Bahrain riot police fire tear gas at protesters (AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Riot police in Bahrain fired tear gas at anti-government protesters denouncing reconciliation talks between the Gulf kingdom's rulers and the Shiite-led opposition on Saturday just hours after the dialogue began.

The renewed unrest — described by witnesses — underlines the deep tensions on the island nation after more than four months of harsh security crackdowns by the Western-allied monarchy.

It also points to the political risks for Bahrain's biggest Shiite party, Al Wefaq, which decided to join the U.S.-encouraged talks despite widespread anger among the majority Shiites — who claim they suffer systematic discrimination at the hands of the Sunni dynasty ruling Bahrain.

The protesters gathered near a landmark square in Manama, which was the epicenter of the Shiite uprising for greater rights that began in February. The witnesses said several hundred marchers chanted "No dialogue" just hours after a ceremony to open the talks in the strategic nation, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of harassment by authorities.

There were no immediate reports of injuries during the demonstrations that started after a funeral for a protester, who died on Thursday in a military hospital from injuries sustained during the unrest in March.

The death of 30-year-old protester, Majid Ahmed Mohammed, brings to 32 the number of those killed since February. Bahrain's Shiites account for 70 percent of the population, but say they face second-class status such as being effectively frozen out of top political and military posts.

Hundreds of opposition supporters, activists and others have been taken into custody and many other perceived protest backers have been purged from jobs and universities.

Washington has strongly pushed for dialogue in Bahrain. The Sunni monarchy has made token concessions ahead of the so-called "national dialogue," including sanctioning an international investigation that will include probes into the conduct of security forces during the revolt.

The White House said Saturday that it welcomes the formation of a commission of inquiry into the events and the launch of the political dialogue. "We urge all Bahrainis to seize this opportunity to forge a more just future together," said the statement.

But the government has not relented on opposition demands to free all detainees and clear others convicted of protest-linked charges, including eight activists sentenced to life in prison last month.

Parliament Speaker Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Dhahrani opened the forum Saturday by hailing the gathering as "a historic opportunity for all of us to overcome this critical stage of the nation's history through dialogue."

He said the goal is to bring "together different points of view to develop common visions" and added that the Sunni rulers are at the talks "without preconditions."

After a 45-minute ceremonial session, the approximately 300 participants adjourned. The talks are to last until the end of July, with delegates meeting three times a week.

Al Wefaq's participation "adds an important voice of Bahrain's political opposition to a process that has the potential to serve as a vehicle for reform and reconciliation," Toner added.

Al Wefaq's three delegates who attended Saturday's session, were not optimistic the dialogue will lead to meaningful reforms.

"It started as a monologue," said one of the three, Bushra al-Hindi. "The agenda has been previously set by the government in order to exclude talks about critical issues, such as moving along with a process that will reshape the country into a constitutional monarchy."

Al Wefaq's leader, Sheik Ali Salman, had told supporters on Friday that his group will stick to its calls for the Sunni monarchy to loosen the grip on power and allow people to elect a government.

Delegates from Bahrain's secular opposition party, Al Waad, also attended the talks. They held a picture of their leader, Ibrahim Sharif — the most prominent Sunni politician who has been imprisoned along with 20 other opposition leaders for plotting to overthrow Bahrain's 200-year-old monarchy.

Amid the crackdowns, Al Wefaq staged a mass resignation of its 18 lawmakers in the 40-member lower house of parliament. Two former lawmakers are in custody and on trial on anti-state crimes. Al Wefaq said one of them, Jawad Firooz, was listed on the party's five-member delegation to the talks although he didn't attend Saturday's opening session because he remains in detention.

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Egypt police clash with youths; over 1,000 hurt (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) – Police in Cairo fired tear gas on Wednesday at hundreds of stone-throwing Egyptian youths after a night of clashes that injured more than 1,000 people, the worst violence in the capital in several weeks.

Nearly five months since a popular uprising toppled long-serving authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's military rulers are struggling to keep order while a restless public is still impatient for reform.

The latest clashes began after families of people killed in the uprising that ousted Mubarak held an event in a Cairo suburb late on Tuesday in their honor.

Other bereaved relatives arrived to complain that names of their own dead were not mentioned at the ceremony. Fighting broke and moved toward the capital's central Tahrir Square and the Interior Ministry, according to officials.

The Health Ministry said 1,036 people were injured, among them at least 40 policemen.

The ruling military council said in a statement on its Facebook page that the latest events "had no justification other than to shake Egypt's safety and security in an organised plan that exploits the blood of the revolution's martyrs and to sow division between the people and the security apparatus."

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf told state TV he was monitoring developments and awaiting a full report on the clashes.

A security source quoted by the state news agency MENA said 40 people were arrested, including one U.S. and one British citizen, and were being questioned by military prosecutors.

Some said those involved were bent on battling police rather than protesting. To others, the violence seemed motivated by politics.

"The people are angry that the court cases against top officials keep getting delayed," said Ahmed Abdel Hamid, 26, a bakery employee who was at the scene overnight, referring to senior political figures from the discredited Mubarak era.

By early afternoon, eight ambulances were in Tahrir, epicenter of the revolt that toppled Mubarak on February 11, and the police had left the square. Dozens of adolescent boys, shirts tied around their heads, blocked traffic from entering Tahrir, using stones and scrap metal.

Some drove mopeds in circles around the square making skids and angering bystanders. "Thugs, thugs... The square is controlled by thugs," an old man chanted.

"I am here today because I heard about the violent treatment by the police of the protesters last night," said Magdy Ibrahim, 28, an accountant at Egypt's Banque du Caire.

TREATING WOUNDED

The clashes unnerved Egypt's financial market, with equity traders blaming the violence for a 2 percent fall in the benchmark EGX30 index, its biggest drop since June 2.

First-aid workers treated people mostly for inhaling tear gas in overnight violence. A Reuters correspondent saw several people with minor wounds, including some with head cuts.

Mohsen Mourad, the deputy interior minister for Cairo, said the security forces did not enter Tahrir overnight and dealt only with 150-200 people who tried to break into the Interior Ministry and threw stones, damaging cars and police vehicles.

The Muslim Brotherhood's political party warned Egyptians that remnants of Mubarak's rule could exploit violence to their ends. Presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei called on the ruling military council to quickly clarify the facts surrounding the violence and to take measures to halt it.

U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns, visiting Cairo, said he hoped an investigation into the clashes would be "fair and thorough."

Young men lit car tyres in the street near the ministry on Wednesday, sending black plumes of smoke into the air.

"There is lack of information about what happened and the details are not clear. But the certain thing is that Egyptians are in a state of tension and the reason behind this is that officials are taking time to put Mubarak and officials on trial," said political analyst Hassan Nafaa.

