Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Violence Escalates

Protesters throw Molotov cocktails at security forces in Aldair in Bahrain on Saturday

See also Palestine Letter: Khader Adnan "Why I Am on Hunger Strike"
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Sunday's Syria Live Coverage: Defiance in Damascus
Saturday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Story Gets Out

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1244 GMT: At least 15 people have been killed and 21 wounded when a bomber wearing a suicide vest blew himself up near the entrance to the Iraqi Police Academy in the east of Baghdad.

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Deadly attacks have also been reported in and around the city of Baquba, to the north of Baghdad. Four police informants were killed by suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen.

Gunmen also attacked a checkpoint in Abu Khamis, north of Baquba, killing one policeman and two members of the Sahwa (Awakening) militia.

1109 GMT: CNN has noticed the case of Palestinian Khader Adnan, who is in the 64th day of his hunger strike in an Israeli prison.

Adnan is protesting Israel's "administrative detention", under which a prisoner may be held indefinitely without charge.

The Israeli High Court in Jerusalem is reportedly hearing Adnan’s case against his administrative detention on Thursday.

1104 GMT: The International Press Institute has expressed concern about the health of Yemeni journalist Abdul Elah Haidar Shaia, who reportedly began a hunger strike on 12 February to protest against his alleged mistreatment and continued imprisonment.

Shaia, a journalist for the state-run SABA news agency who specialised in coverage of security matters, has been in detention since August 2010, when he was first accused of supporting the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

1035 GMT: After dispersing a funeral in Sitra on Saturday, Bahraini police go into homes looking for mourners:

0925 GMT: Yemen's State news agency SABA claims that John Brennan, the Obama Administration's head of counter-terrorism advisor, met with Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi on Saturday and pledged American support.

Hadi is the only candidate in Tuesday's Presidential ballot.

McClatchy reports on a possible problem for Hadi with the boycott of the vote in southern Yemen, where the Southern Movement is calling for an autonomous state.

0655 GMT: Footage of 18 men running for Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain last night:

0610 GMT: Saturday was marked by two stories in Bahrain. Throughout the day, groups of people --- almost all men, but also one mother with her child --- walked or ran towards Pearl Roundabout, the symbolic centre of last year's protests, overrun by security forces in March and its monument destroyed. More than 60 people, by our correspondent's count, made the attempt; in one case, a group of 25 men from Bani Jamra set off for the Roundabout, also known as Martyrs Square.

Those who reached the destination were likely to be detained, but the point had been made. The regime cannot seal off Pearl Roundabout forever.

That symbolic story was complemented --- and arguably overtaken --- by another development. Video testified to violent clashes in villages across the kingdom. Police who carried out raids or tried to open blocked roads, using tear gas and sound grenades, were met by youths with Molotov cocktails. 

That in itself is far from new --- since the turn of the year, the security forces' perpetual use of force has been met by the Molotov resistance, at times forcing the police to pull back. What was distinctive yesterday was the signal that activists, who had been keen to keep the images off the Internet, have changed position. Protesters are being told that it is fine to upload the videos and thus take credit for their own show of force.