Anti-government Protest, Unrest | featured news

A mass protest calling for sweeping changes in Syria’s authoritarian regime turned bloody Friday, with the government and protesters both claiming to have sustained heavy casualties in a restive southern city as the country’s three-week uprising entered a dangerous new phase.

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

Syria's president appointed a new prime minister Sunday, state television reported, as angry protesters gathered for the funeral processions of four demonstrators killed on Friday.

On a stage once commanded by his brutal father, President Bashar Assad blamed foreign conspiracies for Syria's unrest in a national speech Wednesday that sought to steel his family dynasty against a rebellion similar to those that have toppled regimes across the region.

An "extraordinary number" of security forces flooded Daraa on Monday, patrolling streets and guarding government buildings in an apparent attempt to stave off further protests, a political activist in the city told CNN.

Protesters and Syrian government forces clashed Saturday in the coastal city of Latakia, where demonstrators set fire to the offices of President Bashar Assad's ruling Baath party, an activist said.

Violence erupted as tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets across the country, in the most widespread unrest in years.

Demonstrations have spread across parts of the Middle East and North Africa.

A top general in Yemen joined the anti-government protest movement and will order his troops to protect protesters demonstrating against the country's long-time president, the general told reporters in Yemen.

Bahrain's opposition asked for U.N. and American intervention in the government crackdown on the Shiite protests trying to loosen the monarchy's grip, in a brief protest Sunday in the capital that disbanded before police could arrive to break it up.