Sporadic clashes, some of them between Muslims and the Christian minority, have posed a challenge to a government trying to restore order after many police deserted the streets during the uprising against Mubarak. In early May, 12 people were killed and 52 wounded in sectarian clashes and the burning of a church in Cairo's Imbaba neighborhood.

A hospital in central Cairo's Munira neighborhood received two civilians and 41 policemen with wounds, bruises and tear gas inhalation, MENA said. All were discharged except one civilian with a bullet wound and a policeman with concussion, it said.

Former interior minister Habib al-Adli has been sentenced to jail for corruption but he and other officials are still being tried on charges related to killing protesters. Police vehicles were stoned by protesters at Sunday's hearing.

The former president, now hospitalized, has also been charged with the killing of protesters and could face the death penalty. Mubarak's trial starts on August 3.

(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed and Sherine El Madany; Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Police search Kabul hotel after Taliban attack kills 9 (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan police sifted through one of Kabul's landmark hotels room by room on Wednesday for any more casualties, securing the building after an overnight assault by Taliban suicide bombers killed eight Afghan civilians and police and a foreigner.

The nine attackers, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, stormed the heavily guarded Intercontinental hotel, frequented by Westerners and VIPs, before a NATO helicopter killed the remaining insurgents in a final rooftop battle that ended a raid lasting more than five hours.

The foreign victim was a Spanish civil aviation pilot, according to Spain's foreign ministry.

The brazen raid came only a week after President Barack Obama announced a phased withdrawal of combat troops to 2014, and it raised more doubts about the ability of Afghan security forces to battle insurgents.

It needed a NATO helicopter to finally finish off the attackers, and NATO trainers helped oversee the Afghan police response to the raid.

After several explosions, attackers entered the hotel late on Tuesday and made their way to the ballroom, a hotel receptionist said.

Some carried tape recorders playing Taliban war songs and shot at anyone they saw. Guests jumped from second and third floors to escape, the receptionist told Reuters, asking not to be identified.

"The police are still searching room by room to see if there are any casualties or any threats," Kabul police chief Ayoub Salangi told reporters.

Eight people were wounded in the attack, according to the Interior Ministry.

There have been insurgent attacks at a hotel, guesthouse and a supermarket in Kabul over the past year, although the capital has been relatively quiet compared with the rest of the country.

The timing of the attack, suggested similarities with other raids meant to show the Taliban retain the ability to strike at will despite gains made by NATO-led troops over the past 18 months.

Some guests included provincial governors attending a conference due to begin on Wednesday over the transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans, two Afghan officials said.

Last week, Obama announced plans for an initial withdrawal of 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, with another 23,000 to leave by the end of 2012, sparking concern the Afghan security forces were not ready to take over.

But President Hamid Karzai said the plan stood.

"This insurgent attack cannot stop our security transition process," Karzai said in a statement.

LATE-NIGHT ATTACK

Hours after the attack began, some foreign hotel guests were driven away in diplomatic vehicles while others waited on a street outside the hotel as the sun rose over Kabul.

Reuters witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of more than five hours, with bursts of gunfire heard.

Three insurgents were shot dead while six blew themselves up.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel.

Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted.

The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets.

One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then three more about an hour later, one of the Reuters witnesses said. Bursts of gunfire were heard over the same period and flares lit up the sky.

Reuters television footage showed police firing tracer rounds into the air as other officers moved through the hotel.

Power was cut in the hotel and in surrounding areas after the attack.

The hotel, built on a hill in western Kabul with fortifications around it, was for years the city's main hotel and is often used for conferences and by Westerners.

Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May.

The last big attack on a major Kabul hotel used by foreigners was in January 2008, when several Taliban gunmen killed six people in a commando-style raid on the city-center Serena hotel.

The increase in violence comes as NATO-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of the gradual transition that will end with all combat foreign troops leaving by the end of 2014.

The two-day conference to discuss the transition was due to begin in a government building in the center of the city on Wednesday. Officials said the conference would go on despite the attack.

Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 the worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Omar Sobhani and Ahmad Masood; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Police search Kabul hotel after Taliban attack kills 9 (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan police sifted through one of Kabul's landmark hotels room by room on Wednesday for any more casualties, securing the building after an overnight assault by Taliban suicide bombers killed eight Afghan civilians and police and a foreigner.

The nine attackers, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, stormed the heavily guarded Intercontinental hotel, frequented by Westerners and VIPs, before a NATO helicopter killed the remaining insurgents in a final rooftop battle that ended a raid lasting more than five hours.

The foreign victim was a Spanish civil aviation pilot, according to Spain's foreign ministry.

The brazen raid came only a week after President Barack Obama announced a phased withdrawal of combat troops to 2014, and it raised more doubts about the ability of Afghan security forces to battle insurgents.

It needed a NATO helicopter to finally finish off the attackers, and NATO trainers helped oversee the Afghan police response to the raid.

After several explosions, attackers entered the hotel late on Tuesday and made their way to the ballroom, a hotel receptionist said.

Some carried tape recorders playing Taliban war songs and shot at anyone they saw. Guests jumped from second and third floors to escape, the receptionist told Reuters, asking not to be identified.

"The police are still searching room by room to see if there are any casualties or any threats," Kabul police chief Ayoub Salangi told reporters.

Eight people were wounded in the attack, according to the Interior Ministry.

There have been insurgent attacks at a hotel, guesthouse and a supermarket in Kabul over the past year, although the capital has been relatively quiet compared with the rest of the country.

The timing of the attack, suggested similarities with other raids meant to show the Taliban retain the ability to strike at will despite gains made by NATO-led troops over the past 18 months.

Some guests included provincial governors attending a conference due to begin on Wednesday over the transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans, two Afghan officials said.

Last week, Obama announced plans for an initial withdrawal of 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, with another 23,000 to leave by the end of 2012, sparking concern the Afghan security forces were not ready to take over.

But President Hamid Karzai said the plan stood.

"This insurgent attack cannot stop our security transition process," Karzai said in a statement.

LATE-NIGHT ATTACK

Hours after the attack began, some foreign hotel guests were driven away in diplomatic vehicles while others waited on a street outside the hotel as the sun rose over Kabul.

Reuters witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of more than five hours, with bursts of gunfire heard.

Three insurgents were shot dead while six blew themselves up.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel.

Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted.

The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets.

One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then three more about an hour later, one of the Reuters witnesses said. Bursts of gunfire were heard over the same period and flares lit up the sky.

Reuters television footage showed police firing tracer rounds into the air as other officers moved through the hotel.

Power was cut in the hotel and in surrounding areas after the attack.

The hotel, built on a hill in western Kabul with fortifications around it, was for years the city's main hotel and is often used for conferences and by Westerners.

Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May.

The last big attack on a major Kabul hotel used by foreigners was in January 2008, when several Taliban gunmen killed six people in a commando-style raid on the city-center Serena hotel.

The increase in violence comes as NATO-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of the gradual transition that will end with all combat foreign troops leaving by the end of 2014.

