A man, referring to today's killing of teenager Hassan AlJazeeri, defies Bahrain security forces, "You killed a 17-year-old kid. Shoot me, I don't fear you"
1918 GMT:Bahrain. The Information Affairs' Authority --- deliberately or unwittingly --- has built on a pro-regime disinformation campaign --- to warn about "direct threats" by an opposition which it calls "terrorist gangs and saboteurs".
Opposition groups, including Al Wefaq, have called for Bahrainis to refrain from shopping, banking, and fuelling their cars. Pro-regime activists have used that to put out fake flyers, in the name of the opposition, threatening people if they do not join the boycott.
1918 GMT:Bahrain. The Information Affairs' Authority --- deliberately or unwittingly --- has built on a pro-regime disinformation campaign to warn about "direct threats" by an opposition which it calls "terrorist gangs and saboteurs".
Opposition groups, including Al Wefaq, have called for Bahrainis to refrain from shopping, banking, and fuelling their cars. Pro-regime activists have used that to put out fake flyers, in the name of the opposition, threatening people if they do not join the boycott.
Now the IAA has put out the statement:
Some internet webpages and social media accounts in Bahrain circulated news about direct threats being sent by terrorist gangs and saboteurs to various individuals, groups, families, workers, shops and companies intended to compel citizens and residents to stay at home and refrain from going to work or business as usual on Thursday February, 14, 2013 in a desperate bid to forcibly impose a de facto public strike in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
1739 GMT:Tunisia. The leader of the Ennadha Party, the dominant faction in the ruling coalition, has said he expects that agreement will be reached on a new Cabinet led by Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.
Rachid Ghannouchi said, "I expect that agreement will be reached and I expect Jebali will remain the prime minister of a coalition government."
Following last week's assassination of opposition politician Chokri Belaid, Jebali proposed a Cabinet of apolitical technocrats but pthers in Ennahda objected.
Ghannouchi said a counter-proposal would be made, "There is a project for a political government that will be presented to the prime minister to form a team of politicians and technocrats."
The Ennadha leader continues, "We don't have much time before we announce this government. The time limit is this week."
Ghannouchi indicated that Ennahda was prepared to compromise over the control of portfolios such as defence, foreign affairs, justice, and interior.
Some groups in the ruling coalition, notably President Moncef Marzouki's Congress for the Republic, had threatened to withdraw their ministers if the Justice and Foreign Ministers were not replaced.
This week we saw the arrest of Presidential advisor Saeed Mortazavi, following a power struggle on the floor of Parliament between Speaker Ali Larijani and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The President joined the ranks of those on the receiving end of flying shoes during a trip to Egypt. And amidst worries about the economy and more crippling sanctions, Tehran celebrates the Tribal Voices festival.
1745 GMT:Saudi Arabia. Riyadh Bureau reports that dozens of women and children have been arrested in Riyadh and Buraidah amid protests to demand the release of imprisoned family members.
The demonstrators gathered outside the Human Rights Commission office in Riyadh and the Court of Grievances in Buraidah in the central region of Qassim.
A lawyer confirmed that those arrested include the wife, daughter, and granddaughter of Suleiman al-Rashudi, a political activist who was arrested in December after giving a lecture about the permissibility of protests.
Women in the security bus in Qassim, chanting for the freedom of detainees:
1642 GMT:Saudi Arabia. Thousands marched in Qatif on Thursday night in memory of leading cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, shot and detained by security forces last year.
Al-Nimr was a leading figure in the protests in the mainly-Shia Eastern Province, protesting detentions and calling for political reforms.
1855 GMT:Palestine. A boy in his the rubble of his home, destroyed by an Israeli bulldozer:
1755 GMT:Palestine. A Palestinian court has sentenced a West Bank man, Anas Awwad, to a year in jail for "cursing the President" on Facebook.
Awwad's father said his son --- commenting on a picture of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas kicking a soccer ball during his visit to Barcelona Football Club in 2011 --- wrote, "The new striker in Real Madrid".
2119 GMT:The Battle Within. Hamidreza Taraghi, a senior member of the conservative Motalefeh Party, hsa said that "the nezam [system] can bear Ahamadinejad, but has no problem with his dismissal either --- the,decision re bearing with him is with the Supreme Leader".
2106 GMT:Bahrain. Opposition groups have "stressed the need to agree on the mechanism and the rules of the national dialogue" before the start of talks on Sunday.
"Agreeing on the mechanism before the dialogue starts would strengthen public trust in the dialogue," the groups, including leading society Al Wefaq, continued. This would "spare" Bahrain from the failure of the talks in the first round, a situation that would have unwanted "political and public implications."
The groups will write to the Justice Minister on Thursday to emphasise their position, renewing their request to meet him to agree over the mechanism of the dialogue.
The minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ali al-Khalifa, announced on Monday that the dialogue would resume this weekend, after an earlier round failed to the bring the opposition on board.
Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 6:24 | 
