Uprising

The 1980 Kwangju incident, a chaotic uprising in which about 200 South Koreans were killed by brutal military suppression, moved Friday from the murky realm of dissident rumors and campaign rhetoric to chilling historical record. A National Assembly committee investigating the uprising began televised hearings, captivating millions of Koreans with a story of political martyrdom and official corruption.

The questioner reads evenly from a script. "Please give me your name and your age. " "My name is Sameh Eldesoky and I am 21 years old. " Eldesoky sits back, hands on his knees, trying to relax, trying to forget that a tiny microphone is clamped to the front of his shirt. "When and how did you first hear about the demonstrations of Jan. 25?" "Through Facebook and friends. " "Had you been involved in demonstrations before or political organizing?" asks the interviewer, a young woman with a soft, soothing voice.

"Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m." is a documentary by French director Claude Lanzmann, whose title pinpoints the exact date and time for the start of the only successful uprising and escape by Jews at any Nazi extermination camp during the Holocaust.

In the mornings, barber Fadhi Ayari blasts recordings of Koranic verses from his shop's stereo. But it's just a habit, he explains as he turns down the volume. He says he rarely ventures to the mosque just across the street. He laughs uneasily at the prospect of the long-outlawed Islamist party Nahda, led by exiled sheik Rachid Ghannouchi, rising to prominence in the new Tunisia. Ghannouchi arrived home Sunday after 22 years in exile in Britain to cheers from more than 1,000 supporters gathered at Tunis' international airport.

The search for a young Google executive missing in the political turmoil in Egypt has widened as the Internet search giant asked the public in Egypt for help. FOR THE RECORD: Google executive: An article in the Feb. 2 Business section about efforts to find Google executive Wael Ghonim, who went missing in Egypt, misspelled Boston technology entrepreneur Habib Haddad's surname as Habbab. ? Wael Ghonim, who heads marketing for Google in the Middle East and North Africa from the United Arab Emirates, was in Cairo for a conference and has been missing since Friday after writing on Twitter: "Pray for Egypt.

Syrian tanks, troops and bulldozers on Monday swept into a city that has long been a potent symbol of the nation's pro-democracy movement, raiding houses and hunting down activists opposed to President Bashar Assad's rule. Witnesses and activists said at least three people were killed, including a 12-year-old boy, and dozens injured as security forces stormed into the outskirts of Hama. Hafez Assad, the president's father and predecessor, brutally crushed an uprising against his rule in the restive city in 1982.

Friends coming to call at the Seif family's comfortable apartment in Mohandiseen over the last two weeks were likely to be disappointed, but not surprised. The Seifs, longtime activists who have been familiar fixtures at most demonstrations in Cairo over the years, have been waiting for Egypt's revolution since the 1970s. When it called, they moved like sailors to battle stations. Laila Soueif, a mathematics professor at Cairo University, organized faculty marches across the central city and set up a camp spot in Tahrir Square.

ZANGABAD, Afghanistan - The uprising began in early February with a Taliban commander's knock on the door of Hajji Abdul Wudood. The militant leader demanded that Wudood, a stout, weathered man of 60, surrender one of his eight sons, who was accused of spying on the Taliban for the Afghan government. What Wudood did next triggered a revolt against the Taliban that has spread to a dozen villages in a region that has been among the nation's most formidable Taliban strongholds. Fed up with beheadings and homemade bombs that killed 60 people in two villages the previous year, Wudood refused to hand over 25-year-old Abdul Hanan.

Inmates wanting to end a four-day rebellion at a prison in western Brazil killed at least six leaders of the uprising and released 150 hostages, most of them their own relatives, police said. The uprising began during visiting hours Thursday at the Carumbe prison in Cuiaba, about 840 miles northwest of Sao Paulo in the state of Mato Grosso. The hostages, who included four guards, were released unhurt.