Military, Political Unrest | featured news

In his first comprehensive response to revolts across the Arab world, President Barack Obama is doling out punishment and praise, targeting Syrian President Bashar Assad for attacking his people but also promising fresh U.S. aid to nations that support democracy.

Syria was under growing pressure on Thursday to stop using military force against anti-government protesters after the United States slapped sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad over human rights violations.

Syrian army troops backed by tanks and helicopters on Saturday took a prominent mosque that had been controlled by residents in a besieged southern city, killing four people, a witness said.

Security forces and plainclothes gunmen opened fire on crowds of Yemenis marching through a southern city Monday in an intensifying crackdown against the uprising.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking after an emergency summit of world powers in Paris, announces 'our planes are stopping attacks' on Benghazi and that France and its partner nations are determined to stop Moammar Kadafi's 'killing frenzy.' Sarkozy says the summit agreed to demand and enforce an 'immediate cease-fire' in Libya.

The move by King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa to quell a growing uprising is akin to three months of martial law for Bahrain. With hundreds of foreign military and police in the nation to support the government, protesters and their foes set up rival checkpoints.

The military uses armored personnel carriers and water cannons as it penetrates the encampment of anti-government demonstrators in downtown Bangkok.

About 1,300 U.S. troops have been stuck at the Manas airfield in Kyrgyzstan because of the civil unrest there.

Thai troops fired rubber bullets at opposition "red shirts" on Saturday as they moved in to clear a protest site in Bangkok in the biggest confrontation in the month-long campaign for new elections, witnesses said.