DAILY NEWS: Syria, Libya and Middle East unrest

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• Clinton: Syrian raid near Turkish border 'very worrisome'
• Egyptian activists threaten to reoccupy Tahrir square
• Ahmadinejad ally arrested in Iran on corruption charges

9.59am: Activists in Syria are hoping for a big turnout in today's protests after a lacklustre speech by president Bashar al-Assad on Monday, writes Nidaa Hassan in Damascus.

There are some signs that confidence in the economy has dropped since the president speech, with the value of the Syrian pound dropping on the black market according to local money changers.
Dubbed the Friday of the Fall of Legitimacy, a reference to protesters' calls on the international community to declare Assad's rule illegitimate, protests are expected across the country.
Meanwhile, tensions are running high along the Syrian-Turkish borders as locals say yesterday that Syrian soldiers advanced to the border, within eyesight of Turkish soldiers and refugees on the other side.
Hundreds more have fled across the border leaving areas of the north-west deserted. Ankara is becoming increasingly impatient with Assad and yesterday US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the Syrian approach to the border was "very worrisome", increasing the risk of a border clash with Turkey.
Eyes today are also towards Aleppo, the second city which is becoming increasingly restive and suffered a casualty last Friday, as well as Deir Ezzor in the east, Hama, and Homs where gunfire has been ringing out for over 24 hours, according to locals.

Nidaa Hassan is the pseudonym of a journalist working in Damascus

Protesters taunted the security forces in Homs yesterday, according to this video which has English subtitles. A protester appears to urge the security forces to "come closer" despite being hit. It also shows water cannon being used.

9.48am: Amnesty has cast doubt on claims by the international criminal court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo that Libya is using mass rape as a weapon against rebels.

The Independent quotes Amnesty's Donatella Rovera, who was in Libya for three months after the start of the uprising.

She says:

We have not found any evidence or a single victim of rape or a doctor who knew about somebody being raped.

9.41am: Jailed Iranian opposition activists are being systematically raped by prison guards, according to smuggled letters unearthed by the Guardian's Saeed Kamali Dehghan.

Prison guards in Iran are giving condoms to criminals and encouraging them to systematically rape young opposition activists locked up with them, according to accounts from inside the country's jail system.
A series of dramatic letters written by prisoners and families of imprisoned activists allege that authorities are intentionally facilitating mass rape and using it as a form of punishment.
Mehdi Mahmoudian, an outspoken member of Iran's Participation Front, a reformist political party, was among those prisoners who have succeeded in smuggling out letters revealing the extent of rape inside some of the most notorious prisons.
Mahmoudian was arrested in the aftermath of Iran's 2009 disputed presidential election for speaking to the press about the regime's suppression of the movement and is currently in Rajaeeshahr prison in Karaj, a city 12 miles (20km) to the west of the capital, Tehran.
"In various cells inside the prison, rape has become a common act and acceptable," he writes in the letter.

9.37am: The EU has confirmed details of its extended sanctions against Syria. It includes the names of three commanders of Iran's revolutionary guard accused of supporting the Syrian regime in its crackdown against protests, according to a Reuters published by Haaretz says.

According to the names given in the Official Journal, the Iranians were Major-General Qasem Soleimani and Brigadier Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari of the Revolutionary Gaurd, and the Guard's deputy commander for intelligence, Hossein Taeb.

9.11am: Sky News appears to have been allowed into Syria.

Its news anchor Jeremy Thompson tweets:

Reporting live on #skynews from Damascus. Among first foreign journos allowed into #Syria since protests began 3 months ago.

8.25am: Welcome to Middle East Live. Another big day of protests is expected in Syria as diplomatic pressure builds on Damascus following an army raid close to the Turkish border.

The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has held talks with his Syrian counterpart after Syrian troops seized a makeshift safe haven for people who fled the crackdown in Jisr al-Shughour.

The raid forced Turkish troops to back away from the border and risked provoking an angry response from Ankara.

So far the Turkish government has maintained a diplomatic silence. But the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, described the Syrian army's move as "very worrisome".

Here's what she told reporters at a press conference in Washington:

We are very concerned by the reports that the Syrian military has surrounded and targeted the village of Khirbet al-Jouz, which is located roughly 500 meters from the Turkish border. If true, that aggressive action will only exacerbate the already unstable refugee situation in Syria. And we've seen increased refugee flows across the border into Turkey. Recent reports are that there are more than 10,500 Syrians already sheltered by the Turkish Red Crescent in camps on the border.
I have discussed this at length with the foreign minister of Turkey. President Obama has discussed it with the prime minister. We are closely monitoring the situation in Syria and in neighbouring countries, and it is further example of the lengths to which President Assad's regime will go to repress the people of Syria rather than actually working in a collaborative way to try to resolve the legitimate concerns of the Syrian people.
And it just is very clear to us that unless the Syrian forces immediately end their attacks and their provocations that are not only now affecting their own citizens but endangering the potential border clashes, then we're going to see an escalation of conflict in the area. And the United States is already providing humanitarian assistance. We are closely consulting with Turkey. But this is a very worrisome development by the Syrians. They have to know what they're doing and they have to, I assume, know their own history, because this is not the first time that they have had a provocation that led the Turks to take action to protect their own interests.

Those at the scene suggest the Syrian army moved into to prevent the opposition forming a rebel base.

One of the group told BBC Arabic:

Our group here is informing the world of what is going on inside Syria. [The authorities] don't like it, so they want to either arrest or kill these people, so that there are no more people who can follow the news from inside Syria. It is just terror for everybody.

Meanwhile...

•In Tunisia and Egypt, the two countries which have toppled dictators, there's a row about the timing of elections for a new government.

In Tunisia there's been a call by the country's main Islamist party not to postpone the elections, whereas in Egypt activists have warned they will retake Tahrir square unless planned elections are delayed to allow opposition parties time to mobilise.

In both countries fear of the organisational clout of Islamist parties appears to be behind the row.

• Jordan's King Abdullah will survive because he is committed to a reforming monarchy, the king's uncle Prince Hassan bin Talal told the Guardian.

Jordan should be ahead of the game. It is one of the more intelligent, well-educated countries in the region. If the Jordanians play their cards right, they could become an inspiration.

• Iran's former deputy foreign minister, Muhammad Sharif Malekzadeh, a close ally of the hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been arrested on charges of financial corruption. Malekzadeh resigned from his post two days ago – only a week after he was appointed – after coming under pressure from the conservative-dominated parliament for his connections to Ahmadinejad's controversial chief of staff and close confidant, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.

• Amnesty is calling for the release of a man in Kuwait who has been detained for tweeting in support of protesters in Bahrain. Nasser Abul was arrested earlier this month and accused of tweeting insulting messages about the Bahraini and Saudi Arabian royal families.

• David Owen, a former foreign secretary, urges Nato to hold its nerve over the Libya campaign.

Anyone contemplating early negotiations in Libya should ask themselves what would be the effect of a premature move to the negotiating table confirming Gaddafi in power? Answer: President Assad and his brother in Syria would feel even more confident about ignoring sanctions, and would continue to use force in totally unacceptable ways. Nato cannot deal with Damascus through a no-fly zone, but sanctions should be toughened.