Saudi Arabian warplanes bombed a market in Bani Maan village in Yemen killing 70 civilians, rebels in the north of the country said Dec. 14. The rebels, known as Houthis, have accused the Saudis of several cross-border raids. Additionally, Iran's Press TV, citing claims on the rebels' Almenpar website, reported that US fighter jets took part in the air-raids in the northwestern province of Sa'ada. (BBC News, Press TV, Dec. 14)

Human rights conditions in 12 Arab nations continued to deteriorate last year, according to a report issued Dec. 9 by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS). The publication, entitled "Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform," is the group's second annual report. It condemns violations of human rights, including those against political and reform activists. According to the report, Iraq continues to be the region's worst offender despite "relative improvements," while Egypt, Morocco, and Bahrain are identified as having regressed significantly since last year.

Egypt has become a police state where citizens receive no protection from torture, human rights groups said in a report published Dec. 3. "The basic feature of human rights in Egypt today is the prevalence of a policy of exception in which those responsible for violations usually escape punishment amid a climate of impunity intentionally created and fostered for several decades," said the report by 16 Egyptian human rights groups.

Coptic Christian shop owners in the Egyptian town of Farshoot are refusing to reopen their stores until the government compensates them for damages in two days of rioting over the weekend. Up to 65 shops were reportedly damaged as thousands of Muslims attacked local Copts in the town some 300 miles south of Cairo. Damages to the burned and looted shops, including jewelry stores and pharmacies, is estimated at $1 million. "There will be no reconciliation before full financial compensation has been paid to the Coptic victims, and the criminals are brought to justice, so that safety and security can be restored to the district," said Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hammadi Diocese.

After months of dialogue between the Interior Ministry, parliament and Kurdish leaders, the Turkish government announced a plan to help end the 25-year conflict with a Kurdish separatist movement that has cost more than 40,000 lives. The plan debated by Turkish Parliament for two days was hailed as a landmark, calling for lifting the ban on Kurdish political parties and officially acknowledging Kurdish ethnic identity and cultural rights. Kurds make up almost 15% of Turkey's population.

Saudi Arabia's air force attacked Yemeni rebels holding territory in the in Jabal al-Dokhan along the kingdom's southern border Nov. 5. The Defense Ministry in Sanaa denied local media reports that Saudi jets struck within Yemeni territory. The air-strikes followed a gun-battle in which a Saudi border guard was killed and 10 wounded when Houthi rebels from Yemen attacked. The Houthis issued a statement saying they seized the Jabal al-Dokhan because Saudi Arabia had allowed the Yemeni army to use the area for attacks on the rebels. (Bloomberg, Nov. 6; Arab News, NYT, Nov. 5)

In an Oct. 15 New York Times story, "Crossroads of Islam, Past and Present," Robert F. Worth reports from Tarim in Yemen's Hadramawt region, where a thriving Sufi school is attempting to reclaim the area's reputation from the media moniker of "the ancestral homeland" of Osama bin Laden. Is this a long-overdue corrective to demonized portrayals of Islam—or more propaganda in an imperial divide-and-conquer ploy to groom Sufis as domesticated "good Muslims"?

The Yemeni army entered into its fifth day of deadly fighting against Zaydi Shi'ite insurgents in the north of the country Aug. 16. Airstrikes and artillery fire were used in battles with Zaydi militants of the Houthi militia. Six government troops killed, an official from Amran province said. (AlJazeera, Aug. 16)