Time for a summary.
Syria
• Tens of thousands of people have flooded the streets of the restive city of Homs demanding the toppling of Bashar al-Assad's regime. The protests- whose numbers were estimated at between 20,000 and 70,000- saw inhabitants dance and chant in the flashpoint city of Syria's uprising. Despite the demonstrations' peaceful nature, activists reported that security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition into the crowds (see 1.20pm). The LCC opposition network said two people had been killed and 11 injured. Neither the toll nor the reports of live fire could be confirmed.
• The residents of the already volatile city appeared to be emboldened by a visit from Arab League observers in Syria to assess the regime's committment to a peace plan. The head of the delegation, Sudan's Gen Mustafa Dabi, was reported to have met with the governor of Homs province and visited the volatile areas of Baba Amr and Inshaat- although this was disputed. He later told Reuters the day had been "very good", saying that "all sides were responsive". Residents of Baba Amr were shown on film begging the observers to visit their neighbourhood. (See 2.41pm.)
• It was unclear how much the observers would be able to see as reports claimed the regime was attempting to cover its tracks in Homs. Activists said that some tanks had been withdrawn from the neighbourhood, and others "hidden" inside government buildings. (See 9.33am.) Other reports claimed bodies had been removed from a morgue and detainees taken to military bases where the monitors could not go.
Egypt
• Forced 'virginity tests' on female prisoners in Egypt's military jails are to be a thing of the past after a court ruled in favour of a woman who took the army to court over the practice. Samira Ibrahim was one of a group of women subjected to the 'test' during the revolution this year, and was the only one to take legal action over it. The verdict has been welcomed by human and women's rights activists and critics of the Scaf authorities. (See 11.24am.)
Iraq
• A front group for al-Qaida in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the wave of attacks that rocked Baghdad last week and killed 69 people, AP reports. Thursday's bombings were the first major attacks since U.S. troops completed a full withdrawal from Iraq this month. A statement posted on militant websites said they were supposed to support Sunni Muslims in jail and avenge those executed by the Shiite-led government.
Huge crowds poured into the streets of Homs shortly after the pullback of some tanks today as inhabitants shouted defiantly that they would not be cowed by the crackdown, reports AP.
The British-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said as the monitors visited Homs, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in some neighborhoods to "reveal the crimes committed by the regime."
Later, the Observatory said some 70,000 protesters tried to enter the tightly secured Clock Square as security force fired tear gas and later live bullets to prevent them from reaching the city's largest square.
The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said security forces were shooting at protesters trying to reach the central square.
Asked if Syrian authorities were cooperating, the head of the Arab League operations room in Cairo, Adnan Issa, responded: "We hope so. The mission will be sending us reports."
Two people were killed and 11 wounded when security forces opened fire into a crowd of protesters in Homs today, according to the LCC opposition network. This report could not be independently confirmed.
Earlier (see 1.48pm) we ran a video showing women from Baba Amr in Homs begging the Arab League observers to visit their home. This man appears to be making a personal appeal to the monitors- and sounding equally desperate.
According to a translation by Al Jazeera, he is heard saying:
Come to my neighbourhood; come to my street. People here are dying; there are snipers on rooftops; we are not able to walk in the street.
He repeatedly stresses the fact, says Al Jazeera, that 'we are unarmed, we are unarmed civilians'.
Here's another video claiming to be of today's protests in Homs. This one is said to be of the sit-in in Khaldiya, though it is clearly also connected to a funeral ceremony.
The LCC opposition activist network put the clip up on their Facebook page; it cannot be immediately verified.
Meanwhile the LCC is reporting 25 deaths across Syria today, seven of which were in Homs. (It does not specify whether it means the province or the city.)
Urging the Arab League observers to visit their badly-hit neighbourhood of Baba Amr, these women describe their home as "an asylum" in which there is a shortage of all the basics and where the wounded cannot be treated.
It is impossible to verify the video, which was apparently recorded yesterday.
Meanwhile Reuters quotes the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying that security forces have been firing tear gas at tens of thousands of protesters heading towards the centre of Homs. The Observatory's Rami Abdelrahman said:
There are at least 70,000 protesters. They are marching towards the city centre and the security forces are trying to stop them. They are firing tear gas.
Protests are being reported in various different areas of Homs.
This live stream is said to show a protest in the Bab Sbaa neighbourhood of Homs. It could not be independently confirmed.
Thousands are also reported to have turned out to the funeral of Muhammad al-Atassi, a man apparently killed yesterday, in the Ghouta neighbourhood.
While watching the protests, it's worth reading this piece that was published in the Sydney Morning Herald recently.
Syrians and particularly the restive residents of Homs have embraced an unusually musical approach to their uprising.
