Today's Brief Primer on the "Middle East"

Libya: You know what’s an invitation to a (possibly short, possibly endless) war? The no-fly zone, which is not a thing that has been proposed to happen. And yet, you can understand why the rebels who are fighting on the ground, city-by-city, would want such assistance, as Gaddafi shells towns in his own country! This is madness. Fascinating to know: “Libyan envoys are meeting with European Union officials in Brussels.”

Yemen: “Government security forces beat demonstrators and then opened fire on them late Tuesday night, fatally wounding a 20-year-old protester and leaving nine others with bullet wounds…. Protests in Sana, the capital, have been relatively peaceful since President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that Yemeni security forces would protect the demonstrators. The episode was the first time that uniformed officers used live ammunition since the protests began here nearly a month ago.”

Oman: State workers are on strike! That is extremely impressive.

Egypt: Things in Egypt have been, to put it mildly, extremely messy the last few days, though they sound somewhat calmer today. By reputable accounts, supporters of the “security apparatus” have been attacking people in Cairo. Last night as well, there was strife between Copts and Muslims, an engagement that also involved “goons.” Throughout the week, there has been gunfire and shouting matches. A bone of contention is the dismantlement of the secret service; secret services don’t like to be dismantled and exposed!

Côte d’Ivoire: Okay, it’s not (at all) technically North Africa, but it would be remiss to not make note of this: “Marches by thousands of women in protest at Ivory Coast’s president Laurent Gbagbo have ended in bloodshed after his army killed four people…. The women made their stand on International Women’s Day, less than a week after Gbagbo’s soldiers killed seven women at a peaceful demonstration…. Thousands of women continued to gather in the besieged suburb of Abobo, where the seven women had been killed, some shouting ‘Gbagbo, assassin! Gbagbo, power thief! Leave!’”

Bahrain: “Bahrain’s Sunni and Shi’ite Muslim opposition groups have met to try to curb sectarian tensions that have escalated into street fights after weeks of protests aimed at bringing down the government.”