Clashes were reported in Libya, sandwiched between Egypt and Tunisia, while new protests erupted in Bahrain, Yemen, Iran and Iraq on Wednesday.

The latest demonstrations against long-serving rulers came after U.S. President Barack Obama 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."

Young people were able to watch uprisings in other countries on satellite television or the internet, and to communicate with like-minded activists on social networks.

Protests spread across Yemen on Wednesday demanding an end to the president's three decades in power, and a 21-year-old demonstrator died in clashes with police in the south, witnesses and medical sources said.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh was quoted by the state news agency as saying the unrest was a foreign plot to foment chaos in Arab countries. 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.

Reuters