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The Libyan regime has launched today a new assault on the opposition amidst growing international pressure. Forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, tried to retake the now rebel-controlled towns of Zawiyah and the eastern city of Misrata overnight, but both attacks appear to have been repelled by now.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has cracked down on protesters in the state’s Capitol building while issuing a new ultimatum to Democratic lawmakers. On Monday, demonstrators were barred from re-entering the Capitol, the site of 24-hour protests over the past week. Thousands of people have demonstrated and slept inside the building.

Huge crowds poured onto the streets of the Yemeni capital in what the opposition hailed as the biggest protest yet against the President three-decade rule.
The veteran leader, whose supporters staged a large counter-demonstration, dismissed the opposition rally as a copycat action mimicking protests in other Arab countries that he charged had been fanned by Israel and the US.

Strange as this may sound, there is a mainstream in the unsanctioned confederacy of dictators. Whether of the present times or from the distant past, the mainstream dictator is usually decidedly understated, more often than not a loner, eccentric in private habits, and almost as a trademark, lives in a complex world of paranoia.
By Eskinder Nega

*Mass Protest Rally held 28 February 2011 by the Peoples’ Campaign for Right to Water (PCRW), against anti-people Water Laws and Policies of Karnataka and the US Water Trade Mission. Urban development Minister subsequently reiterates opposition to Water Privatisation and distances Government from US Mission. Another people-power success story, so far…*

Fears of a humanitarian crisis in Libya are growing amidst escalating violence between rebels and forces loyal to the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Anti-government groups have seized control of more areas as they close in on the capital city, Tripoli. On Sunday, protesters claimed the town of Zawiyah, just 30 miles from the capital.

Over 100,000 people rallied in Madison on Saturday against Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s effort to remove the collective bargaining rights of most public-sector workers. It was the largest demonstration Madison has seen since the Vietnam War. Tens of thousands of people marched in solidarity protests nationwide.

Protests meanwhile are continuing across the Middle East. In Bahrain, thousands continue to flood the streets of the capital city of Manama. On Sunday, demonstrators marched to a central court building in their deepest foray into the city so far. The protests come as leading Bahraini Shiite opposition leader Hassan Mushaima has returned from exile.

The Security Council today voted unanimously to impose sanctions against the Libyan authorities, slapping the country with an arms embargo and freezing the assets of its leaders, while referring the ongoing violent repression of civilian demonstrators to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
See its Resolution 1970 published here.

The UN refugee agency on Sunday said a “humanitarian emergency” was underway as thousands fled Libya in a mass exodus of foreigners from the strife-torn country by air, land and sea.
“We call upon the international community to respond quickly and generously to enable these governments to cope with this humanitarian emergency,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.