The Times this week launched World Now. The new report contains breaking news from around the globe, as well as other stories from The Times' foreign correspondents and staff writers in the U.S. covering issues of international significance.

Coverage that once appeared on Babylon & Beyond can now be found by following the Middle East and South Asia threads on World Now. We hope that loyal readers of Babylon & Beyond will make the migration with us.

-- Los Angeles Times

The Palestinian plan to ask the United Nations for statehood recognition has preoccupied Israel's leaders and news media for months, making "September" a code word for trouble ahead. Public officials have sounded dire warnings, each with a metaphor describing what awaits, including "tsunami" (Defense Minister Ehud Barak), "iceberg" (lawmaker Isaac Herzog) and "wall" (President Shimon Peres).

Last-minute efforts continue to reach a compromise that could keep Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from making what some commentators call a game-changing move, and spare the U.S. from resorting to exercising its veto power in the Security Council. One way or another other, "September" is here.

If classic diplomacy has limits, there's always Internet diplomacy. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon is one of the country's most social-media-minded officials. This summer he posted on the Web a video titled "The Israel-Palestinian Conflict: The Truth About The Peace Process." It gained plenty of views but not so much traction. 

Now lay practitioners of hasbara, or public outreach, are joining the ranks of the digital diplomats. The latest video making the rounds to illustrate Israel's position is "Israel Wants Peace - Friend Request Pending" (above).  We're in a Facebook era, "like" it or not. Not everyone will agree with the video's message but most will understand its language.

While Netanyahu intends to present "Israel's truth" at the U.N., clever Internet presentations try to show Israel's softer face. And just for fun (and for art, for art!) mass-nude photographer Spencer Tunick showed some other parts over the weekend.

Joining the classic and the digital, there's "celebrity diplomacy" too.

The America's Voices in Israel program brings media and entertainment personalities to Israel for first-hand experiences, sight-seeing and briefings with government officials, to see for themselves and spread the word back home that Israel's a country, not just a conflict. Actor Miguel Ferrer, a member of the program's latest delegation, said he'd commit to offering positive messages on behalf of the people of Israel. "Twilight" star Kellan Lutz, visiting for the second time, noted that people are "not really informed" about Israel.

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem.

Video: "Israel Wants Peace- Friend Request Pending." Credit: YouTube

Photo: Kellan Lutz, left, Miguel Ferrer, Carolina La O and Didier Hernendez visiting Jerusalem. Credit: Yissachar Ruas

An influential Iranian ayatollah is telling his students to spend more time praying and less time clicking through cyberspace.

Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, a conservative Islamic cleric and chairman of the Imam Khomeini Research and Education Institute in Qom, said the Internet is rife with dangers and temptations that lead to family problems. He urged seminaries to be vigilant, according to the Mehr news agency.

"If a young student surfs the Internet until late in the night and is not looking for 'scientific subjects,' or if he watches movies and forgets his morning praying, he cannot become a pious man," the ayatollah said.

Mesbah-Yazdi's comments follow warnings last week by another important cleric, who said he worried about a "tremor of non-religiosity in Iranian society. ... The only way to stay safe is relying on the holy book, the Koran."

But Saeed Allahbedashti, an activist and son of a well-known reformist cleric, said: "Unfortunately, 32 years after the Islamic revolution, some top clergymen suppose there is conflict between prayers at night, remembering God and using the Internet. They do not want to realize that a new practicing Muslim generation has emerged in Iran and is using Facebook and other social networks."

He added: "This new generation remembers God at night and observes all Islamic rituals. The Islamic revolution occurred in the context of modernity in Iran, and any practicing Muslim can embrace all kinds of modern tools and technology while maintaining his or her faith in Islam."

-- Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: An Iranian cleric in a courtyard of a holy shrine in Qom. Credit: Reuters 

A paper special U.S. peace envoys David Hale and Dennis Ross presented to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday that was supposed to sway him away from going to the United Nations was what caused Abbas to take a final stand in favor of going, according to Nabil Shaath, a member of Abbas’ Fatah Central Committee.

Abbas told the Palestinian people on Friday that he is going to the Security Council to ask for membership in spite of strong U.S. objections and attempts to have him change his mind.