They have expressed their demand for change through catchy tunes and collective choreography, to the extent that mourners packing a street his month began to dance during a protester's funeral, a break from the traditionally sombre ritual.
Security forces have opened fire on the protesters holding a sit-in in Hurriyah Square in Homs, according to the Local Co-Ordinating Committees network.
A Twitter user going by the name of @kendeeel claims to be reporting on the protests in Homs at the moment.
#Assad forces are bringing some big vehicles and block all streets #HomsI ran to my Home near square of freedom #Homs
#Assad forces surrounding us in the square of freedom .. #Homs
#Assad forces shooting us before we reached the square of freedom .. #Homs
None of these reports can be independently confirmed.
Arab League monitors have reportedly finished their first day of observation in Syria's flashpoint city of Homs and will continue touring the area tomorrow, according to Reuters.
The observers met with Ghassan Abdul-Aal, the governor of Homs province, before going to the volatile areas of Baba Amr and Inshaat, AP reports.
Both those neighbourhoods have suffered intense bombardments in recent days- although, with the arrival of the monitors, those have subsided.
Time for a quick lunchtime summary.
Syria
• A team of Arab League observers has begun work in Syria in an attempt to assess to what extent Damascus is keeping to an agreement to end the violence. The organisation's chief said he thought it would take around a week for the observers to judge the situation on the ground. The regime said the officials would be able to move around freely, but Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition Syrian National Council, said those in Homs had already found themselves restricted.
• Ahead of the observers' arrival in Homs, activists reported a number of different attempts by the regime to cover its tracks. They said they had seen tanks withdrawing from the city; one person even said tanks were being hidden inside buildings. Other activists claimed that bodies had been removed from a morgue and that detainees had been taken to military bases in the area, which are off-limits to the observers. (See 10.41am.) An activist told AP that the bombardment of recent days had stopped.
• Thousands of people are reported to have attended an anti-regime protest in Homs. The 'sit-in'- aimed at drawing attention to the demonstrators' cause- was apparently timed to coincide with the observers' visit. (See 12.04pm.)
Egypt
• Forced 'virginity tests' on female prisoners in Egypt's military jails are to be a thing of the past after a court ruled in favour of a woman who took the army to court over the practice. Samira Ibrahim was one of a group of women subjected to the 'test' during the revolution this year, and was the only one to take legal action over it. The verdict has been welcomed by human and women's rights activists and critics of the Scaf authorities. (See 11.24am.)
Iraq
• A front group for al-Qaida in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the wave of attacks that rocked Baghdad last week and killed 69 people, AP reports. Thursday's bombings were the first major attacks since U.S. troops completed a full withdrawal from Iraq this month. A statement posted on militant websites said they were supposed to support Sunni Muslims in jail and avenge those executed by the Shiite-led government.
The Local Co-Ordinating Committees (LCC) have posted this video of the sit-in being held today in the city of Homs.
Reports are saying that thousands of people have turned out to greet the Arab League observers as they arrive in the uprising's hotbed of violence.
Here's AP's take on the Samira Ibrahim case.
An Egyptian court ordered on Tuesday that forced virginity tests be stopped on female detainees in military prisons.
The case was filed by Samira Ibrahim, a woman who said the army forced her to undergo a virginity test in April after she was arrested during a protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Human rights organisations say that there have been many other such tests by the military.
"The court orders that the execution of the procedure of virginity tests on girls inside military prisons be stopped," said judge Aly Fekry, head of Cairo Administrative court. Hundreds of activists inside the courtroom cheered after the ruling was read out.
In June, Mona Eltahawy wrote about the impact of the military's so-called 'virginity tests' in a piece for Comment is Free.
Let's be clear, "virginity tests" are common in Egypt and straddle class and urban/rural divides. Be it the traditional midwife checking for a hymen on a bride's wedding night, or a forensics expert or doctor called in after a prospective bridegroom's suspicions, young women are forced to spread their legs to appease the god of virginity. But no one talks about it.
But it's different when the state/SCAF is the one forcing women's legs apart...
This must be our moment of reckoning with the god of virginity. The rage against the military must also target the humiliation brought by those tests, regardless of who carries them out.
Samira Ibrahim, the woman who took the military to court over their so-called 'virginity tests', has won her case, according to unconfirmed reports on Twitter.
@DailyNewsEgypt posted this message a little while ago:
Court accepts case filed by Samira Ibrahim and orders the end of the practice of virginity tests.