The two-day conference to discuss the transition was due to begin in a government building in the center of the city on Wednesday. Officials said the conference would go on despite the attack.

Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 the worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Omar Sobhani and Ahmad Masood; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Egypt police clash with youths; over 1,000 hurt (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) - – Police in Cairo fired tear gas on Wednesday at hundreds of stone-throwing Egyptian youths after a night of clashes that injured more than 1,000 people, the worst violence in the capital in several weeks.

Nearly five months since a popular uprising toppled long-serving authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's military rulers are struggling to keep order while a restless public is still impatient for reform.

The latest clashes began after families of people killed in the uprising that ousted Mubarak held an event in a Cairo suburb late on Tuesday in their honor.

Other bereaved relatives arrived to complain that names of their own dead were not mentioned at the ceremony. Fighting broke out that gravitated to the capital's central Tahrir Square and the Interior Ministry, according to officials.

The Health Ministry said 1,036 people were injured, among them at least 40 policemen.

The ruling military council said in a statement on its Facebook page that the latest events "had no justification other than to shake Egypt's safety and security in an organised plan that exploits the blood of the revolution's martyrs and to sow division between the people and the security apparatus."

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf told state TV he was monitoring developments and awaiting a full report on the clashes.

A security source quoted by the state news agency MENA said 40 people were arrested, including one U.S. and one British citizen, and were being questioned by military prosecutors.

Early in the morning young men, many stripped to the waist, were still hurling stones at police near the ministry as commuters went to work.

Some ordinary Egyptians said those involved were bent on battling police rather than protesting. To others, the violence seemed motivated by politics.

"The people are angry that the court cases against top officials keep getting delayed," said Ahmed Abdel Hamid, 26, a bakery employee who was at the scene overnight, referring to senior political figures from the discredited Mubarak era.

By early afternoon, eight ambulances were in Tahrir, epicenter of the revolt that toppled Mubarak on February 11, and the police had left the square. Dozens of adolescent boys, shirts tied around their heads, blocked traffic from entering Tahrir, using stones and scrap metal.

Some drove mopeds in circles around the square making skids and angering bystanders. "Thugs, thugs... The square is controlled by thugs," an old man chanted.

The clashes unnerved Egypt's financial market, with equity traders blaming the violence for a 2 percent fall in the benchmark EGX30 index, its biggest drop since June 2.

First-aid workers treated people mostly for inhaling tear gas during the overnight violence. A Reuters correspondent saw several people with minor wounds, including some with cuts on their heads.

Some people still gathered in Tahrir on Wednesday said they were angered by the way the police handled the crowd overnight.

"I am here today because I heard about the violent treatment by the police of the protesters last night," said Magdy Ibrahim, 28, an accountant at Egypt's Banque du Caire.

Mohsen Mourad, the deputy interior minister for Cairo, said the security forces did not enter Tahrir overnight and dealt only with 150-200 people who tried to break into the Interior Ministry and threw stones, damaging cars and police vehicles.

SECTARIAN CLASHES

Young men lit car tyres in the street near the ministry on Wednesday, sending black plumes of smoke into the air.

Sporadic clashes, some of them between Muslims and the Christian minority, have posed a challenge to a government trying to restore order after many police deserted the streets during the uprising against Mubarak. In early May, 12 people were killed and 52 wounded in sectarian clashes and the burning of a church in Cairo's Imbaba neighborhood.

U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns, visiting Cairo, said Egyptians had achieved their political aspirations peacefully and he hoped the investigation into the latest clashes would be fair.

"It is extremely important ... to continue peacefully those kind of aspirations. We hope the investigation that will be announced will be a fair and thorough one," he told reporters.

A hospital in central Cairo's Munira neighborhood received two civilians and 41 policemen with wounds, bruises and tear gas inhalation, MENA said. All were discharged except one civilian with a bullet wound and a policeman with concussion, it said.

"There is lack of information about what happened and the details are not clear. But the certain thing is that Egyptians are in a state of tension and the reason behind this is that officials are taking time to put Mubarak and officials on trial," said political analyst Hassan Nafaa.

Former interior minister Habib al-Adli has been sentenced to jail for corruption but he and other officials are still being tried on charges related to killing protesters. Police vehicles were stoned by protesters at Sunday's hearing.

The former president, now hospitalized, has also been charged with the killing of protesters and could face the death penalty. Mubarak's trial starts on August 3.

(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed and Sherine El Madany; Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Egypt police fire tear gas at protesting youths (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian police fired tear gas in Cairo's central Tahrir Square Wednesday at hundreds of mainly young protesters, some of whom threw stones and demanded that trials of former senior officials proceed more swiftly.

Clashes broke out late Tuesday in a nearby area of Cairo where families of some of the more than 840 people killed in the uprising that led to Hosni Mubarak's overthrow in February had gathered to honor those killed.

At least 41 policemen and two civilians were hurt, the state news agency said. The Interior Ministry said police had arrested seven people, part of a group it said was seeking to disrupt the event and stir up a riot.

It was the first such violence in weeks in Tahrir Square, the center of the revolt that led to Mubarak being toppled. Police in riot gear and with shields blocked protesters from marching toward the ministry.

Ambulance workers treated people mostly for inhaling tear gas. A Reuters correspondent saw several people with minor wounds, including some with cuts on their heads.

"The people are angry that the court cases against top officials keep getting delayed," Ahmed Abdel Hamid, 26, a bakery employee, said at the scene. He clutched stones in his hands.

He said police clashed with some of those gathered at the event to honor the "martyrs," as those killed in the uprising are called. This prompted protesters to move to Tahrir.

"The people want the fall of the regime," some chanted.

Others called for Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the military council now ruling Egypt, to step down.

The ministry said in a statement that a group of people had been stopped from joining the event at a theater to honor the "martyrs" and had tried to barge their way in, prompting the police to intervene. The group later moved to Tahrir Square.

"NO JUSTIFICATION"

The ruling military council said in a statement on its Facebook page that the events "had no justification other than to shake Egypt's safety and security in an organized plan that exploits the blood of the revolution's martyrs and to sow division between the people and the security apparatus."

Clashes continued into the morning.

At dawn, dozens of riot police trucks that had been parked near the square withdrew from the area. A police cordon around the Interior Ministry remained in place.

Young men, many stripped to the waist, were still hurling stones at police near the ministry as commuters went to work. Police fired more teargas. Some ordinary Egyptians said those involved were bent on battling police rather than protesting.

Political activists who have helped organize other recent protests in Tahrir said the angry scenes Tuesday evening and early Wednesday were not part of any planned protest.

Streets were strewn with stones and bricks. One motorbike near the square was spewing black smoke after being set alight. A hospital in nearby Munira received two civilians and 41 policemen with wounds, bruises and teargas inhalation, the state news agency said. All were discharged except one civilian with a bullet wound and a policeman with concussion, the agency said.