Shaath, speaking in Ramallah on Saturday, said the U.S. paper Hale and Ross had presented to Abbas when they met him at his headquarters and that was supposed to get him to decide against going to the U.N. has actually increased his resolve to go.

“It was the last straw” that got Abbas to take the decision in favor of going to the U.N. to ask for membership, Shaath said. “It seems that it [the paper] was designed to be rejected,” he said.

The American paper, Shaath said, was worse than a statement the U.S. had wanted the Middle East quartet -- the U.S., the U.N., Russia and the European Union -- to adopt two months ago and which the quartet members had then rejected.

The U.S. paper, he said, referred to the controversial settlements Israel had been building on Palestinian land occupied since 1967 as “demographic changes.” This, he said, would actually legalize the settlements, which the entire world, including the U.S., had so far considered as illegal.

Abbas is going to submit his membership application to the Security Council as soon as he finishes his speech, which he plans to make at the U.N. General Assembly on Friday.

Shaath said it may take a few days to bring it up for discussion and then a vote.

However, he said, if the application was delayed for whatever reason beyond reasonable time, the Palestinian Authority may then go to the U.N. General Assembly to ask for nonmember state.

In his speech to Palestinians Friday, Abbas said that he was going only to the Security Council without saying what would his next step be in case the U.S. vetoes the Palestinian application, as it has already said it would do. He only said that he will hold consultations on the next move.

-- Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank

Protests continued throughout Syrian villages late Wednesday, which marked the eve of the uprising's six-month anniversary. At least eight protesters were reported dead, three each in Hama and Homs, and one in each Aleppo and and Idleb.

The uprising stands as the biggest challenge to the four-decade-long rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad's family. The United Nations estimates that more than 2,600 have died over the last six months. In the video above, protesters in Zamalka, a suburb of the capital Damascus, take to the streets in after-hours demonstrations, colorful banners in hand. 

"Where are the Arab people?" they sing in reference to the general silence that has characterized the Arab League response to the brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters. 

"The Syrian doesn't accept humiliation, and God is with us," they chant, holding up banners calling for international support.

Syrian activists have been recently calling on the international community for protection in the last months. On Friday, large and widely attended protests were dubbed "the Friday of international protection."

The crackdown continued in Idleb, where hundreds have died. Security forces raided houses Wednesday night, leaving the area in ruins and shooting randomly at residential buildings.

Idleb, as the hometown of many army defectors, has seen some of the bloodiest military offensives as security forces continue their manhunt for officers who have left the military in protest of the regime's actions. 

But fresh attacks did little to curb protests in Idleb.

In the video above, protesters in Adnan, an area in Idleb, clap throughout the streets on Wednesday night.

"We will only kneel to God," they sing defiantly. 

Protests have remained widely attended throughout Syria despite the high casualty count. 

"Taking to the streets is like suicide. Things have been getting crazier and more violent. Security forces see you on the street once and you are finished. Either you or one of your family members," said Ahmad, a 36-year-old shopkeeper in Aleppo. 

Aleppo, Syria's largest city, has generally remained on the sidelines during the Syrian uprising, but activists report a recent increase in participation among its residents. In the video above, protesters in Aleppo gather Wednesday night, a large Syrian pre-Baathist flag in their midst as they ask the Syrian president to "leave."

The Arab Baath party, brought into power by the Assad family, has ruled Syria for 40 years and monopolized political influence.

"We wave the flag of Syria as it was known before the Baath party to remind the communities of the world that there was a Syria before Bashar, and there will be a Syria after him," said Ahmad. 

-- Roula Hajjar in Beirut

Videos: Images said to show demonstrators gathering in a Damascus suburb to call for international protection; protesters take to the streets Idleb amid fresh military offensives; residents of Aleppo break their silence and call on President Assad to leave. Credit: YouTube.

On Sept. 13, 1993, current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and current Israeli President Shimon Peres signed at the While House the so-called Oslo Accords, ushering in a new era and hopes of peace in the decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The agreement was signed in the presence of President Bill Clinton, former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

At a news conference in Ramallah in the West Bank on Tuesday to talk about the Palestinians' latest U.N. statehood bid, Palestinian Authority negotiator Muhammad Shtayeh made reference to that agreement.

“The Oslo Accords was an interim agreement that should have reached a conclusion on May 4, 1999,” he said. “It was supposed to bring results through bilateral Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.”

