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Cairo:  As protesters in Tahrir Square faced off against pro-government forces, they drew a lesson from their counterparts in Tunisia: "Advice to the youth of Egypt: Put vinegar or onion under your scarf for tear gas."The exchange on Facebook was part of a remarkable two-year collaboration that has given birth to a new force in the Arab world -- a pan-Arab youth movement dedicated to spreading democracy in a region without it. Young Egyptian and Tunisian activists brainstormed on the use of technology to evade surveillance, commiserated about torture and traded practical tips on how to stand up to rubber bullets and organize barricades.

Patience is a virtue – maybe even the supreme one in Egypt's popular hierarchy of values, but patience also has its limits and, now, at last, it seems as if we've arrived at ours. And fittingly, it's the young of the country who are leading us. They've had enough of unemployment, deteriorating education, corruption, police brutality and political impotence.As is now well known, they organised Tuesday's protests over Facebook and in closed virtual and actual meetings. Talk about grassroots! "They" is some 20 groups that have sprung up over the last five years. The question has always been how and when will they coalesce? They did on Tuesday; they fused, and with them multitudes of Egyptians young and old – inspired by what happened in Tunis.

Anonymous flyers provide practical and tactical advice for confronting riot police, and besieging government offices Egyptians have been urged to come out after Friday prayers tomorrow and demand the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's government, along with freedom, justice and a democratic regime.Anonymous leaflets circulating in Cairo also provide practical and tactical advice for mass demonstrations, confronting riot police, and besieging and taking control of government offices. Signed "long live Egypt", the slickly produced 26-page document calls on demonstrators to begin with peaceful protests, carrying roses but no banners, and march on official buildings while persuading policemen and soldiers to join their ranks.

 After December 5th – the date that will be remembered in Italy’s history as ‘No Berlusconi Day’ - the colour purple gained sufficient media attention to guarantee it significance beyond any momentary trend. It’s the symbolic colour of a battle for the affirmation of democracy, for the respect of our Constitutional Charter as the foundation of civilised living, for the defense of a free and plural information system, for the construction – in short – of that cultural and political renovation process that has been far too long delayed in this country.

Several dozen demonstrators rallied outside of Egypt's parliament Tuesday, two days after a member of President Hosni Mubarak's party said opposition activists should be shot.Some of the protesters in Cairo carried banners saying "shoot us," an apparent reference to comments made by National Democratic Party member Nashaat al-Qasas.

Police in Ivory Coast have fired on hundreds of demonstrators at an anti-government rally, killing three people and wounding a dozen others in the latest protest since the president dissolved the government last week.Moussa Dembele of the opposition RDR party said the protest took place in Gagnoa, about 200km northwest of Abidjan, the country's economic capital.Demonstrations spread to at least eight cities on Friday over a decision by Laurent Gbagbo, the country's president, to dissolve the government and the electoral commission after a row over voter registration.

A leading Iranian human rights activist and journalist was arrested Wednesday, activists said. Kaveh Ghasemi Kermanshahi was taken by seven security agents who searched his home and took personal belongings including his computer, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said in a statement.It is not clear where he is being held."Kermanshahi is one of the most important sources of objective human rights information and analysis in Iran, and one of the few still courageously working to document, in a scientific way, the deprivation of human rights there," said ICHRI representative Hadi Ghaemi from New York.

Security forces fire tear gas and plastic bullets at thousands of protesters in Caracas and elsewhere after RCTV is banned for violating a law that requires stations to air the president's speeches.Reporting from Caracas, Venezuela, and Quito, Ecuador -- Protests broke out in Venezuela on Monday after cable companies dropped transmission of a popular channel that the government declared had broken telecommunications laws by not broadcasting President Hugo Chavez's speeches.Government critics and supporters of Radio Caracas Television took to the streets of Caracas, the capital, and several other cities after companies dropped RCTV's programming under threat of losing their licenses.

Ahead of a planned opposition rally on Monday, Iran tightened security and arrested over 20 mothers who were mourning children killed in the unrest that has broken out since the disputed June 12 elections.The mothers took part in an antigovernment protest in Leleh Park in central Tehran every Saturday since the death in June of Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, whose shooting became a symbol of the government’s violent repression. The rally had been attacked by the police before, but Saturday was the first time the mothers were arrested. An opposition Web site reported that the protest was broken up by the police and many demonstrators were taken away. The BBC Persian service quoted a witness who said 29 women were arrested, some of whom were later released. But at least 21 remained in jail, the BBC said.

TEHRAN -- Iranian security forces and paramilitary groups broke up anti-government demonstrations in central Tehran on Monday, using clubs, tear gas and electric batons to disperse crowds outside the University of Tehran, witnesses said. Authorities blocked main roads into the city center and arrested dozens of demonstrators who sought to turn Iran's annual "Student Day" rallies into the latest in a series of protests against the government that began about six months ago. Officials had declared such demonstrations illegal and threatened to meet them with force. Despite the warnings, thousands of demonstrators tried to join students at sealed-off campuses of Tehran's main universities. Deployed to head them off were hundreds of riot police, Revolutionary Guard Corps troops and members of the Basij, a pro-government militia.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian security forces fired warning shots in Tehran on Monday and beat opposition protesters among thousands seeking to renew their challenge to the government six months after a disputed election, witnesses said.The security forces fired shots into the air as they clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi at a state rally marking the killing of three students under the former Shah, the reformist website Mowjcamp said."Security forces are beating demonstrators, men and women. Some of them are injured and bleeding," said one witness in Tehran's central Haft-e Tir square.The June 12 presidential election, which secured President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, sparked Iran's worst unrest since the Islamic revolution three decades ago and exposed deep divisions in the establishment. Authorities deny allegations of vote-rigging.

