Egypt-inspired protests gain pace across region

>PARIS (Reuters) - Anti-government protests inspired by popular revolts that toppled rulers in Tunisia and Egypt are gaining pace around the Middle East and North Africa despite political and economic concessions by nervous governments. Clashes were reported in tightly controlled oil producer Libya, sandwiched between Egypt and Tunisia, while new protests erupted in Bahrain, Yemen and Iran on Wednesday.The latest demonstrations against long-serving rulers came after U.S. President Barack Obama, commenting on the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, declared: "The world is changing...if you are governing these countries, you've got to get out ahead of change, you can't be behind the curve."With young people able to watch pro-democracy uprisings in other countries on satellite television or the Internet, and to communicate with like-minded activists on social networks hard for the secret police to control, governments across the region have grounds to fear contagion.Hundreds of opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in power since 1969, clashed with police and government supporters in the eastern city of Benghazi overnight, a witness and local media said.Reports from the port city, 1,000 km (600 miles) east of the capital Tripoli, said protesters armed with stones and petrol bombs set fire to vehicles and fought with police in a rare outbreak of unrest in the oil-exporting country.The riot in Libya's second city was sparked by the arrest of human rights activist Fethi Tarbel, who has worked to free political prisoners, Quryna newspaper said.Gaddafi's opponents used the Facebook social network to call for protests across Libya on Thursday.In a possible concession to the protesters, Libya will free 110 members of the banned militant organization the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group from Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim prison on Wednesday, another human rights activist said.POLITICAL, ECONOMIC CONCESSIONSIn Yemen, a 21-year old protester died from gunshot wounds after fierce clashes broke out between police and demonstrators in the southern port town of Aden, his father said, as unrest spread across the Arabian Peninsula state.Mohammed Ali Alwani was among two people hit as police fired shots into the air to try to break up around 500 protesters.In the Yemeni capital Sanaa at least 800 anti-government protesters marched against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a U.S. ally in the fight against al Qaeda.In power for more than 30 years, Saleh has pledged to step down when his term expires in 2013 and offered dialogue with the opposition, but radical protesters are demanding he go now.In Bahrain, protesters poured into the capital of the Gulf island kingdom, Manama, for a third successive day to mourn a demonstrator killed in clashes with security forces on Tuesday. 1 2 Next World Tunisia Egypt Tweet this Share this Link this Digg this Email Reprints.