However, 18 years later, as the Israeli occupation that was supposed to end more than 10 years ago remains in place and an independent Palestinian state is far from being a reality, the Palestinian Authority decided to try another course of action, asking the United Nations' 193 member states to recognize “Palestine” as member No. 194, based on the 1967 borders.

“The bilateral arrangement of Oslo is now taking us to the multilateral road, which is the U.N.,” said Shtayeh.

Whether the Palestinians will succeed in changing their fate remains to be seen when the Palestinian Authority formally asks the U.N. Security Council for recognition in a couple of weeks.

But as the date for submitting that application gets closer, Palestinians are coming under intense direct and indirect pressure from the U.S. and Europe to withdraw their initiative.

Well informed sources said the pressure seems to have made headway with at least some Arab countries upon which the Palestinians were counting for support in their bid.

Abbas traveled to Cairo on Monday to ask Arab foreign ministers meeting there for their support for the Palestinian application. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, was also there for the exact opposite goal: to ask the Arabs to dissuade the Palestinians from proceeding with their move.

According to the sources, the U.S. and European pressure have persuaded some allies to discourage Abbas from proceeding with his U.N. adventure.

At his last news conference in Ramallah before traveling to New York to join the Palestinian delegation there to prepare the final documents for the statehood application, Shtayeh denied what he called “rumors” that the Palestinian Authority was backing down under Arab pressure.

He insisted that the plan was still on, and with the Security Council, not the General Assembly. He said Abbas was going to submit the application to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a couple of days before speaks before the General Assembly on Sept. 23. In that speech, said Shtayeh, Abbas would "ask the member states to recognize Palestine as a state on the 1967 borders."

However, as the U.S. has already announced that it would veto such a proposal if it comes up for discussion at the Security Council, Shtayeh said that this initiative was not a one-time effort. The Palestinians may resubmit the application a second, third or tenth time until it finally succeeds, he said.

That process, as in Oslo, may take years.

-- Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank

Editor’s note: This post is from analyst Lahcen Achy with the Carnegie Middle East Center. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Babylon & Beyond endorses the positions of Carnegie analysts, nor does Carnegie endorse the positions of The Times or its blog.

The imminent fall of the Kadafi regime in Libya presents an unprecedented opportunity to completely reshape the country’s policies. Since 1969, the country has suffered from excessive centralization of power, the absence of modern state institutions, mismanagement of its massive oil revenues, inconsistent economic policies and an unfriendly business environment.

In the post-revolution era, Libya’s six million people are hoping for a better future after 42 years of a predatory and repressive regime. But they face tremendous political, economic and social challenges. Unlike in Tunisia or in Egypt, political structures and state institutions need to emerge from scratch. Libya's future depends on the ability of its new leaders to address seven critical issues.

First, Libyans have to face the human and economic cost of the six-month war and restore security and basic services throughout the country. Such moves will create confidence in the new government. 

Second, the country needs to begin the process of creating a constitution that makes the government accountable to the Libyan people. Such a framework would need to define power sharing rules to overcome potential post-revolution conflicts between the country's two most powerful regions: Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. The framework will also need to mitigate center-periphery frictions by creating an institutional basis for a decentralized political system that promotes regional development. Most important is to ensure that regional and local institutions are offered adequate technical support and the fiscal resources to deliver services. 

Third, Libya needs to successfully harness its oil resources and create a transparent system to prevent conflict over them. The energy sector accounts for 60% of the country's gross domestic product and more than 95% of the government's revenue. Poor management and a lack of checks and balances in the past limited the level of development in the country. The majority did not reap the benefits from the end of international sanctions in 2004. Kadafi’s own children and extended family seized most economic opportunities and amassed large fortunes. Better and more transparent management of Libya’s $168 billion of frozen assets, once released, will improve economic performance and create trust and confidence. In the medium term, Libya's oil sector faces a number of critical issues, including the pace and scope of investments in the sector. 

Fourth, Libyans need to overcome the economic legacy of the past, characterized by an excessive reliance on oil revenue and an entrenched network of patronage. The former regime’s economic approach reflected Kadafi’s obsession with security and stability. The new leaders are likely to face stiff resistance from individuals and groups that benefited under the former regime.

