See also Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers (22 April)
Our regular feature in which EA readers bring in the latest news and stories from the Syrian crisis....
Syria Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 17:36 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Bahraini economist and activist Ala'a Shehabi, arrested this afternoon (see 1609 GMT), speaking on Friday about protest, politics, and rights
See also Saudi Arabia Opinion: "The Era of Religious Guardianship is Over"
Bahrain Video: "Free Bird" --- A Daughter's Animated Conversation with Hunger Striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja
Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers
Saturday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Is Hunger Striker Alkhawaja Near Death?
2359 GMT: We close todays coverage with this picture of Dr Ala'a Shehabi, taken shortly after her release:
Activist Alaa Shahabi has been released and shes SUMOOD with Ali Al Aali and they deportingChanel4 crew #Bahrain twitter.com/jihankazerooni…
— jihan (@jihankazerooni) April 22, 2012
2330 GMT: Dr Ala'a Shehabi, Al A'ali and the Channel 4 News team, arrested earlier in Bahrain, have all been freed.
Jonathan Miller tweeted his release first:
I've been released with my crew. Breakneck drive to Bahrain airport in police van. Being deported now.
— Jonathan Miller (@millerC4) April 22, 2012
Shortly after, Maryam AlKhawaja confirmed Ala'a and Ali's release, via fellow BCHR activist Said Yousif:
. @alaashehabi and Ali Alaali have just been released via @SAIDYOUSIF #bahrain #FEB14 #F1
— Maryam Alkhawaja (@MARYAMALKHAWAJA) April 22, 2012
Miller also added this troubling coda:
Bahraini police refused to give us back our cameras and computers.
— Jonathan Miller (@millerC4) April 22, 2012
United Nations observers, accompanied by members of the Free Syrian Army, walking in the town of Rastan in Homs Province today --- the crowd chants, "The people want to topple the regime" and "The people want to execute the president"
See also Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers (21 April)
Our regular feature in which EA readers bring in the latest news and stories from the Syrian crisis....
Syria 
Waleed Abu AlkhairAt one of the salon gatherings, I had the pleasing epiphany that religious hard-liners have begun to lose control of a young generation that is hungry for freedom. A brave young man responded passionately to clerics whom I had naively invited to participate in the salon and who had threatened him for supporting freedom of expression and belief, saying: “Who are you? Who are you to inflict your religious guardianship upon us? We are free, free to say what we like. You are just like us, not better. The era of religious guardianship is over.”
There was a stunned silence.
See also Iran Document: The Repression, Abuse, and Execution of Iranian Kurds
The Latest from Iran (21 April): Getting It Right on Politics and Nuclear Talks
2040 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. President Ahmadinejad has used the set-piece of a visit from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to put out the line of Tehran's close relations with Baghdad in a challenge to the West and Israel:
If Tehran and Baghdad are powerful and dignified, there will be no place in the region for the enemies of nations, including the US and the Zionist regime. “The hegemonic powers that have been slapped by the two nations are trying to keep countries like Iran and Iraq weak in order to bring the entire region under their domination and control by creating dissention and sowing discord.
2010 GMT: Spin Watch. An instructive story about how Iranian State media re-packages economic news to find the "positive"....
Earlier today (see 1257 GMT) we reported the finding of the International Monetary Fund that Iran's inflation rate in 2011 was twice that of other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Well, although that story was in Iran's Aftab News, you won't find it in Fars or State outlets IRNA and Press TV. Instead, IRNA features a message from Tehran to the IMF:
Iran as one of the co-founders of International Monetary Found expects a supportive role from this organization, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Mahmoud Bahmani said here on Friday.
Bahmani made the remark in a meeting with the IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on the sidelines of semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington.
Fars has almost the exact same story.
Now watch as today's Press TV, citing Fars, suddenly turns the story, "Iran Economic Reforms Positive, Constructive: IMF Chief":
Managing director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the economic reforms carried out by the Iranian government in recent years, especially the Subsidy Reform Plan, have been positive and constructive.
In a meeting with Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Mahmoud Bahmani on the sidelines of semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, Christine Lagarde expressed hope that Western sanctions against Iran's central bank would be lifted.
Lagarde also indicated her concern about the fluctuations in global oil prices and their impact on the world economic growth.
We can find no record anywhere of Lagarde making these alleged remarks.
The five Iranians executed in May 2010Soon it will be two years since the executions of
four Kurdish activists shocked the international community. One of
those executed was the teacher Farzad Kamangar, whose plight had been
the focus of an international campaign. Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, and Shirin Alamhouli were also hung, as was political prisoner Mehdi Eslamian.
This month the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) details the repression of the Kurdish-Iranian community and the targeting of Kurdish-Iranian activists in a 70-page report, “On the Margins: Arrest, Imprisonment and Execution of Kurdish Activists in Iran Today". The document reveals reveals a disturbing and shocking pattern of repression and violence by the Islamic Republic of Iran against its Kurdish community.
Witness Bahrain illustrates a story told by activist Zainab al-Akhawaja after a recent phone conversation with her detained father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, the founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.
Abdulhadi, held in a military hospital, is on Day 74 of his hunger strike.
Saturday, April 21, 2012 at 19:31 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran A cameraman films Bahraini police surrounding the body of Salah Habib Abbas Alqattan, apparently slain by security forces --- near the end of the clip, a shot appears to be fired at him
See also Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers
Friday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protest Here, Protest There, Protest Everywhere?
2228 GMT: We close today's coverage with two contrasting images from Bahrain....
Mohammed Hasan, a "fixer" for foreign journalists covering stories in the kingdom, has been released from detention after he was seized this morning:
But this photograph (Warning: Graphic) appears to confirm that protester Salah Habib Abbas Alqattan was killed by birdshot fired by security forces:
See also Iran Snap Analysis: The New Battle Within Tehran Over the Nuclear Talks
The Latest from Iran (20 April): A Golden Sign of Trouble?
1855 GMT: All-Is-Well Alert. Little did we know how our Caption Competition, "Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani --- Best Friends Forever?", would capture the spirit of the day....
Mehr proclaims, "Rafsanjani Greets Ahmadinejad's attandance in EC [Expediency Council] Meeting", noting that it was the first time in three years that the President had troubled himself to attend a Council session.
Mehr further notes, "The secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, presented a report of the negotiations that were held between Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) in Istanbul on April 14."
You might have thought that President Mahmoud Rafsanjani and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani are bitter political rivals, but here they are sharing a special moment at today's Expediency Council session.
The caption is up to you.
