Bahrain Live Coverage: Is the Regime Fostering Sectarian Conflict?

See also Bahrain Special: How Regime Supporters Used a New York Times Reporter (Again) To Denounce the Opposition
Bahrain/Egypt Video & Transcript: Nabeel Rajab and Alaa Abd-El Fattah with Julian Assange
Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "Last Chance to Avoid Civil War"?
Tuesday's Bahrain Live Coverage: Countering the Regime's Allegations Against Nabeel Rajab

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0851 GMT: Wafi Al-Majed, husband of detained activist Zainab Alkhawaja, updates on her case after a brief court hearing this morning:

Zainab case postponed to 15 May. And they want the ppl of #bahrain to be silent! In your dreams. Its either our way, or the highway. Choose!

— Wafi Al-Majed (@fetusbahrain) May 9, 2012

0529 GMT: Amnesty International has declared Nabeel Rajab, the director of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, a "prisoner of conscience". It called for his immediate release after his arrest last Saturday at Bahrain's international airport.

Prosecutors have claimed that Rajab fomented violence through social media. His lawyer said about eight insulting tweets were mentioned in a court hearing on Sunday, which gave Rajab a seven-day detention order.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "Last Chance to Avoid Civil War"?

2001 GMT: Syria. The most important factor to consider in Syria is the large and energized opposition, most of which has remained peaceful, but firmly in favor of the fall of the regime:

large protest in Izzaz, Aleppo province chanting "the people want to execute Bashar" youtube.com/watch?v=NgVlje… #Syria

— edward dark (@edwardedark) May 9, 2012

1950 GMT: Egypt. An administrative court in Cairo has banned the Presidential elections scheduled for May 23-24, "citing doubts over the constitutionality of a law banning former regime figures from participating in political life, said the website of the state-run daily Al-Ahram."

The initial headline is a shock, but at least one Middle East expert suggests that the news is not as important as it seems, as it is a non-binding decision by a lower court:

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The Latest from Iran (9 May): Propaganda and Oil

See also Iran-Afghanistan Opinion: Tehran's Mistaken Posturing Over the US-Afghan Pact
The Latest from Iran (8 May): The Political Fight Over Subsidy Cuts

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2042 GMT: Parliament v. President. After the postponement yesterday of the impeachment process against Minister of Labor Abdolreza Sheikholeslami, prominent MPs Ali Motahari and Ahmad Tavakoli have declared in a statement that they will resume the effort at the start of the new Parliament next month.

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Bahrain Special: How Regime Supporters Used a New York Times Reporter (Again) To Denounce the Opposition

Drove past the Pearl Roundabout this morning...total nightmare! Filthy squalid tent camps. It's about time the government got them removed!

— Abigail Navarre (@CasaCoco) March 5, 2011

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Almost three weeks ago, in a feature and a follow-up, we revealed how three supporters of the Bahraini regime, amidst tension and clashes around the Bahrain Grand Prix, introduced themselves as the "silent majority" to three Formula 1 journalists. The men, with a great deal of success, promoted the monarchy, especially Crown Prince Salman, as the symbol of moderation and reform while characterising protesters as a violent, misguided, Iran-led minority.

Two days before that, we considered how Souad Mekhennet of The New York Times --- allowed, unlike other journalists such as her colleague like Nicholas Kristof, into the country --- proclaimed, "Bahrain Holds Grand Prix, Keeping Protesters at Bay". Indeed, she went farther, portraying the opposition as fragmented, with one faction denouncing another for the use of violence.

But could this propaganda success be extended by merging the two strands? Could Mekhennet, representing America's best-known newspaper, be introduced to people who would reinforce her denunciation of the opposition?

From Tuesday's New York Times, "Losing Faith With Protesters in Bahrain", written by Souad Mekhennet....

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Bahrain/Egypt Video & Transcript: Nabeel Rajab and Alaa Abd-El Fattah with Julian Assange

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Alaa Abd-El Fattah is a prominent Egyptian activist and blogger. Imprisoned in 2006 for 45 days by the Mubarak regime, he was also detained for more than two months by Egypt's military rulers at the end of 2011.

Nabeel Rajab is the head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. He has been detained on several occasions by the regime and is currently in prison after his arrest last Saturday.

Just before Rajab's detention, the two men were interviewed by Julian Assange for almost three hours --- Assange's organisation WikiLeaks has posted a full transcript.

