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By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East on February 13th, 2012
The chief of Egypt's ruling junta (L) meets with the top US military officer on Saturday. [US Defence Department]

Al Jazeera staff and correspondents update you on important developments in Egypt.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

Tags: Cairo
By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East on February 13th, 2012
Syrian ambassador to the UN Bashar Jaafari defends his country's conduct on Monday while blaming violence on al-Qaeda. [AFP]

People continue to take to the streets across Syria, where the uprising is becoming increasingly militarised. Activists say more than 7,000 people have been killed since protests began in March last year. The government blames "armed gangs" for the unrest and says more than 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed.

We bring you the latest news from various sources.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East on February 13th, 2012
Yemeni military officers meet on Sunday to plan for the February 21 presidential election. [AFP]

Al Jazeera staff and correspondents update you on important developments in the Yemen unrest.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

Tags: Yemen
By Sue Turton in Middle East on February 11th, 2012
[Al Jazeera]

The sprawling housing estate of Bab al-Tebbeneh north of Tripoli sits cheek-by-jowl alongside the Jabal Mohsen estate. They are neighbours but their allegiances are worlds apart.

To get to the street that split the two communities we have to dart in and out of side streets and alleyways, workshops and backrooms. We sprint through the gaps between the high rise apartment blocks, lest the snipers pick us off. Even the dogs run faster here, sensing the fear.

At times the gunfire is deafening as the residents let off a few rounds to let the guys sitting in the opposite estate know that they're still there. Snipers reply, sometimes inadvertently hitting the minarets of one of the estates' many mosques.

Inner city estates all over the world have gangs that fight against other estates, but rarely with RPGs and AK-47s, and rarely in the name of another country's conflict.

Tags: Assad
By Sherine Tadros in Middle East on February 10th, 2012

Last year, on February 11, I was standing next to the main stage in Tahrir Square when the evening call to prayer rang out.  

All you could see was a sea of people in lines, using Egyptian flags as prayer mats. When news filtered through to the crowd that Hosni Mubarak, then Egypt's president, had stepped down, people started shouting, saying that nobody could celebrate until prayers had finished.  

On the final prostration, as they stood up, tens of thousands of people looked up to the sky and shouted in unison “Allahu Akbar”: "God is Great".  It was the single most incredible moment of my career, and I still get goosebumps thinking about it.

That moment wasn’t just about a change of regime, it was about the fact that Egyptians had made it happen. They took on their president and they brought him down. Egyptians, who had gained a reputation in the Arab world as political passive, had done the seemingly impossible in just 18 days.

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