Iranians are marking University Student Day, traditionally an anti-US event that commemorates the killing of three students in 1953. Opposition supporters are expected to try to hijack official protests by chanting their own anti-government slogans.Olivia Cornes navigates some of the opposition chants heard in Iran since June's disputed presidential elections, with the help of BBCPersian.com and protesters themselves.The waves of street chanting among anti-regime protesters are spontaneous but many are not new. Slogans that Iranians used 30 years ago to call for an end to the Shah's regime are now thrown back at the Islamic regime which replaced it.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters held a major rally on Friday evening in Tirana, seeking a partial recount of the ballots cast during the 28 June parliamentary elections.The rally, which was organised by the Socialists headed by Tirana's mayor Edi Rama was also supported by smaller opposition parties from the left and right, which accuse the government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha of electoral fraud.The rally. which was extended into a three day marathon by a few hundred opposition supporters and deputies who camped out in front of Berisha's office, closed on Sunday afternoon.Speaking at the closing rally opposition leader Edi Rama described the protest as the birth of a new political movement, while giving the government an ultimatum to accept his party's request for a partial recount.

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Shouts of "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," a sign of continuing protest in Iran, could be heard Tuesday night in north and west Tehran, along with shouts of "death to dictator."In addition, pictures and videos were posted online of a reported protest at the University of Kashan, south of the capital city.The shouts were heard and reports came a day after the Islamic republic warned reformists against taking to the streets in protest, as the 30th anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis approaches.

Ramallah / PNN - Hundreds of people took part in Friday prayers in the threatened village of Na’lin. Thousands of dunams have already been confiscated for the Wall and settlements in the area.Leading yesterday’s service was Sheikh Salah Al Khawaja who said that the prayer and ensuing demonstration were not only part of the continuing struggle in Na’lin, but were also being held in solidarity with Jerusalem. He called for full participation in the ongoing campaign to stop the conversion of the city and the attacks on its holy places. The Sheikh added that national Palestinian unity - a full reconciliation between parties - is necessary to combat the policies of occupation.

People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) worked with a coalition of civic organizations to survey the South Korea population in order to identify criteria meant to eliminate politicians and make them ineligible for election.  Corruption in Korea was so serious that it was the foremost obstacle hindering the progress of Korean society.  Korean political parties have remained unchanged and politicians do not represent the people’s interests. Instead, they exclusively pursue their own interests: power monopolized by politicians only.

The two leaders from the National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (NANGO), who were arrested on Sunday on allegations of holding ‘an illegal political meeting,’ were granted bail on Tuesday. NANGO Chief Executive Officer Cephas Zinhumwe, and board chairperson Dadirai Chikwengo, were arrested at the airport when they were trying to leave for Harare after attending a two-day scheduled conference in Victoria Falls.NANGO spokesperson Fambai Ngirande told SW Radio Africa that the two were granted bail, pending another hearing in November, after the State failed to clarify what regulation they had violated under the Public Order and Security Act. Ngirande said the police claim that as ‘conveners of the meeting the two tolerated political discourse’ and should have notified the police in advance if they were going to have a political gathering.

DAKAR, 28 October 2009 (IRIN) - Youths in the Guinea capital Conakry went on hunger strike on 28 October - one month after the deadly military attack on civilians – to call for political dialogue, an end to violence and the arrest of those who attacked demonstrators. “No to violence, no to injustice and impunity, yes to national unity, yes to peace and social tranquillity” is written on a banner hanging outside the Dixinn Port youth centre, where some 30 people gathered for the five-day hunger strike.

Reporting from Cairo - He doesn't seem a radical or a troublemaker, but to the Egyptian government, Abdel Fattah Rizk, a surgeon with a graying mustache and hands pink from scrubbing, is a man to be watched.He belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, the most potent opposition group in the country. Hundreds of its members are in prison and many more are lying low. But even as security forces scour the nation for dissent, the Brotherhood is everywhere, from the shacks of handymen to the estates of millionaires and the halls of parliament.The government of President Hosni Mubarak paints the Brotherhood as an extremist organization with terrorist ties determined to impose strict Islamic law across Egypt. The group says it renounced violence decades ago, and its real threat to the ruling party is its appeal to the educated and middle class, who view the regime as corrupt and too beholden to the West. Although there are radicals among its members, the Brotherhood espouses a moderate Islam to reshape Middle East politics.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's prime minister, has appealed for regional help in his stand-off in Zimbabwe's unity pact, as his ministers boycotted a meeting with Robert Mugabe, the president.The suspension of ties has cast a shadow on the fragile partnership, as Mugabe chaired a cabinet meeting on Tuesday - without his Zanu-PF party's main government partners - as Tsvangirai's 13 cabinet ministers met separately.The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader flew to Mozambique on Tuesday to ask southern African leaders to step in, after he cut ties with Mugabe's "dishonest and unreliable" camp four days ago.