Egypt's former interior minister, Habib al-Adli, has been sentenced to jail for corruption but he and other officials are still being tried on charges related to killing protesters. Police vehicles were stoned by protesters at Sunday's hearing.

Police used batons, teargas, water cannon and live ammunition against protesters in the first days of the 18-day uprising before they were ordered off the streets and the army moved in. Mubarak then handed power to an army council.

The former president, now hospitalized, has also been charged with killing protesters and could face the death penalty. Mubarak's trial starts on August 3.

(Writing by Edmund Blair; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Protesters clash with police in Cairo

Protesters throw stones at riot police during clashes in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, during the early hours of June 29.NEW: At least 26 officers are injured, the Ministry of Interior saysPolice use tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a protestDemonstrators were marking the deaths of protests in Egypt's revolutionTahrir Square was the heart of the revolt against then-President Hosni Mubarak

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets early Wednesday to break up a demonstration by relatives of those killed in Egypt's revolution.

Clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square between protesters and authorities have left at least 26 officers injured, the Ministry of Interior said.

In addition, at least five protesters were wounded in the tear gas and rubber bullet firing, and ambulances continued to transport protesters to medical attention. Some demonstrators were throwing rocks.

About 1,000 people turned out Tuesday night to commemorate the victims of the January-February uprising that drove longtime Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak from power. Police began using tear gas on demonstrators who would not leave the square.

Authorities were trying to block entrances to the area, as more people were being asked on the Internet to join the protesters.

At least five people were seen bleeding from their heads amid the clashes, which continued into Wednesday's early-morning hours.

The human rights group Amnesty Amnesty International has estimated at least 840 people were killed and more than 6,000 wounded during the three-week revolution. The military-led government that took over when Mubarak resigned has been prosecuting several former officials accused of ordering security forces to fire on protesters.

A police officer accused of killing 20 protesters during a January 28 demonstration has been sentenced to death, and ex-Interior Minister Habib El Adly faces capital charges in the deaths of demonstrators. El Adly and other officials in Mubarak's government have also been convicted on corruption charges, and the ailing Mubarak could be put on trial as well.

Egypt's military rulers have set parliamentary elections for September, and an administrative judge ordered the dissolution of local city councils that anti-Mubarak activists had denounced as corrupt. But sporadic protests have continued in the months since Mubarak's ouster as Egyptians have demanded speedier reforms and economic improvements.

Journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this report.

CNN

Police search Kabul hotel after Taliban attack kills 10 (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan police sifted through one of Kabul's landmark hotels room by room on Wednesday for any more casualties or security threats after an overnight assault by Taliban suicide bombers killed 10 Afghan civilians and police.

The eight attackers, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, stormed the heavily guarded Intercontinental hotel, frequented by Westerners and VIPs, before a NATO helicopter killed the remaining insurgents in a final rooftop battle that ended a raid lasting more than five hours.

The brazen raid came only a week after President Barack Obama announced a phased withdrawal of combat troops to 2014, and it raised more doubts about the ability of Afghan security forces to battle insurgents.

It needed a NATO helicopter to finally finish off the attackers, and NATO trainers helped oversee the Afghan police response to the raid.

After several explosions, attackers entered the hotel late on Tuesday and made their way to the ballroom, a hotel receptionist said.

Some carried tape recorders playing Taliban war songs and shot at anyone they saw. Guests jumped from second and third floors to escape, the receptionist told Reuters, asking not to be identified.

"The police are still searching room by room to see if there are any casualties or any threats," Kabul police chief Ayoub Salangi told reporters.

Eight people were wounded in the attack, according to the Interior Ministry. Two policemen were among the 10 dead.

There have been insurgent attacks at a hotel, guesthouse and a supermarket in Kabul over the past year, although the capital has been relatively quiet compared with the rest of the country.

The timing of the attack, suggested similarities with other raids meant to show the Taliban retain the ability to strike at will despite gains made by NATO-led troops over the past 18 months.

Some guests included provincial governors attending a conference due to begin on Wednesday over the transition of civil and military responsibility from foreign forces to Afghans, two Afghan officials said.

Last week, Obama announced plans for an initial withdrawal of 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, with another 23,000 to leave by the end of 2012, sparking concern the Afghan security forces were not ready to take over.

But President Hamid Karzai said the plan stood.

"This insurgent attack cannot stop our security transition process," Karzai said in a statement.

LATE-NIGHT ATTACK

Hours after the attack began, some foreign hotel guests were driven away in diplomatic vehicles while others waited on a street outside the hotel as the sun rose over Kabul.

Reuters witnesses heard at least seven blasts over the course of more than five hours, with bursts of gunfire heard.

Some insurgents were shot dead by police while others blew themselves up.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said several fighters from the Islamist group had attacked the hotel.

Mujahid, who spoke to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said heavy casualties had been inflicted.

The Taliban often exaggerate the number of casualties in attacks against Western and Afghan government targets.

One blast was heard at the start of the attack and then three more about an hour later, one of the Reuters witnesses said. Bursts of gunfire were heard over the same period and flares lit up the sky.

Reuters television footage showed police firing tracer rounds into the air as other officers moved through the hotel.

Power was cut in the hotel and in surrounding areas after the attack.

The hotel, built on a hillside in western Kabul with fortifications around it, was for years the city's main hotel and is often used for conferences and by Westerners.

Violence has flared across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced the start of a spring offensive at the beginning of May.

The last big attack on a major Kabul hotel used by foreigners was in January 2008, when several Taliban gunmen killed six people in a commando-style raid on the city-center Serena hotel.

The increase in violence comes as NATO-led forces prepare to hand security responsibility to Afghans in seven areas from next month at the start of the gradual transition that will end with all combat foreign troops leaving by the end of 2014.

The two-day conference to discuss the transition was due to begin in a government building in the center of the city on Wednesday. Officials said the conference would go on despite the attack.

Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 the worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Omar Sobhani and Ahmad Masood; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Police clash with protesters in Cairo (AFP)

CAIRO, Egypt (AFP) – Egyptian security forces fired tear gas at protesters in Cairo during violent clashes that left several injured, an AFP photographer said.

Tahrir Square, the epicentre of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, was sealed off as police continued to fire tear gas into the early hours of Wednesday and a thick white cloud hung over the square.

Hundreds of protesters had gathered there and the numbers were still swelling, witnesses said.

One protester, speaking on a loudspeaker from the square's main mosque, urged others to stay put and called on police to withdraw and stop attacking them.

A reporter for Egyptian satellite channel al-Hayat had described the scene as "a street war between riot police and protesters."

According to the interior ministry, the trouble started when a group of people stormed a theatre where a memorial service was being held for those killed in the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February.

A security official said the group then headed to the state TV and were joined by hundreds who began to throw rocks before heading to Tahrir Square.

But activists said the families of the victims had been denied entry to the memorial in Cairo and were beaten by police.