Fifth, the country will need a comprehensive development strategy to encourage private-sector entrepreneurship. The Kadafi regime feared that an open and diversified economy would allow for new power centers not dependent on patronage. As in many countries where the state played an overwhelming role, the challenge is to reduce its own role for the benefit of private initiatives. The new Libya needs to provide sufficient guarantees for the private sector to flourish. Beyond macroeconomic stability, the country needs an effective bureaucracy that supports investors, a dynamic banking sector that ensures access to finance, a clear regulatory framework that protects property rights and prevents anti-competitive practices, an impartial judiciary system that enforces contracts, and adequate mechanisms to promote the social trust that has been lacking for more than four decades. 

Sixth, Libya will have to address underlying problems in the labor sector. One-third of the country's primary school teachers and nurses on government payrolls are inactive but enjoy monthly salaries, creating an inefficient “welfare employment” situation. There is also massive over-employment in the banking, utility and hotel sectors. There is also a shortage of adequate education and training. Outside of top institutions like the national oil company and the central bank, the country lacks professional managers and exposure to international standards. 

Seventh, the new government should mobilize opportunities for regional and international cooperation. The new government will need international support to set an economic recovery plan and begin implementing political and economic reforms. Such a plan, however, must involve local stakeholders and must reflect the realities of Libya’s situation — and not simply an approach that worked in other countries. And in light of the country's history and social fabric, Libyans could be skeptical of extended foreign presence in the country. 

The end of Kadafi’s regime opens tremendous opportunities for the country’s future. The transition to achieving a better future for all Libyans, however, set off multiple challenges that should not be underestimated. 

-- Lahcen Achy in Beirut

Lahcen Achy is a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

The body of well-known Syrian opposition activist Ghaith Mattar was delivered to his family over the weekend by security forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar Assad. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Mattar was on the run for three months before he was arrested in a suburb of Damascus early last week. 

Mattar, 26, originally from the Damascus suburb of Daraya, was admired for his innovative ideas when it came to the organization of peaceful protests in his town, activists said. 

In a statement released Sunday night, the prominent activist network Local Coordination Committees, along with four other networks, condemned the "slaying" of Mattar, accusing security forces of torturing the young man for three days between his arrest and the day his body was handed over to his family. 

"Gaith and his friends in Daraya were advocates of nonviolent struggle. He was the one who came up with the initiative of facing security fire and violence with bottles of water, flowers and bouquets," the statement said. 

Yahya Sharbaji, also an activist from Daraya, was arrested with Mattar and allegedly killed by security forces. 

The testimony of Egypt's top general in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak was postponed Sunday after the military leader said he was too busy with national security matters, including repercussions from a mob attack on the Israeli embassy over the weekend.

The much anticipated testimony of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the country's ruling military council and a confidant of Mubarak's for decades, was rescheduled for Sept. 24. The delay came less than two days after protesters broke into the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Three people died and more than 1,000 were injured when demonstrators clashed with security forces.

The incident raised questions over the ability of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to control unrest in a country increasingly angry over the slow pace of political and economic reform since Mubarak fell from power in February.  

Many Egyptians have been skeptical that Tantawi and his chief of staff, Sami Anan, would ever testify at Mubarak's trial. The former president is charged with complicity to commit murder in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during last winter's revolution. When the general didn't appear in court Sunday, it seemed to confirm suspicions.  

“Now we are waiting to see if Tantawi and Anan will testify and what they will say, but any further postponements will surely raise mine and other people’s concerns. SCAF shouldn’t expect anything but rage if they don’t testify,” said Mohamed Maher, a 31-year-old dentist.

The prosecution is counting on Tantawi’s testimony to rescue its case after nine prosecution witnesses last week failed to provide evidence that Mubarak and his interior minister, Habib Adbli, ordered the crackdown that left more than 800 people dead between Jan. 25 and Feb. 11. But many analysts doubt the general will say anything to damage his former boss.

Tantawi, who was Mubarak’s defense minister for 20 years before taking over the country’s rule on Feb. 11, said in a televised speech in May that during the revolution, SCAF members met and decided against shooting protesters. Civil rights lawyers have suggested that those comments indicated that the Mubarak regime did hand down orders for security forces to shoot protesters. 