Bahrain Live Coverage: Countering the Regime's Allegations Against Nabeel Rajab

Nabeel Rajab, now detained, addressing a rally in March

See also Bahrain Interview: 4 Activists Analyse "The Story That Should Be Covered"
Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Knowns Beyond the Unknowns of the Elections
Bahrain Live Coverage: Detaining Activists --- The "Twitter Excuse"

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1815 GMT: Eighteen members of the European Parliament have called on the European Union to hold the Bahrain government accountable over current and historic human rights violations, with targeted sanctions to follow if a strict deadline for reform is not met.

In a letter to Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, the MEPs noted Saturday's arrest of Nabeel Rajab as "only the latest escalation of the increasingly repressive policy by the Bahraini government against the opposition movement"

The letter, initiated by Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake, continues:

It is high time the EU speaks out against the ongoing repression of the opposition and violation of human rights. In its resolution of 15 March 2012 on human rights violations in Bahrain the Parliament called for "the immediate and unconditional release of all peaceful demonstrators, political activists, human rights defenders, doctors and paramedics, bloggers and journalists" and urged you to "hold the Bahraini Government to its promises to respect human rights, implement the necessary reforms, start independent investigations into human rights violations and ensure that those responsible are held to account."

We urge you to reiterate this call and hold the Bahraini Government to its promises, and to set a clear deadline to be met in order to prevent serious consequences. We call on you to prepare a set of targeted restrictive measures, including; a formal ban on the export of all military equipment (in particular tear gas), to ensure that no military equipment is sold or exported from within the EU to Bahrain; visa bans and asset freezes for those individuals responsible for the violent repression of peaceful protestors. It is essential for the EU's credibility in the region to show that the EU has a consistent policy towards governments violating their citizens' human rights.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Knowns Beyond the Unknowns of the Elections

See also Syria Video Feature: Having Fun with the "Elections"
Israel Feature: Netanyahu and Opposition Agree "Unity Government"
Bahrain Live Coverage: Countering the Regime's Allegations Against Nabeel Rajab
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Elections Today --- Sham or Substance?

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2007 GMT: Libya. The Libyan judiciary has begun its first civilian trial of alleged supporters of the Qaddafi regime, with five defendants accused of planning to create instability by "terrorist acts".

Ali Ashaab Mohammed, the head of the court, said the men had been arrested in Zawiyah, just west of the capital Tripoli: "Today's case ... is about a group of former regime loyalists ... They were planning to conduct terrorist acts and create instability in the country, as well as carrying weapons. Some of them confessed that they took part in fighting battles in some areas."

1954 GMT: Syria. Amid reports of gas shortages, people queue up to fill canisters in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta:

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The Latest from Iran (8 May): The Political Fight Over Subsidy Cuts

See also Iran Feature: The Battle to Become Speaker of Parliament
The Latest from Iran (7 May): The Muddle of the New Parliament

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Ali Larijani & Mahmoud Ahmadinejad1920 GMT: Oil Watch. Reinhard Baumgarten reports on Iran falling behind Iraq as oil exporter and interviews Sadegh Zibakalam about the disadvantages for Tehran in its deal to export to India.

1542 GMT: Oil Watch. More on the private manoevures behind US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's public encouragement, in her three-day visit, of India to cut oil imports from Iran....

Four Indian officials have told Bloomberg that supplies will be slashed by 20%, given the prospect of alternative supplies from Saudi Arabia.

The officials said India will lower its purchases to 14 million tons from the 17.5 million metric tons in the year ending 31 March.

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Bahrain Interview: 4 Activists Analyse "The Story That Should Be Covered" (Rajab/Mohammed/Khalaf/Shehabi)

Ala'a Shehabi with FamilyAl Jazeera English interviews Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, before his detention on Saturday; "Mohammed", an activist; Abdulhadi Khalaf, professor of sociology at Lund University in Sweden; and Ala'a Shehabi, economist and activist:

What is the story that's not being covered?

Mohammed: The scale of the ongoing and continual violations of human rights are not being explained by the media. Even compared with Syria, the numbers of Bahrainis who have been tortured and otherwise abused and killed is quite high.

Nabeel Rajab: The problem is still that most commentators focus on the Sunni-Shia split as the most important issue, when the real story is about a nation fighting for democracy and a proper political and economic system, free from corruption.

Ala'a Shehabi: If we want to get away from general terms and move to more specific stories about people's daily lives during the uprising, the way people are living with being tear-gassed on a daily basis and the long term effects of tear gas on people's health is an important story.

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Syria Video Feature: Having Fun with the "Elections"

While we were considering on Monday whether Syria's Parliamentary elections were "sham" or "substance", some inside the country were taking a more satirical approach through their own "votes":

In Aleppo Province, "voters" line up in a dusty road to select from a range of cartoon candidates while boys provide security with their pool cues:

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