Activists in Yemen, Jordan, Algeria and even Albania  took to the streets this weekend demanding democratic reforms in their countries.  

Some expressed explicit support for the Tunisian people, calling for similar uprisings in their own countries. Others were more reserved. Jordanians directed their anger at the prime minister rather than trying to oust the royal family.

The popular demonstrations drew comparisons to the Tunisian protest movement that has captivated the world. But opinions remain divided on whether these events constitute a real threat to the ruling powers in those countries.

"The regime will always look strong until the day it collapses," Nadim Shehadi, from the London-based think tank Chatham House, told Babylon & Beyond. "It cannot look weak, because the minute it looks weak it is dead already."

A journalist accused of acting as a media advisor to Al Qaeda in Yemen was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday, but colleagues and advocacy groups are calling foul, accusing the government of seeking to suppress press freedoms.

Abdul Elah Haidar Sha'ee, 34, is well known for his coverage of militant Islamist groups, particularly Al Qaeda, scoring exclusive interviews with several high-ranking figures in the movement, including the presumed leader of the local branch of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Naser Abdel-Karim Wahishi, and the American-born cleric Anwar Awlaki.

"We will work in a number of ways to expose this ruling, and we call on all political parties, civil society and human rights organizations to condemn it and stand behind Al Sha'ee and escalate the demonstrations for his release" Jamal Anaam, head of the freedoms committee of the Yemeni journalists syndicate, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday (Arabic link).

Sha'ee was arrested in August along with his colleague, 28-year-old Abdul Karim Shami, who received a sentence of two years.

A U.S. official has confirmed that an American citizen of Somali origin who claims he was beaten by security agents in Kuwait while they were interrogating him about his travels in Yemen and Somalia is being held in detention in the American-backed Arabian Peninsula country.

State Department spokesman Phillip J. Crowley offered few details about the case other than to say that the man, 18-year-old Gulet Mohamed from Virigina, was receiving U.S. consular assistance. Crowley denied that Mohamed was arrested by Kuwaiti authorities on behalf of the U.S.

"I’m not at liberty to say a great deal," he told reporters Friday. "We are aware of his detention, we have provided him consular services ... he was not detained at the behest of the United States government."

According to a report, Mohamed -- who said he was studying Arabic in Kuwait -- was taken into custody around Dec. 20 when he went to the airport there to have his Kuwaiti visa renewed. Mohamed had done the procedure every three months since he arrived in Kuwait in fall 2009, but this time he didn't get his visa stamped. Instead, he said he was hauled into a room and interrogated for hours by unknown officials before being blindfolded, handcuffed and driven to another location.

At a time when the poorest Arab nation is torn by internal conflicts and escalating threats from Al Qaeda, soccer's Gulf Cup is calming Yemen's spirit and easing its financial woes.

The Yemeni minister of tourism said this week that the tournament, taking place between Nov.22 and Dec.5, has drawn about 20,000 fans from neighboring countries in the Arab peninsula to watch games in the cities of Aden and Abin.

"Revenues from hosting the Gulf Cup have so far exceeded the $600-million margin. We consider this tournament to become the future gate of Yemeni tourism," said the minister, Nabil Al Faqih.

[Updated at 9:52 a.m.: Death toll revised and reference to Yemen media report report of alleged Al Qaeda responsibility added.]

A car bomb exploded along a procession of Shiite Muslims in northern Yemen, killing at least 17 people and raising concerns that Al Qaeda was seeking to exploit religious differences in a country engulfed in rebellion.

The blast occurred in a rugged province where the government and Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, are under a tense ceasefire in fighting that has killed hundreds and displaced thousands. No one claimed immediate responsibility but a tribal leader told Yemen media that Al Qaeda carried out the attack as retaliation against the Houthis for detaining five Al Qaeda operatives earlier this year.

As Yemen steps up its fight against Al Qaeda, the group is finding plenty of cover in rural areas where the army has little control and local separatists are often engaged in their own battles against U.S.-backed government forces.

On Sunday, the Yemeni army continued a series of air strikes in south Yemen after an ambush on a military convoy (link in Arabic) Saturday killed at least four Yemeni soldiers and a number of suspected Al Qaeda militants. The number of casualties from Sunday's bombing could not be confirmed, but the satellite channel Al Jazeera reported that "a number" had been killed and wounded.

The channel showed footage of Yemeni military trucks rolling through the dusty streets of a city in the Abyan province that had been the site of deadly clashes between government troops and alleged Al Qaeda militants. Sometimes, it's tricky to tell who is whom: Yemeni separatist movements are also active in a region defined by tribal allegiances and a deep disdain for the government.

Several people were injured in a pair of attacks Wednesday on another dangerous day for foreigners in the Arabian Peninsula nation of Yemen.