“I’m very pleased that Judge Refaat stood strong and set new dates for Tantawi and Anan to personally show up for testimony in court,” Tamer Gomaa, a lawyer representing families of 11 killed during the revolution, told Los Angeles Times.

Judge Refaat earlier decided to ban any media coverage of testimony by Tantawi, Anan and former Vice President Omar Suleiman.   

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt's ruling military council. Credit: Reuters

The Palestinian support group for the United Nations bid to gain statehood recognition announced Saturday a series of activities that would reach a peak when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 23.

Abbas said on Thursday that he will be arriving in New York on Sept. 19 and that soon after he gets there he will meet with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to hand him the Palestinian application seeking full membership in the U.N.

The application will go first to the U.N. Security Council, which is supposed to make the recommendation for the U.N. General Assembly for accepting Palestine as a member state. However, the U.S. has already officially announced that it will veto it, which means the application will be quickly buried.

Abbas did not say what will be his next step, but he is expected to be going for U.N. nonmember state, which should be easy to get at the General Assembly where the U.S. does not have veto power, and which would allow him to join all sorts of U.N. organizations, including the International Criminal Court, UNESCO, UNICEF, the Human Right Council, and many, many others.

The State Department’s expected announcement did not dampen Palestinian spirit to show support for their leaders as they fight for U.N. recognition and membership.

The popular support group, Palestine State 194, in reference to becoming the U.N. member state No. 194 if it succeeds, called on Palestinians everywhere to raise the Palestinian flag on their cars and homes and on everything within their reach starting Sunday.

Mass rallies are planned in West Bank city centers on Sept. 21, when the General Assembly opens, and Sept. 23, when Abbas is scheduled to make his plea for world recognition before the world body.

But before that, and on Friday, protest marches have been called for in the West Bank villages were Palestinians and their international and Israeli supporters hold weekly protests against Israel’s construction of sections of a barrier that goes right through their village land to separate them from Jewish settlements built on Palestinian-owned land.

The next day, Saturday, calls were made on Palestinians to join the women's movement and march to the Israeli army-controlled Qalandia checkpoint, half way between Ramallah and Jerusalem, also in a show of protest against the Israeli occupation.

In the Thursday meeting at his Ramallah headquarters with members of the foreign press in Israel, Abbas made it clear that he will not tolerate any act of violence by Palestinians during their rallies in support of his effort to get U.N. recognition.

“We will hold rallies in the city centers,” he said. “But we will not allow any one to reach contact points with the Israelis. This will not be tolerated. Even if Israel comes to our cities, we will not fight back.”

Abbas’ turn-the-other-cheek approach is supposed to convince the international community that he wants freedom and liberation for his people Gandhi-style.

While he said he can guarantee that there will not be any act of violence by Palestinians, he could not guarantee that there will not be acts of violence by Israelis, whether from soldiers or settlers, against Palestinians.

Jewish settlers in the West Bank have been carrying out almost daily attacks against Palestinians on West Bank roads and in their villages.

Settlers have set fire to a mosque in the northern West Bank, wrote anti-Islam hate graffiti on mosques and university walls, attacked fields, setting fully grown olive trees on fire or cutting them down as the olive harvest season nears when thousands of Palestinian families earn their entire year’s living from the olive harvest, and threw rocks at Palestinians commuting on West Bank roads, damaging cars.

The U.S., on Friday, joined world condemnation of escalated settlers’ violence. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland described these acts as “dangerous and provocative attacks.” She said that “such hateful actions are never justified,” stating that “those responsible should be arrested and subject to the full force of the law.”

ALSO:

Some Syrians decry Arab League chief's visit with Assad

EGYPT: Thousands in Tahrir Square angry at slow pace of reforms

SYRIA: Protesters call for international protection

-- Maher Abukhater in Ramallah, West Bank

Photo: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee in the West Bank. Credit: Majdi Mohammed / Associated Press

The secretary-general of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, visited Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday in an effort to end the bloody crackdown on anti-regime protesters that has gripped Syria for months and led to international condemnation.

Elaraby was supposed to visit Damascus on Wednesday but was asked by Syrian officials to postpone his visit. On that day, security forces carried out a military offensive on the central restive city of Homs, killing at least 20 people.

The Arab League has been more or less soft in its criticism of Assad during the five-month-long clampdown, which has according to the United Nations left more than 2,000 dead. The Syrian president has largely ignored international pressure to rein in his security forces.