MA student @Sina_86 was in the courtroom for the verdict. Here's a selection of her Tweets in the aftermath.
ppl are cheering and chanting #samiraibrahim #egyptppl are fingering police in court #samiraibrahim #egypt
ppl moving into a march to #tahrir
@bothainakamel1 and @samiraibrahim1 are leading the march #samiraibrahim #egypt
The verdict has been greeted with joy by many. @RaniaKhalifa wrote:
Samira Ibrahim's perseverance resulted in a victory for ALL #Egyptian women!! Administrative Court just ruled in favor to end #viginityTests
Meanwhile another user has labelled Samira Ibrahim "the heroine of our time".
The 50 observers have been split up into groups and will visit several areas between them, including the provinces of Homs, Idlib, Hama, Damascus, and Daraa, according to Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Al Araby (below).
In the city of Homs, the observers have been welcomed by a sit-in timed to mark their arrival. Omar Al-Humsi, an activist, told CNN that more than 2,000 people had taken part.
Al Araby has said it will take about a week to judge whether Syria is really complying with the agreement it signed, according to the BBC's Jim Muir. He adds that, as well as reportedly withdrawing and hiding tanks, the regime is being accused of hiding detainees.
In advance of the observers' arrival, activists accused the authorities of moving detainees onto military bases - where the observers are not allowed to go - and also of removing hundreds of bodies of killed protesters from the morgue at Homs.
The Arab League observer mission has arrived in Homs and is meeting with the governor of the province, AFP reports. It quotes Syria's Dunia television as reporting:
The Arab League observers' delegation has begun its meeting with Homs governor Ghassan Abdel Al.
Tanks are reportedly being pulled out from the city of Homs as Arab League officials make their way there.
At least 11 tanks have withdrawn this morning from the particularly badly hit district of Baba Amr, Reuters quotes the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. But it also quotes Rami Abdelrahman, the organisation's chief, as saying the pull-out may not be quite as it seems:
Many tanks remain inside the neighbourhood; the army is hiding them inside government buildings. They also hid one inside an event hall.
A Homs-based activist has told AP that he too has seen armoured vehicles leave the city on a highway this morning. And Mohammed Saleh, another activist, reports that the intense bombardment of previous days has stopped.
Today is calm, unlike pervious days. The shelling went on for days, but yesterday was terrible.
The Arab League plan- to which the regime agreed on paper but not in practice- requires security forces and heavy weapons to be removed from city streets. It also calls on the government to start talks with opposition leaders and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country.
Welcome to Middle East Live.
Today we'll be focusing on Syria, where the bloodshed continues even as Arab League observers touch down, and also keeping an eye on events in Egypt, Bahrain and other countries in the region.
Here's a brief summary of developments:
Syria
• Observers from the Arab League have arrived in Syria to investigate to what extent- if any- the regime is complying with the organisation's peace plan. The head of the mission, Sudanese General Mustafa Dabi, was reported this morning to be heading to the city of Homs, where activists say continuing violence claimed at least 23 lives yesterday. But it is uncertain exactly what they will find. An activist has told Reuters that he has seen at least six tanks leaving the volatile district of Baba Amr already today.
• The leader of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) has said some observers have already arrived in Homs, but have been unable to travel freely. Burhan Ghalioun, who is based in Paris, said the observers were "being held prisoners by the Syrian system".
Iraq
• A front group for al-Qaida in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the wave of attacks that rocked Baghdad last week and killed 69 people, AP reports. Thursday's bombings were the first major attacks since U.S. troops completed a full withdrawal from Iraq this month. A statement posted on militant websites said they were supposed to support Sunni Muslims in jail and avenge those executed by the Shiite-led government.
• An influential political bloc in Iraq loyal to the Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr has called for early elections as sectarian tensions soar. Baha al-Araji, the Sadrist parliamentary chief, said in a statement yesterday that his bloc wanted to "dissolve parliament and repeat elections".
Iran
• Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery provoked an international outcry, could be hanged instead, the country's judicial authorities have indicated. Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the head of the judiciary in East Azerbaijan, said that, as the prison does not have the right facilities, authorities were considering hanging as an alternative.
Egypt
• A court is expected to rule today in the case of a woman who took the military to court for subjecting her to a so-called "virginity test" earlier this year. Samira Ibrahim, 25, was among seven female protesters who claimed to have been assaulted in this way but is the only one to have taken the army to court.
• Pressure is mounting on the authorities to hold presidential elections next month. A number of high-profile figures, including the writer Alaa Al-Aswany, have backed an initiative calling for a vote to be held on the anniversary of the revolution, Ahram Online reports. They say the proposal aims to "salvage the glorious revolution and end the bloodshed."
Yemen
• The White House has denied reports that the US has decided to admit President Ali Abdullah Saleh for medical treatment. Spokesman Josh Earnest said a report in the New York Times, which said that Washington had agreed "in principle" to grant Saleh entry, was "not true". The paper stuck by its story.