Arab media and diplomats reported that a shell or missile struck a vehicle carrying five British Embassy staff as it headed toward the embassy in Sana, Yemen’s capital, Wednesday morning. 

Separately, employees of the Austrian energy giant OMV were shot by a security guard at the company’s office near Sana. Agence France-Presse cited Yemeni security officials as saying one French national was killed in the attack, but Dow Jones cited OMV as saying two people were injured and no one killed.

Soaring food prices during the annual fasting month are nothing new to Yemenis, but this year's unusually high price hikes and the continued devaluation of the national currency are forcing many Yemenis to cut their Ramadan shopping short.

"I couldn’t buy all the Ramadan supplies I used to," Faris Azzan, a 31-year-old engineer  in Sanaa, told Babylon & Beyond. "I had to manage with only the necessary ones. The habit of inviting family and relatives for Ramadan dinner gatherings was canceled this year too."

He said that the value of his salary in Yemeni rials has decreased by 30% due to the recent increase in prices and drop in the rial against the dollar.

Hours after tribal leaders reached a truce in northern Yemen on Sunday, it was broken as clashes erupted in the fighting between government-backed clans and Houthi rebels that had killed more than 60 people in recent days, according to tribal sources and media reports.

The latest round of bloodshed had begun last week in the tribe-dominated provinces of Amran and Saada governorates after the government accused the Houthi tribal alliance of assassinating a pro-government sheik and his son. The truce announced Saturday quickly collapsed in a dispute over positions held by tribal fighters. Four people were killed in Sunday’s clashes, which came after President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he did not want renewed fighting between government troops and Houthi rebels.

The quickly broken truce came after the Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad ibn Khalifa al Thani, flew to Yemen last week offering to resurrect a peace deal brokered in Doha in 2008. The agreement, which includes an end to hostilities and amnesty to rebels, was welcomed by some groups but greeted with skepticism by Hassan Zaid, a politician with ties to the Houthis.

Read more: "Northern tribes reach a truce in clashes that have killed at least 60"

-- Alice Fordham in Sana, Yemen

Tribal chiefs reached a truce Sunday to stop fighting in northern Yemen, where clashes between government-backed clans and Houthi rebels have killed at least 60 people. It is unclear if the agreement will hold – cease-fires in the region are frequently ignored.

The latest round of bloodshed broke out last week in the tribally dominated provinces of Amran and Saada governorates after the government accused the Houthi tribal alliance of assassinating a pro-government sheik and his son. 

The volatile region on the border with Saudi Arabia has undergone six outbursts of fighting since 2004 as government troops and their supporters have sought to defeat the Houthis, a Zaidi offshoot of Shiite Islam that claims ill-treatment by the government and controls vast swaths of territory.

Saudi Arabia was drawn into the fighting last year when the rebels crossed the border and attacked Saudi guards. The kingdom claimed victory over the Houthis after months of air strikes that left villages in rubble and scattered unexploded ordnance across the rugged terrain.  

When 20-year-old university student Layla Asda decided to wear the face-covering veil niqab, her father went ballistic. A relatively secular artist, he told her that the black cloak made her look like an old woman. 

Still she continued to wear it, even though her family opposed it. 

As the burka controversy rages on in Europe, some women in the Middle East feel inclined to speak out about why they choose to wear the all-covering veil.

From under the black garment that covers everything on her face except for her brown, almond-shaped eyes, Asda, who is an English major at Sana University and is an intern at a Yemeni English-language newspaper, told Babylon & Beyond that wearing the veil makes her feel like she fits in. Not only does the niqab serve as protection on the bustling streets of the Yemeni capital, but it also allows her to be comfortably incognito.

Ironically, she said in a recent interview, it makes her feel more free.

When did you start wearing the niqab?

I've worn it for four years now. I started wearing it after high school because it's more of an open community at university. I freaked out a bit. I really wanted to wear the veil because all my friends at school started to wear it. Their families didn’t push them. They were excited to wear it. So I went to my family and asked them "What if I wear the niqab?"

Abraham Zahry loves his home country but says he finds it hard to keeping living there. He is now considering what many of his fellow Jews have done in the last year: Leave and settle elsewhere. 

“I might go to America, Canada, or even Israel," the 26-year-old told Babylon & Beyond. "I think America would be good. Education, business, everything is easier for Jews there."

Last year, assaults against the country’s Jewish community increased to such a level that American and Jewish organizations flew more than 100 Jews out. In one attack, a Jewish man was murdered outside his home. Many others have reportedly been threatened.

Most recently, Britain's Independent newspaper reported in mid-April that the British government is about to sign a secret deal which would allow some Yemeni Jews who have been subject to severe persecution to move to the United Kingdom.

Zahry, who stands out with his long locks of hair hanging from the side of his head, says he is sometimes verbally harassed on the streets.

“They call me things like Jew and dog,” he said.