Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 18:19 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Throughout the day, we have been tracking the response of the security forces to protesters gathering at Budaiya in Bahrain, with vivid pictures and videos of the use of tear gas and batons. This three-minute clip is the lengthiest and most vivid depiction of the assault:
Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 13:47 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
Egyptian military drag, and disrobe a female protester
See also Bahrain Video Special: The Police Attack Protesters at Budaiya
Friday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Beat Goes On --- Anticipating Friday's Protests
2100 GMT: One Egyptian soldier beats a protester while another soldier wields a handgun:
2005 GMT: An EA source is reporting another death from the activities of the security forces in Bahrain. Abdali Al Mawaly, a 58-year-old man, suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation in Mugsha village on Friday and died this evening. People are now gathered around his house.
Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 7:41 | Scott Lucas in EA Global, Journalism and Media, Music and Culture 
After seeing Hitchens at this debate, I fear his thoughtful moments will be rare. "The Hitch" is no longer an activist, no longer a participant in the real debates about power and who wields it, no more a source for thought. No, he is an industry, posing in trench coat with a cigarette dangling from his top lip, hailed as "one of the few remaining practitioners of the five-hour, two-bottle lunch". And, naturally, the most profitable industry is a monopoly. So he packages himself, surreally, not just as a policeman but the only policeman of "a radical left that no longer exists".
See also The Latest from Iran (16 December): Re-Visiting the Drone
2025 GMT: The House Arrests. Saham News, the outlet of opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi, reports from a source that Karroubi and fellow 2009 Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi may soon be released from strict house arrest.
Karroubi and his wife Fatemeh and Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard have been held since mid-February.
1630 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has said that Iran is prepared for further international sanctions: "We are not really worried. Appropriate responses have been prepared for the worst case scenario, and we have devised a road map."
Salehi did not explain how the "road map" would deal with new sanctions imposed by the US, Canada, Britain, France, and South Korea in recent weeks.
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 15:59 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Montage video of Thursday's protests in Bahrain
See also Syria Video Feature: Friday's Protests Across the Country
Syria Video Feature: Friday's Protests Across the Country --- Set 2
A National Day in Bahrain Special: Protests, The Arrest of Zainab Alkhawaja, A Death, & Tear Gas Everywhere
Thursday's Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Catchphrase of "Many Dead"
2345 GMT: It has been another important, memorable, historic, messy Friday. By the end of the day, tear gas clouds were still settling in Bahrain, fires still burning around the Egyptian cabinet building, and, in the most under-covered story of the day, 23 people died today in Syria, "among them are 4 children and 4 women, 9 martyrs in Homs, 5 martyrs in Hama, 4 martyrs in Daraa, 2 martyrs [in the] Damascus Suburbs and one martyr each in both Deir Ezzor and Idlib."
In Egypt, we have reached yet another turning point, with the news that many members of the advisory council to the ruling Supreme Command of Armed Forces. will resign over today's violence. This is yet another sign that the old ways have yet to be erased, and the revolution, taken for granted for many months now, is far from over.
In Bahrain, protests have not "returned," as some completely out-of-touch headline writers have suggested, but it is fair to say that recent violence, and the arrest of some prominent activists, will further fuel a protest movement that has been exponentially growing for several months.
But what happened in Syria? Missing in the "more deaths" headline that the mainstream media keeps running, is a serious analysis of the conflict. Even in Homs, besieged for months now, the brutality of attacks in Baba Amr marks yet another escalation, or perhaps even a sign of a desperate regime that has run out of tools besides shells and bullets. In Hama, we see yet more signs that the city may be facing Homs's fate. In the Damascus suburbs, the strength the security forces in the streets suggests that the Assad regime is also desperate to keep the protests from growing any further close to the capital. The reports from Deir Ez Zor, a serious crackdown against protesters and an escalation that we have not seen in several months, suggests that the regime is worried that if it does not continue to rotate its targets then it will lose control.
However, today's media coverage had far more problems than bad headlines. The media struggled to keep up on stories in Egypt, a location with a large media presence. Furthermore, coverage of stories like Syria and Bahrain have been nearly non-existent. In fact, a major Syrian activist voiced his displeasure at the media's coverage, then turned to EA to keep the story rolling.
This lack of coverage can have significant consequences. Bahrain, Syria, and Egypt (just to name the three that were busy today) all play key roles in the world, and in US and European economic and geopolitical strategy. Beyond that, the activists in those countries, and the citizens in those countries, deserve to have these stories covered. The media, once again, has failed in that respect.
We thank EA's readers for helping to change that, and we'd ask that, as things continue to develop here, you keep in mind how important independent media organizations like EA are in changing and influencing how the media covers the Middle East, and beyond. EA's writers depend on you, but the people in the places that we cover depend on you too.
We're closing the LiveBlog for the day, though we'll be reporting again in the morning. Again, thanks for reading and contributing.
The arrest of Zainab Alkhawaja
See also Friday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Beat Goes On --- Anticipating Friday's Protests
Thursday's Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Developments in Bahrain
This morning the regime's Bahrain News Agency runs the banner, "Happy National Day", with the headline, "Wise Leadership Congratulated", citing the "cables of congratulations from leaders of Arab, Islamic and friendly countries marking the National and Accession Days".
No doubt there will be the perfunctory statements today --- perhaps we will even see them from Washington and London, who are dedicated to a strategy of "regime adjustment" to ensure that vital links with Bahrain are not strained --- but when National Day formally opened in Bahrain at 12:01 a.m., it did so to continuing protests and clashes in the kingdom's villages.
Zainab Alkhawaja is still in prison, along with many other political detainees, and Ali Alqassab will join the list of "martyrs" as he is buried. And the smell of tear gas --- which, according to an EA correspondent was "over most of Bahrain, except Rafa' and parts of Moharraq" --- lingers.
Deir Ba'alba in Homs
See also Iran Feature: Is This How Tehran Took Down the US Drone?
The Latest from Iran (15 December): A Bigger Question in the Saudi Mystery
1515 GMT: Press Watch. The managing editor of the reformist newspaper Etemaad, Elias Hazrati, has been ordered to pay a fine of 15 million rials (about $1150) for "publishing lies" and "disturbing public opinion".
The authorities suspended Etemaad last month after it published a controversial interview with President Ahmadinejad's media advisor, Ali Akbar Javanfekr.
1445 GMT: On the Air. The Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance has warned that there are 1,123 foreign channels broadcasting in Persian against the Islamic Republic.
The ceremony in Iraq marking the end of the US intervention
Total Costs
Total deaths: Between 110,663 and 119,380
Coalition deaths: 4,803
U.S. deaths: 4,484
U.S. wounded: 32,200
U.S. deaths as a percentage of coalition deaths: 93.37 percent
Iraqi Security Force, or ISF, deaths: At least 10,125
Total coalition and ISF deaths: At least 14,926
Iraqi civilian deaths: Between 103,674 and 113,265
Non-Iraqi contractor deaths: At least 463
Internally displaced persons: 1.24 million
Refugees: More than 1.6 million