"After being denied entry .... clashes erupted between protesters and security guards at the theatre. The police showed up and started beating the families of martyrs," pro-democracy activist Arabawy wrote on his blog.

Nearly 850 people were killed during the popular revolt that brought Mubarak's 30-year rule to an end.

Witnesses told AFP that buses unloaded young men armed with sticks and knives, accusing remnants of the old regime of stirring chaos.

When protests erupted on January 25 to demand Mubarak's ouster, the veteran leader's loyalists used hired thugs to beat back protesters.

Tuesday's clashes erupted just hours after a Cairo court ordered the dissolution of local councils, which were dominated by Mubarak's National Democratic Party.

"I don't think the timing of these clashes is a coincidence," said one witness to satellite channel ON TV.

"It came just after the dissolution of the local councils, a decision which I'm sure will make many people (from the old regime) very angry," the witness in Tahrir Square said.

Television footage showed protesters chanting: "the people demand the fall of the Field Marshal," referring to Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took power when Mubarak stepped down.

Protesters who first took to the streets to demand the overthrow of Mubarak, began shifting their anger towards the ruling military council, accusing it of using Mubarak-era tactics to stifle dissent.

Activists have called for a massive rally on July 8 aimed at keeping up the pressure for democratic reforms.

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Police nab Australian cult leader in Fiji raid (AFP)

SYDNEY (AFP) – A fugitive Australian cult leader has been arrested during a raid on a former resort in the South Pacific island nation of Fiji, authorities and reports said Sunday.

Police said Agape Ministries leader Rocco Leo was picked up by Fijian officials a week ago, along with two associates, for alleged visa breaches and remains in detention. It is not known whether he will be deported.

"It's the call of the Fijian authorities as to whether or not they (Rocco Leo and associates) are breaching any immigration laws or not," Detective Superintendent Jim Jeffery told reporters in Adelaide.

"If Fijian authorities determine that they are going to deport Rocco Leo, we will execute that (arrest) warrant," the Adelaide Advertiser reported him as saying.

"And if Rocco Leo is deported back to Australia we will extradite him from whatever state it is back to South Australia to put him before the courts."

In May 2010, Australian police raided 12 properties associated with Agape and netted 15 guns, slow-burning fuses, detonators, extendable batons and 35,000 rounds of ammunition.

Police have previously said they believed the Agape leaders were planning to move their organisation offshore, possibly to a Pacific island country.

Leo had reportedly told his followers they must move to Vanuatu before the end of the world, which he predicts will happen in 2012.

Adelaide's Sunday Mail newspaper said that the fugitive was detained at the former Tiri Villas eco-resort, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the Fijian capital Suva.

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Twelve wounded after suicide bomber hits Iraq police station (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least 12 people were wounded when a suicide bomber in a wheelchair blew himself up at a police station in the northern outskirts of Iraq's capital on Sunday, a spokesman for the Baghdad operations command said.

Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said the bomber set off his explosives vest in the police chief's office at the station in Tarmiya, 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad.

"This is the initial toll and we expect it to rise," Moussawi told Reuters.

He said the 12 wounded included nine policemen and three civilians.

An Interior Ministry source put the toll at two killed and 17 wounded, including nine policemen.

Attacks against Iraqi security forces have been increasing as the country's army and police prepare to take total responsibility for security ahead of a full withdrawal of U.S. troops by December, more than eight years after the invasion.

Insurgents launched at least eight attacks on police in Baghdad and northern Mosul on Wednesday, using a combination of guns and explosives.

Bombings and killings remain a daily occurrence in Iraq as security forces fight a stubborn insurgency, although overall violence has dropped since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006-7.

(Reporting by Muhanad Mohammed; Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Iraq: Bomber attacks police station

9 Iraqi police were among the woundedThe attack took place in Tarmiya district in northern Baghdad

Baghdad (CNN) -- A suicide bomber wearing an explosives-laden belt targeted a police station Sunday in northern Baghdad, killing two civilians, an Iraqi official at the police station said.

Another 17 people were wounded, nine of them police, the official said, speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity.

The attack took place in Tarmiya district.

Journalists Fattah Mahmood Fattah & Muhaimen Najm contributed to this report.

CNN

Nigerian police seek dialogue with radical Islamic sect (AFP)

KANO, Nigeria (AFP) – Police in northern Nigeria's city of Maiduguri have called on an extremist Islamic sect blamed for a series of deadly attacks to declare a ceasefire and come to a dialogue.

Boko Haram, which claimed responsibility for last week's bombing of the national police headquarters in Abuja, has staged most of its gun and bomb attacks in Maiduguri, the capital of north-eastern Borno state.

Borno state police commissioner Mohammed Jinjiri Abubakar issued a statement late Thursday asking "members of the public" in the state to "eschew violence, sectarian killings, vandalism."

Although he did not mention Boko Haram by name, Abubakar confirmed to AFP Friday that "it is a peace overture specifically aimed at members of Boko Haram sect."

"The doors for dialogue and constructive criticism with the (Borno) state government remain open," said the statement.

The attempt at dialogue came a day after Nigerian police chiefs met in Abuja following the June 16 bomb attack on the police headquarters.

The sect said the attack was in response to national police chief Hafiz Ringim's remarks that "the days of Boko Haram are numbered".

Newly-elected Borno state governor Kashim Shettima has offered an amnesty to sect members who choose to lay down arms, an overture that won the backing of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Boko Haram had said it was ready to cease fire and enter into talks with the government, setting conditions which included the strict application of Sharia law in 12 predominately Muslim northern states.

But it later recanted, citing Ringim's statement

The sect has been behind a wave of attacks in Maiduguri targeting police and military personnel, community and religious leaders, and politicians.

It has also claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on police stations, churches and a prison.

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Four dead, dozens hurt in attacks on Iraqi police (Reuters)

MOSUL, Iraq, June 22 – Militants attacked Iraqi police with guns and explosives and lobbed a mortar round at a security headquarters Wednesday, killing four people and wounding dozens in the latest assault on security forces.

Insurgents deployed roadside bombs, a car bomb and a hand grenade as they launched at least eight attacks on police in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and northern Mosul, an al Qaeda stronghold, where three people were killed.

Militants are testing Iraq's army, police and fragile governing coalition as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by a year-end deadline, more than eight years after the invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.

"I think political instability is the main reason why violence has escalated recently," said Abdul Rahim al-Shimmari, head of the Nineveh provincial council's security committee.

"Some political parties own armed militias and huge funding and they use the worsening security situation as a pretext to create the legitimacy for keeping U.S. forces in Iraq."

Violence has fallen sharply in recent years after the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07 but a tenacious Sunni Islamist insurgency linked to al Qaeda and rival Shi'ite militias still carry out scores of bombings and other attacks every month.

Iraqi government officials and security forces are under attack as the remaining American troops, about 47,000, prepare to leave the OPEC oil producer by the end of December.

