Experiments with truth: 2/28/11

    February 28, 2011
    • On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis took part in the largest anti-government rallies yet in towns and cities across the country, as two powerful chiefs from President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s own tribe abandoned him.
    • In Oman, security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters demanding political reforms in Sohar, 200km northwest of the capital Muscat, killing at least one person. Oman’s ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, replaced six Cabinet members in a bid to defuse tensions in the country.
    • Tunisian Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi resigned on Sunday following a wave of protests that demanded a complete break with officials from the previous government.
    • In an internet statement, more than 100 leading Saudi academics and activists called on the king to enact sweeping reforms in the oil-rich nation, including setting up a constitutional monarchy.
    • On Saturday, upwards of 125,000 Wisconsinites rallied at the state capitol in Madison, as tens of thousands more rallied in communities across the state.
    • Dozens of Mauritanian students used Facebook to organize a sit-in on Friday to demand the departure of the president and political reforms. Police dispersed hundreds of protesters early Saturday, but after a few hours the crowd returned to spend the night at Blocat Square in Nouakchott’s city center.
    • Nineteen Catholic and Protestant bishops staged a sit-in to protest the findings of a report that cleared Hindu fundamentalists of a series of attacks on Christian targets in southern Karnataka state in September 2008.
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