According to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, SANA, Assad and Elaraby agreed on certain steps for reform to be taken in Syria. 

Elaraby "asserted that the Arab League cared deeply about the safety and stability, rejected foreign interference in Syrian internal affairs, and promised to stand by Syria during this difficult time," SANA reported. 

Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and the president's media advisor, Bouthaina Shaaban, were also present at the meeting. Syrian pro-democracy protesters expressed dissatisfaction with Elaraby's visit, finding the Arab League too passive in embracing revolutions and pro-democracy movements that have shaken the region in what is called the Arab Spring.

"They criticize us about asking for foreign assistance and foreign protection, but can they blame us? Look at our own Arab leaders and our own politicians, they are on the sidelines. They don't care. They would sell us for cheap," said Lina, a student in Damascus. 

Friday, dubbed the day of "international protection," saw another round of popularly attended anti-regime demonstrations across several cities in Syria, which left at least 11 dead, according to the prominent activist network, the Local Coordination Committees. 

"More than 10 people die every day; this has been the bloodiest two months so far. The most the Arab League has voiced is concern. We aren't holding our breath for them to save us, said Majed, a legal activist in Homs. The city has been the scene of some of the bloodiest days in the last two weeks.

"The Arab League wants to stand next the regime to show Arab pride and solidarity. What are we? We are Arabs too and we are dying because of this police state," Majed said.

Mass protests and the defections of soldiers have carried on despite continuous impunity on the part of security forces.

"We don't care if anyone is behind us. When I began protesting five months ago I knew no one was going to help us, and especially not the Arab League. The Arab League is just as bad as our regime. The previous secretary-general was there for decades before he finally left his post," said Anwar, a shopkeeper in Hama. 

Hama was the site of one of the most controversial and higher-ranking defections to date. Two weeks ago Adnan Mohammad Bakkour resigned as attorney general of Hama in protest of the regime's clampdown on peaceful protesters.

He is allegedly in Cyprus with a officer and forensic scientist who defected. 

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Death of popular Sunni cleric stirs unrest in Aleppo

Syrian protesters call for international protection [VIDEO]

Homs hit hard in hunt for defectors, activists say [VIDEO]

-- Roula Hajjar in Beirut

Photo: Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, meets Arab League secretary-general Nabil Elaraby in Damascus on Saturday. Credit: Syrian Arab News Agency.

Thousands of Egyptians returned to Tahrir Square on Friday, calling on the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces to fulfill the demands of the revolution that overthrew former President Hosni Mubarak.   

Organized by the National Front for Change and April 6th Youth Movement, the rally, which was boycotted by the nation's main Islamist parties, was the first in Tahrir since a sit-in in July and early August that lasted for more than three weeks and made similar demands.

Participating movements agreed on a list of eight demands, including an end to military tribunals for civilians, a commitment from the ruling council to a time frame for transferring power to a civilian government, and amending the elections law ahead of the vote for a new parliament in November. The protest slogan was "Correcting the path of the revolution."

With some of the demonstrators' demands unchanged from what protesters have been seeking since toppling Mubarak’s regime on Feb.11, Friday's rally reflected a growing dismay over Egypt's political future, the pace of reforms and the ruling generals.

"SCAF had everyone's support in February and they should have taken a number of revolutionary steps to reorganize Egypt, but they didn't," said Sayed Naguib, a 37-year-old owner of a shop selling communications accessories. "SCAF members and the military in general were the best of the worst in Mubarak's regime, but it seems to me that they still have Mubarak's way of slow thinking."

Naguib and others in Tahrir said the parliamentary elections law put in place by the ruling generals after the revolution will easily allow remnants of the dissolved ruling National Democratic Party to win new legislative seats. 

"A distorted parliament will have severe negative effects on the country's future," said Nasser Sami, another protester.

Rights advocates claim that 12,000 civilians have been sentenced by military tribunals after the council took over the country and arrested bloggers, activists and protesters. The military has promised to end such trials once the 31-year-old emergency laws are abolished, but many activists are skeptical.

"SCAF has yet to announce when emergency laws will be terminated, and we don't know for how long these military trials will continue for. This is not what we carried out our revolution for," Sami said.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Protesters in Tahrir Square on Friday. Credit: AFP