamists the biggest bloc in parliament. Actual voting in the election, which is staggered over six weeks, has been mostly peaceful since it began on November 28.

- Former President Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down in February, is still on trial, accused of conspiring to kill protesters. Hearings are scheduled to resume on December 28.

YEMEN

Opposition troops and troops loyal to outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh began withdrawing from the capital, Sanaa, this week as part of a Gulf-brokered peace deal.

- U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar, who helped broker the deal, urged the new government to bring stability after months of unrest.

- A presidential election is set for February 21, 2012.

BAHRAIN

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said on December 21 that Bahrain was failing to prosecute security forces who had tortured people during anti-government protests.

- Protesters in February started demanding a bigger role for elected representatives and less power for the ruling family.

- In November, a government-appointed commission found that 3,000 people had been detained and hundreds maltreated in detention during the protests.

- Bahrain later admitted that its forces had used excessive force.

LIBYA

All funds and assets of the Central Bank of Libya and the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank held in the European Union were unfrozen on Thursday.

- This month the U.N. Security Council lifted sanctions on Libya's central bank, clearing the way for the release of billions of dollars held overseas.

- The authority of a new interim government under Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib is still being challenged by militias who took Tripoli in August.

TUNISIA

Thousands of people packed the town of Sidi Bouzid to celebrate the first anniversary on December 17 of Tunisia's democratic revolution in the place where it began, unleashing the "Arab Spring" revolts across the region.

- Voters in an October poll handed victory to the moderate Islamist Ennahda party. The new leaders will hold power for a year to draw up a new constitution and prepare new elections.