Wednesday's spate of attacks killed at least one policeman and three civilians, and more than a dozen police were among 32 people wounded.

The mortar shell fired at the Nineveh security center, a headquarters used by the army and police, missed the target and hit a house, killing one person and wounding another in southern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Attackers threw a grenade at a police patrol in Mosul, wounding four people, and killed an officer at a security checkpoint, while a roadside bomb near a patrol killed a bystander and wounded two people, including a policeman.

In the capital, a local police chief and five officers were wounded when two roadside bombs struck their convoy in the western Amiriya district, an interior ministry source said.

In the western Ghazaliya district, a parked car bomb exploded near a police patrol, the source said, killing a bystander and wounding nine people, including three police.

Bombs targeting police wounded three officers and five civilians in the Zayouna and Jadiriya areas, the source said.

A senior Iraqi security official who asked not to be named said the recent escalation of attacks was expected.

"I think our security forces are still unfit to have complete control of the security situation," the official said. "More combat training and more expertise are needed."

Near Iraq's southern oil hub, Basra, a U.S. military convoy was struck by a bomb blast, police said. A U.S. military official said no one was hurt.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Jim Loney; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Nigerian police chiefs to meet over Abuja bomb attack (AFP)

LAGOS (AFP) – Nigeria's top police chiefs will meet in the nation's capital on Tuesday over a deadly blast that killed at least two people, including the alleged suicide bomber, a spokesman said Monday.

"The Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Abubakar Ringim, has called for a crucial meeting with all the commissioners of police from the 36 states and the federal capital territory, Abuja over the incident," Olusola Amore told AFP.

He said that police authorities would make public the outcome of the investigation into Thursday's bombing at the forces' national headquarters in Abuja that left a policeman and the suspected bomber dead.

Local media said up to eight people were killed in the blast at the police car park that also wounded several other people and damaged many vehicles.

Amore said no arrest had been made.

The attack was claimed by the radical Islamist Boko Haram sect which has been blamed for series of deadly attacks particularly in the north of the country in recent months.

The sect said Ringim was the target of the attack as he had made an offensive statement about the group.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sin", launched an uprising in 2009 which was put down by a brutal military assault that left hundreds dead.

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Has Bangladesh's Elite Police Force Gone Too Far? (Time.com)

On March 27, Bangladeshi doctors amputated the leg of Limon Hossain, a 16-year-old student, four days after he was shot during a raid by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh's elite security force. Almost everyday since, Hossain's name has made headlines in Bangladesh, becoming a symbol of accusations that the governments paramilitary force acts as judge, jury and executioner in its official mission to clean up this south Asian nation of crime and corruption. "RAB is misusing their power," Hossain says. "They are killing people."

On March 23, Hossain says he was taking his family's calf back home from the fields to his village of Jhalakati in southwest Bangladesh. Out of nowhere, he says, members of RAB arrived on motorbikes. One grabbed Hossain's collar and accused him of being a criminal. Another pulled out a gun and put it against Hossain's head. Weeping, the boy fell to the ground, pleading for his life. After dragging him to another spot in the village, a RAB member pulled out a revolver and shot him point blank in his left leg. Days later, doctors had cut it off to save his life. (Read TIME's 2006 cover story on Bangladesh.)

RAB, of course, has a very different story. According to RAB's Commander Mohammad Sohail, the village of Jhalakati is the hub of a powerful syndicate headed by Morshed Jamaddar. Everyone there, says Sohail, is in the pocket of Morshed's gang. He says law enforcement agencies have filed 19 cases against Jamaddar, including rape, murder and abduction, and that the Morshed gang has bought "everyone except RAB" - including some local politicians.

Sohail says RAB, headquartered in Dhaka, had heard information that Jamaddar was in the village on March 27, and dispatched a team to capture him. When RAB approached, gang members shot at them, and RAB returned fire. Hossain, Sohail says, was a Morshed lackey caught in the crossfire. "The other story," he says, "is made up by bad people." RAB filed cases against Hossain for illegal arms possession, obstructing law enforcement agents and attempted murder the same day as the shooting. (Watch a video about the climate refugees in Bangladesh.)

Dressed in all-black uniforms with black bandanas and wraparound sunglasses, RAB cuts an imposing presence on the streets of Bangladesh. The group was founded in 2004 during a time of "huge deterioration of law and order in the country," according to Sohail. Drug lords, extremists and arms traffickers worked with impunity. Brad Adams, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, says when RAB was created, "rich people implicated in serious crime could buy their way out."

By selecting the best from the military and police and loaning them to RAB in two-year rotations, the force was supposed to be above corruption and put an end to the crime wave. By that measure, even the groups harshest critics - and there are many outside of Bangladesh - admit it has been successful. Since 2004, the force of about 8,500 has captured more than 95,000 criminals and confiscated 10,000 illegal firearms, 5,000 bombs and grenades and 400 kilos of heroin, according to RAB statistics.

The problems with RAB began, says Adams, when its members began taking justice into their own hands. "They started targeting criminals, because they had no faith in the criminal justice system," he says. RAB admits that their team members have killed some 600 criminals in firefights since 2004, though Odhikhar, a Bangladeshi human rights group, says the real number is over 730. Human rights organizations say many of those deaths have been intentional extrajudicial killings, sometimes targeting the wrong individual, and that RAB employs violent methods in questioning their suspects.

In May, Human Rights Watch released a report cataloging some of RAB's alleged torture incidents and killings, including a case in which they say RAB mistakenly murdered a man because he had the same nickname as a criminal. According to the report, no one has ever been punished in connection to any of the 600-plus deaths. Sohail says Human Rights Watch didn't approach RAB for information and relied on family members of those who had been shot for information. The result, he says, is that the report is "a one-sided complaint book of the criminals and their families."

And despite human rights groups' objections, RAB still enjoys wide grassroots support. In a 2009 cable released by Wikileaks, the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh called RAB the country's "most respected police unit." Interviews in Bangladesh bear this out. In a typical comment, Anthony Sarker, a hotel manager, said "RAB are real heroes to the poor. They are like black pirates." He not only acknowledged that RAB oversteps its mandate; he said it was necessary. "The normal judicial processes dont work, so sometimes its best to control a criminal RAB's way," said Sarker.

This kind of attitude may be changing. Recently, Bangladeshi newspapers have been more openly critical of RAB's alleged extra-judicial killings. Adams says that for the first time, significant segments of public opinion are being critical of RAB's ethics. How the upcoming Hossain court cases play out in public will be a telling barometer of RAB's support.

Recovering at a hospital in Dhaka, Hossain and his family fear the lives that await them back in their village. Hossain's mother has sued six members of RAB, but there has yet to be a hearing on their case. "I don't think there's any hope," says Tofazzal Hossain, Limon's father. He says RAB has powerful allies who have physically threatened his family. "We sued them," he says, "because we didn't want any another boy like Limon to lose his leg. We didn't want any more mothers to cry or fathers to live in agony."

