Summary: The State Department is telling American citizens to leave Syria as soon as they can and ordered some personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus to depart the country, as the Syrian government steps up a brutal crackdown against pro-reform demonstrators. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 25, 2010, Aubrey Immelman suggested that reports of Afghan schoolgirls “knocked unconscious” or made ill by suspected Taliban poison gas attacks on their schools should be investigated as possible cases of mass hysteria (mass psychogenic illness).

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Summary: Iraq’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, says his country’s security forces are ready to protect Middle East leaders who will attend the Arab League summit in May 2011, even as bombings and shootings across Iraq killed 20 people, including four policemen. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 11, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Sarah Palin criticized Barack Obama’s foreign policy on the eve of the president’s nuclear counterproliferation summit focused on keeping nukes out of the hands of terrorists.

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Summary: The surging unrest in numerous countries in the Middle East and northern Africa is a complex and fast-moving story. To help make sense of it, msnbc.com asked experts to share their insights on the protests, answer readers’ questions, and explain why what happens in that volatile region matters. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 31, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iraq’s political disarray had deepened, with potential kingmaker Muqtada al-Sadr withholding his support from the two biggest election winners — the blocs of Ayad Allawi and Nouri al-Maliki — and saying he would ask his supporters to make their choice in a referendum.

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Summary: The U.N. Security Council has authorized “all necessary measures” including strikes by air and sea to protect civilians from attacks by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 17, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iraq remained devastated by bombings, assassinations, and corruption.

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Summary: Heavy automatic weapons fire erupted in the Libyan capital Tripoli, the first such outbreak in Muammar Gaddafi’s main stronghold in a two-week-old insurrection against his 41-year-old rule as rebels advance from the east on Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 5, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that John Patrick Bedell, who opened fire at the Pentagon entrance and was killed in a shootout with Pentagon police, was fascinated with conspiracy theories, computer programming, libertarian economics, and the science of warfare.

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Summary: The Iraqi capital of Baghdad is virtually locked down, with soldiers deployed across the city searching protesters trying to enter Liberation Square and closing off the plaza and side streets with razor wire. The heavy security presence reflects the concern of Iraqi officials that anti-government demonstrations in Iraq could gain traction as they did in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 24, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that more than eight years after the Taliban was toppled from power, the number of U.S. military fatalities in the Afghanistan war was nearing 1,000, a grim milestone in a resurgent conflict claiming the lives of an increasing number of troops who had survived previous tours of duty in Iraq.

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Summary: Iran’s president says he is certain the wave of unrest in the Middle East will spread to Europe and North America, bringing an end to governments he accused of oppressing and humiliating people. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose own country resorted to violence to disperse an opposition rally earlier this month, also condemned Libya’s use of force against demonstrators, calling it “grotesque.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 23, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called on his supporters to take back the streets from anti-government protesters and vowed to fight on and die as a “martyr.” Gadhafi spoke as part of the east of Libya fell to the protesters and was reportedly no longer controlled by the central government. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 22, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iran said it planned to build two new uranium enrichment facilities deep inside mountains to protect them from attack, a new challenge to Western powers trying to curb Tehran’s nuclear program for fear it is aimed at making weapons.

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Summary: After anti-government unrest spread to the Libyan capital and protesters seized military bases and weapons, Moammar Gadhafi’s son, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, went on state television to proclaim that his father remained in charge with the army’s backing and would “fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 20, 2010, Aubrey Immelman featured a rundown of current conspiracy theories and prevalent political paranoia, with special emphasis on conspiracy-theorist-in-chief Michele Bachmann.

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Summary: About 2,000 demonstrators attacked government offices in the southern Iraqi province of
Wasit, ripping up pavement stones to hurl at a regional council headquarters in a protest over shoddy public services, leaving dozens of people injured. In the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, hundreds of demonstrators also thronged the streets demanding better services. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 16, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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