Clashes were reported in tightly controlled oil producer Libya, sandwiched between Egypt and Tunisia, as people there prepared to take to the streets for a "day of rage" after new protests erupted in Yemen, Iran and Iraq. The demonstrations against old rulers came after U.S. President Barack Obama commenting on the overthrow of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, said: "The world is changing ... If you are governing these countries, you've got to get ahead of the change, you can't be behind the curve." Authoritarian governments have reason to fear contagion with young people able to watch pro-democracy uprisings on satellite television or the Internet and to communicate on social networks hard for secret police to control.
In Bahrain, police firing tear gas and rubber bullets cleared hundreds of people from the central Pearl Square in the early hours as they tried to end three days of protests. At least two protesters were killed and armored vehicles were later seen heading to the area. "Police are coming, they are shooting teargas at us," one demonstrator told Reuters by telephone. Another said: "I am wounded, I am bleeding. They are killing us." Thousands of overwhelmingly Shi'ite protesters took to the streets in Bahrain this week demanding more say in the Gulf Arab island kingdom where a family of Sunni Muslims rules over a population that mostly belongs to the Shi'ite sect. Hundreds had camped out at Pearl Square, a road junction in the capital that they sought to turn into the base of a protest like that at Cairo's Tahrir Square which led to the downfall of Egyptian President Mubarak. But the square appeared nearly empty of protesters early on Thursday after police moved in and was littered with abandoned tents, blankets and rubbish. The smell of teargas wafted through the air.
On Wednesday, the party demanded a new constitution that would move the country toward democracy.
Bahrain's Interior Ministry said on Twitter that security forces had "cleared Pearl roundabout" of demonstrators, and a section of a main road was temporarily blocked.
The religious divide that separates Bahrain's ruling family from most of its subjects has led to sporadic unrest since the 1990s, and Bahrain's stability is being closely watched as protests blow through North Africa and the Middle East.
Source: REUTERS