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Has Bangladesh's Elite Police Force Gone Too Far? (Time.com)

On March 27, Bangladeshi doctors amputated the leg of Limon Hossain, a 16-year-old student, four days after he was shot during a raid by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh's elite security force. Almost everyday since, Hossain's name has made headlines in Bangladesh, becoming a symbol of accusations that the governments paramilitary force acts as judge, jury and executioner in its official mission to clean up this south Asian nation of crime and corruption. "RAB is misusing their power," Hossain says. "They are killing people."

On March 23, Hossain says he was taking his family's calf back home from the fields to his village of Jhalakati in southwest Bangladesh. Out of nowhere, he says, members of RAB arrived on motorbikes. One grabbed Hossain's collar and accused him of being a criminal. Another pulled out a gun and put it against Hossain's head. Weeping, the boy fell to the ground, pleading for his life. After dragging him to another spot in the village, a RAB member pulled out a revolver and shot him point blank in his left leg. Days later, doctors had cut it off to save his life. (Read TIME's 2006 cover story on Bangladesh.)

RAB, of course, has a very different story. According to RAB's Commander Mohammad Sohail, the village of Jhalakati is the hub of a powerful syndicate headed by Morshed Jamaddar. Everyone there, says Sohail, is in the pocket of Morshed's gang. He says law enforcement agencies have filed 19 cases against Jamaddar, including rape, murder and abduction, and that the Morshed gang has bought "everyone except RAB" - including some local politicians.

Sohail says RAB, headquartered in Dhaka, had heard information that Jamaddar was in the village on March 27, and dispatched a team to capture him. When RAB approached, gang members shot at them, and RAB returned fire. Hossain, Sohail says, was a Morshed lackey caught in the crossfire. "The other story," he says, "is made up by bad people." RAB filed cases against Hossain for illegal arms possession, obstructing law enforcement agents and attempted murder the same day as the shooting. (Watch a video about the climate refugees in Bangladesh.)

Dressed in all-black uniforms with black bandanas and wraparound sunglasses, RAB cuts an imposing presence on the streets of Bangladesh. The group was founded in 2004 during a time of "huge deterioration of law and order in the country," according to Sohail. Drug lords, extremists and arms traffickers worked with impunity. Brad Adams, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, says when RAB was created, "rich people implicated in serious crime could buy their way out."

By selecting the best from the military and police and loaning them to RAB in two-year rotations, the force was supposed to be above corruption and put an end to the crime wave. By that measure, even the groups harshest critics - and there are many outside of Bangladesh - admit it has been successful. Since 2004, the force of about 8,500 has captured more than 95,000 criminals and confiscated 10,000 illegal firearms, 5,000 bombs and grenades and 400 kilos of heroin, according to RAB statistics.

The problems with RAB began, says Adams, when its members began taking justice into their own hands. "They started targeting criminals, because they had no faith in the criminal justice system," he says. RAB admits that their team members have killed some 600 criminals in firefights since 2004, though Odhikhar, a Bangladeshi human rights group, says the real number is over 730. Human rights organizations say many of those deaths have been intentional extrajudicial killings, sometimes targeting the wrong individual, and that RAB employs violent methods in questioning their suspects.

In May, Human Rights Watch released a report cataloging some of RAB's alleged torture incidents and killings, including a case in which they say RAB mistakenly murdered a man because he had the same nickname as a criminal. According to the report, no one has ever been punished in connection to any of the 600-plus deaths. Sohail says Human Rights Watch didn't approach RAB for information and relied on family members of those who had been shot for information. The result, he says, is that the report is "a one-sided complaint book of the criminals and their families."

And despite human rights groups' objections, RAB still enjoys wide grassroots support. In a 2009 cable released by Wikileaks, the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh called RAB the country's "most respected police unit." Interviews in Bangladesh bear this out. In a typical comment, Anthony Sarker, a hotel manager, said "RAB are real heroes to the poor. They are like black pirates." He not only acknowledged that RAB oversteps its mandate; he said it was necessary. "The normal judicial processes dont work, so sometimes its best to control a criminal RAB's way," said Sarker.

This kind of attitude may be changing. Recently, Bangladeshi newspapers have been more openly critical of RAB's alleged extra-judicial killings. Adams says that for the first time, significant segments of public opinion are being critical of RAB's ethics. How the upcoming Hossain court cases play out in public will be a telling barometer of RAB's support.

Recovering at a hospital in Dhaka, Hossain and his family fear the lives that await them back in their village. Hossain's mother has sued six members of RAB, but there has yet to be a hearing on their case. "I don't think there's any hope," says Tofazzal Hossain, Limon's father. He says RAB has powerful allies who have physically threatened his family. "We sued them," he says, "because we didn't want any another boy like Limon to lose his leg. We didn't want any more mothers to cry or fathers to live in agony."

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Braving police, Saudi women drivers take to streets (The Christian Science Monitor)

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – She was probably the first to put foot to pedal.

It was 12:44 a.m. and middle-of-the-night dark. She turned the ignition key, lit the headlights, and drove.

In the backseat, her supportive husband filmed his wife making history as the earliest participant in Friday’s campaign by Saudi women to get the right to drive on the roads of their country.

IN PICTURES: Behind the veil

“I felt great,” the university student said later in an email exchange. “I couldn't believe that I was in Riyadh and driving! I look forward for the day that all of this becomes as natural as men driving.”

The woman, who posted the video on YouTube, said she wanted to remain anonymous “because I'm afraid of the authorities.” She’s also not certain, she wrote, about how her extended family would react to news of what she called “my small mission.”

Overall, the driving campaign got off to a slow start with just shy of 50 women reporting – mostly via Twitter – by the evening that they had gotten behind the wheel in violation of the kingdom’s national ban on female drivers.

The campaign is perhaps the largest and most genuinely grass-roots campaign by Saudi women to demand one of the many rights they are denied in this country, which severely restricts female independence.

Under the guardianship system, women need the permission of their father, husband, or brother to marry, travel outside the country, work outside the home, and have certain kinds of medical procedures.

Though there is no law prohibiting women from driving, the government supports the social custom that women not drive, at least not in the urban areas. In rural parts of the kingdom, women drive regularly without interference.

Many senior members of the royal family and the government have no objection to women driving. But they are reluctant to upset conservatives, both men and women, who argue that their Islamic society should not follow the same pattern of women’s liberation as in Western societies.

The last time the driving ban was challenged in an organized fashion was in 1990 when more 48 Saudi women drove in a convoy around Riyadh for an hour. The women were harshly punished – banned from international travel and suspended from their jobs. Mosque preachers labeled them “whores.”

Later, the kingdom’s most senior religious figure issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that said women should not drive. But 21 years later, that fatwa is no longer seen as valid by many Muslims, especially since women drive in every other Muslim-majority country in the world.

