Bahrain

The crown prince of Bahrain called off Formula One's season-opening race Monday, handing another victory to protesters aiming to break the ruling dynasty's stranglehold on power in the Persian Gulf kingdom. Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa owns the rights to the grand prix and serves as commander of the armed forces in an island country where at least eight protesters have been killed in a week of unrest. Angry protesters, who see the Bahrain GP as particularly meaningful to him, wanted the March 13 race dropped.

Anti-government protests raged Monday for the first time in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, with unconfirmed media reports of pro-regime snipers firing into crowds, bloody clashes on the city's main square and fires blazing in key government buildings. Al Jazeera reported that a fire was burning inside the People's Hall, a symbol of longtime strongman Moammar Kadafi's repressive regime. TV images showed demonstrators setting fires in the streets, but the size of the protests wasn't clear.

Protesters have seized control of Benghazi and several other eastern towns, Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's son acknowledged in comments broadcast early Monday, but he vowed that security forces would fight efforts to end his father's four decades in power "to the last bullet. " Human rights groups said the death toll in Libya had exceeded 200 after six days of unrest. Police and government-hired mercenaries Sunday shot mourners for three dozen activists killed by police the previous day, according to video and online accounts trickling out of Libya.

Protesters celebrated Saturday in Bahrain when police and soldiers withdrew from Manama's symbolic Pearl Square, allowing young Shiite Muslims eager for a larger role in Bahraini society to take back their central stage. "The police backed down when they saw thousands of people coming from four directions," said one demonstrator. Confrontations gave way to a massive party as protesters chanted, hugged and waved yellow and red plastic flowers. Hundreds of Bahraini flags fluttered in the wind.

Ali Mahmoud was one of the first to retake Pearl Square. The 42-year-old had watched the protests on television, and seen security forces expel anti-government demonstrators from the square in central Manama two days before. He knew he had to go where his countrymen had been shot at, had been gassed, had been beaten. When Mahmoud and hundreds of other men approached the square Saturday, policemen fired off tear-gas canisters and Mahmoud found himself retreating through bushes.

The White House on Thursday strongly condemned violence against protesters in Bahrain, the latest Arab country trying to cope with anti-government demonstrations. Speaking to reporters, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the administration was disappointed and displeased by the deadly violence. Carney also said that top officials including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had contacted their opposite numbers in Bahrain to express the administration's concern. At least three people were reportedly killed and 230 wounded during an early morning attack on sleeping protesters when the army deployed on the streets of Manama, the capital city.

Beyond the hospital grounds, heavily armed police trying to secure this tiny kingdom against the contagion of unrest spreading across the Middle East manned checkpoints and grimly gripped their weapons. Within, perplexed and angry protesters insisted that they wouldn't be cowed. The night before, a bloody assault against sleeping demonstrators killed at least four people. But the front line shifted across town Thursday to the Salmaniya Medical Complex, where the dead were laid out. Doctors were treating those who had been tear-gassed, clubbed or wounded by gunfire, and an angry crowd was chanting slogans against the royal family.

Security forces in tiny but strategic Bahrain launched a brutal assault early Thursday against at least 1,000 defiant anti-government protesters, including children, camped out in tents in the capital's Pearl Square. At least two were killed and 50 hurt. Update, 5:53 a.m.: Death toll: Three people were killed and 231 wounded in a police operation to clear protesters from a Manama square Thursday, Bahrain's health minister said. Faisal bin Yaqoob al-Hamer told Reuters that 36 people were still being treated, including one in intensive care.

A burst of deadly violence against demonstrators in Bahrain has left the Obama administration again confronting the awkward task of trying to stabilize an ally besieged by growing opposition from its citizens. A tiny monarchy in the Persian Gulf, Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, and the fall of its government could scramble the strategic order in the Middle East, potentially weakening U.S. leverage and leaving Iran in a stronger position. In an acknowledgement of the kingdom's important role, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and other officials Thursday urged Bahraini officials to halt the violence and to quickly adopt political reforms that could satisfy the protesters.

Security forces in tiny but strategic Bahrain launched a brutal assault early Thursday against at least 1,000 defiant anti-government protesters, including women and children, camped out in tents in the capital's Pearl Square. A barrage of tear gas canisters thundered across the square about 3 a.m. as dozens of police cars, armored security vehicles and ambulances converged on the makeshift tent city in the center of Manama that was beginning to resemble a smaller version of Tahrir Square in Cairo, where Egyptian protesters overthrew their president.