Yemeni security forces July 23 opened fire on thousands of protesters in Zinjibar, provincial capital of Abyan in the country's restive south, killing 12 and wounding scores of others. "Government forces have committed a massacre against unarmed civilians, firing live bullets and killing 10 people," said Ali Dehmes, an opposition leader in the south. Two more protesters apparently died in the hospital. (AP, July 23)

From the World Muslim Congress:

Obama, Hujurat and Islamic Calligraphy
President Obama quoted the verse 49:13 from Sura Hujurat in his speech in Cairo. "O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you." (Qur'aan 49:13).

President Barack Obama's historic speech to the Muslim world, delivered June 4 at Cairo's al-Azhar University, Islam's highest institution of learning, was—like much in the president's program—a meaningful step forward nonetheless compromised by tactical equivocation. This is illustrated by two historical invocations in his text: one a courageous repudiation of his predecessor's Christian crusader mentality—the other a dangerous omission that undermines his message of reconciliation...

The Abu Dhabi authorities have detained a brother of the president and opened a criminal investigation of a videotape in which he appears to torture an Afghan grain merchant, the Emirates judicial department said in a statement May 11. Sheik Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, whose brother is both the ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the seven-member United Arab Emirates, is the first member of the ruling family known to have been criminally investigated. The grisly videotape surfaced last month, provoking outrage in the US Congress, which is set to consider a civilian nuclear agreement with the UAE. (NYT, May 12)

A Yemeni man was killed and four others injured when a bomb exploded May 3 among protesters in the south. Authorities said the bomb appeared to have been carried by a protester and it exploded accidentally during the clashes in the southern town of Dali. A day earlier, five soldiers and two civilians were killed in the southern town of Radfan after local tribesmen clashed with soldiers attempting to set up checkpoints in the area. The US Embassy urgently appealed for dialogue as regional protests shake the nation. (AP, May 4)

A judge for the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) has ordered the release of four generals who had been held on suspicion of their involvement in the February 2005 suicide bombing that killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others. The court's pre-trial decision came after prosecutor Daniel Bellemare announced Monday that he was declining to seek a continuation of the generals' nearly four-year detention because of a lack of evidence and due to the legal principle of presumed innocence. The generals' release was celebrated with cheers and fireworks throughout Beirut.

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia April 1 granted a habeas corpus petition filed by Yemeni Guantánamo Bay detainee Yasin Muhammed Basardh, ordering his release from the prison. His detention came under exclusive review of the court after a panel for the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit suspended its consideration of his case in light of the 2008 Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush, which it said gave the District Court sole jurisdiction over the matter. Justifications for Basardh's release were kept classified. The US government was ordered "to take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate the release of petitioner Basardh forthwith." (Jurist, April 1)

A Turkish officer was arrested March 25 in connection with suspected extrajudicial killings in the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast in the 1990s. A court in Diyarbakir issued the arrest warrant for the officer, Col. Cemal Temizoz, pending a trial. Colonel Temizoz served near the town of Cizre, about 40 miles from the Iraqi border, from 1993 to 1996, when hundreds of Kurdish civilians were said to have been killed by security forces. In excavations around Cizre, officials have so far found pieces of clothing and at least 20 bones, which will be subject to DNA examination. (NYT, March 26)