Other things have also changed. Some religious sheikhs are breaking their silence and speaking out against the austere hardliners, arguing that nothing in Islam prevents women from driving.

The concept behind Friday’s campaign, which was launched in March, is that since there is no law banning women from driving, they should go out and drive en masse to persuade the government to lift the ban. Women were advised not to congregate so as not to violate the ban on demonstrations.

In recent years an increasing number of women have driven, sometimes out of necessity. If caught by traffic police, they were held until their male guardian picked them up and signed a pledge that they would not allow the women to drive again.

By mid-evening Friday, there was no evidence of arrests.

It was a far different story last month, when the government took a tough line against one of the driving campaign organizers. After Manal al-Sharif posted a YouTube video of herself driving around the town of Al Khobar to encourage women to join the campaign, she was detained for nine days.

According to Saudi sources, she was released on orders of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who is seen as a supporter of women’s rights.

Traffic about the campaign was heavy on Twitter (much of which can be found at the #Women2Drive hashtag), which along with Facebook and YouTube was the main way it was organized.

Tweets poured in from Saudis and non-Saudis offering encouragement to women who drove or were planning to drive. Women who defied the ban and drove tweeted about the responses they got.

“I went to the supermarket and I noticed [that] some grandpa generation were upset but all the people were smiling,” tweeted Maial Shareef.

“I drove my dad’s car this afternoon. Delivered him to the jumah (Friday) prayer and back home,” wrote Mozah. “It went well. Some weren’t happy to see me pick him [up at] the mosque.”

And Tawfiq al-Saif, an author and community leader in the Eastern Province, commented that he was taken for a ride by his wife. It went “just fine,” he wrote. “[S]ome people looked surprised, others were smiling."

IN PICTURES: Behind the veil

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Braving police, Saudi women drivers take to streets (The Christian Science Monitor)

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – She was probably the first to put foot to pedal.

It was 12:44 a.m. and middle-of-the-night dark. She turned the ignition key, lit the headlights, and drove.

In the backseat, her supportive husband filmed his wife making history as the earliest participant in Friday’s campaign by Saudi women to get the right to drive on the roads of their country.

IN PICTURES: Behind the veil

“I felt great,” the university student said later in an email exchange. “I couldn't believe that I was in Riyadh and driving! I look forward for the day that all of this becomes as natural as men driving.”

The woman, who posted the video on YouTube, said she wanted to remain anonymous “because I'm afraid of the authorities.” She’s also not certain, she wrote, about how her extended family would react to news of what she called “my small mission.”

Overall, the driving campaign got off to a slow start with just shy of 50 women reporting – mostly via Twitter – by the evening that they had gotten behind the wheel in violation of the kingdom’s national ban on female drivers.

The campaign is perhaps the largest and most genuinely grass-roots campaign by Saudi women to demand one of the many rights they are denied in this country, which severely restricts female independence.

Under the guardianship system, women need the permission of their father, husband, or brother to marry, travel outside the country, work outside the home, and have certain kinds of medical procedures.

Though there is no law prohibiting women from driving, the government supports the social custom that women not drive, at least not in the urban areas. In rural parts of the kingdom, women drive regularly without interference.

Many senior members of the royal family and the government have no objection to women driving. But they are reluctant to upset conservatives, both men and women, who argue that their Islamic society should not follow the same pattern of women’s liberation as in Western societies.

The last time the driving ban was challenged in an organized fashion was in 1990 when more 48 Saudi women drove in a convoy around Riyadh for an hour. The women were harshly punished – banned from international travel and suspended from their jobs. Mosque preachers labeled them “whores.”

Later, the kingdom’s most senior religious figure issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that said women should not drive. But 21 years later, that fatwa is no longer seen as valid by many Muslims, especially since women drive in every other Muslim-majority country in the world.

Other things have also changed. Some religious sheikhs are breaking their silence and speaking out against the austere hardliners, arguing that nothing in Islam prevents women from driving.

The concept behind Friday’s campaign, which was launched in March, is that since there is no law banning women from driving, they should go out and drive en masse to persuade the government to lift the ban. Women were advised not to congregate so as not to violate the ban on demonstrations.

In recent years an increasing number of women have driven, sometimes out of necessity. If caught by traffic police, they were held until their male guardian picked them up and signed a pledge that they would not allow the women to drive again.

By mid-evening Friday, there was no evidence of arrests.

It was a far different story last month, when the government took a tough line against one of the driving campaign organizers. After Manal al-Sharif posted a YouTube video of herself driving around the town of Al Khobar to encourage women to join the campaign, she was detained for nine days.

According to Saudi sources, she was released on orders of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who is seen as a supporter of women’s rights.

Traffic about the campaign was heavy on Twitter (much of which can be found at the #Women2Drive hashtag), which along with Facebook and YouTube was the main way it was organized.

Tweets poured in from Saudis and non-Saudis offering encouragement to women who drove or were planning to drive. Women who defied the ban and drove tweeted about the responses they got.

“I went to the supermarket and I noticed [that] some grandpa generation were upset but all the people were smiling,” tweeted Maial Shareef.

“I drove my dad’s car this afternoon. Delivered him to the jumah (Friday) prayer and back home,” wrote Mozah. “It went well. Some weren’t happy to see me pick him [up at] the mosque.”

And Tawfiq al-Saif, an author and community leader in the Eastern Province, commented that he was taken for a ride by his wife. It went “just fine,” he wrote. “[S]ome people looked surprised, others were smiling."

IN PICTURES: Behind the veil

Yahoo! News

Explosion rocks police HQ in Nigeria

Nigerian officers inspect the site of a powerful suicide bombing at police headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.The emergency agency said it has mobilized response units The spokesman says a suicide bomber died in the blast"I saw thick black smoke," resident says

Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) -- A powerful explosion rocked police headquarters in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, a spokesman at the National Emergency Management Agency said Thursday.

No casualty figures were immediately available but several people were injured and cars in the parking lot were destroyed.

"It's serious, very serious, as so many cars are on fire," said Umar Mariga, the National Red Cross spokesman.

Yushau Shuaib, the spokesman for the emergency agency, said a suicide bomber died in the incident but few details were immediately available.

"I saw thick black smoke billowing up from the central area in Abuja," said Jo Abuku, who was driving past the area.

The agency mobilized response units to the police scene, close to the Hilton hotel in central Abuja.

It was unclear who was responsible for the blast. However, the Islamist group Boko Haram has been targeting police and the government in attacks recently.

A pair of explosive attacks at a police station and a church in northeast Nigeria killed 11 people June 8.

Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram attacked the Gwange police station with explosives.

The militant Islamist group has challenged Nigeria's government. It is regarded as a fringe group in northern Nigeria and is opposed by the Muslim establishment in the country.

CNN's Christian Purefoy and journalist Alkasim Abdulkadir contributed to this story.

CNN