Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Stripping Opponents of Citizenship

2016 GMT: Syria. A medical charity group distributing aid in Syria says that government forces are stealing the aid:

"When the regime attacks one of our medical facilities, whether it's a hospital or something else, they load up everything they can carry, and they burn the rest," said Tawfik Chamaa, a Geneva-based doctor and spokesman for the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations (UOSSM).

"They take as much as they can, and that just depends on how many soldiers they have, but most of the time they resell it on the black market," he told a news briefing in Geneva.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN World Food Programme (WFP), global aid agencies with a presence in Syria, said two specific allegations that Chamaa made about other foreign aid being diverted were unsubstantiated.

But the ICRC said it was treating them "very seriously" and following them up with the UOSSM and Syrian authorities

This is also not a claim we have seen any evidence for. However, Syrian troops have infamously placed snipers on roofs of hospitals, shelled hospitals, raided hospitals and arrested patience, and have otherwise forced most of Syria's medical care underground.

2010 GMT: Yemen. Another assassination - a military intelligence officer was killed today in the capital city, Sana'a:

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US Elections 2012 Special: EA's Live Coverage and Analysis

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0658 GMT: President --- The Victory Speech. President Obama has concluded a rousing victory speech, "We are and forever will be the United States of America....We will continue our journey forward and remind the world why it is that we live in the greatest nation of earth."

0637 GMT: President --- The Victory Speech. President Obama has arrived, with his wife Michelle Obama and daughters, to a wildly-applauding crowd and Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours".

Obama opens, "The path of perfecting our union moves forward. It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you have reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression."

He continues, "We are one American family and we rise and fall together."

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EA Video Analysis: 270 Votes or Bust - The Electoral Map Favors Obama

Using the latest polling data from FiveThirtyEight, as well as Real Clear Politics, we see that this race is both very close and, at the same time, Barack Obama has a very large advantage in the Electoral College.

But there are several possible ways that Obama, or Romney, could win by the end of the date. There is also a real possibility that we may not know the result because, just like in the year 2000, too many battleground states may be too close to call.

Remember to check out the rest of our election coverage, and adjust your own map, here:

See also US Elections 2012 Special: EA's Live Coverage and Analysis

US Elections 2012 Feature: The 7 Senate Races to Watch --- and Why They Are Important for the Next President

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The overall picture for the Senate then is that the Democrats should win Virginia, Wisconsin and Massachusetts to give them 52 seats. There are enough reasons to doubt Republican chances in Indiana and Nevada to suggest a Democrat might win one of those states, leaving a 53-47 majority.

But this is a Presidential election year, where Senate races are not as safe to call as in off-Presidential campaigns where the candidates stand or fall a bit more on their own merits. Republican faith in their theory of a lacklustre Democratic turnout may be nothing but a fantasy, but until the results start to confirm Obama's lead in the polls as reality, then Democrats face the possibility of losing the Senate as well as the White House. It is unlikely, but stranger results have happened in recent American political history.

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US Elections 2012: Why Obama Should Win Today --- and Romney's 3-Step Plan to Upset Him

The state of the election, according to Republican strategist Karl Rove

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After more than 18 months of preparations and campaigning, either President Barack Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney will be elected by US voters today --- that is, barring a knife-edge outcome as in Bush-Gore 2000 or a legal challenge over claimed irregularities in the ballot.

Most broadcast commentators are drawing in viewers with "Too Close to Call". The reality, however, is that Obama should be declared the victor late tonight. Here's why....

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US Elections 2012 Feature: The Hope for a Romney Upset --- Voter Turnout

The bottom line is that the bookies and most political pundits have President Obama as their favourite to win this election. Paddy Power, an Irish bookmaker, has already paid out on an Obama victory.

However, until that result is confirmed Republicans are still holding out hope that the polls are wrong and that their voters, more committed to their candidate than Obama's supporters, will turn out in enough numbers to make a fool of not just Paddy Power but many of the "liberal" media as well.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Suicide Car Bomb Kills More than 50 Regime Troops

2205 GMT: Bahrain. EA's John Horne reports:

The Bahrain government has revoked the citizenship of 31 Bahrainis who are members of the opposition. The individuals include opposition leader Dr Saaed Shehabi, former AlWefaq MPs Jalal Fairoz and Jawad Fairooz, academic Abdulhadi Khalaf, and Ali Mushaima, the son Hussan Mushaima, leader of Haq and current political prisoner. In a statement published by Bahrain State media, listing the names, the Interior Minister claims it was done on grounds of "state security".

Bahrain expert Marc Owen Jones notes that Twitter account @7areghum tweeted the names before state media:

In true #Bahrain style, cyber vigilante @7areghum tweets list of 31 activists deprived of citizenship before the state news agency does

— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) November 6, 2012

This is a concerning return to the worst of last years repression. In a recent article, Owen Jones noted that the @7areghum account was still active, despite it being cited in the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report:

Trolling in Bahrain has became so severe that a report commissioned to investigate human rights abuses in the country last year actually mentioned it. In particular, it focused on the actions of @7areghum, a Twitter account that “openly harassed, threatened and defamed certain individuals, and in some cases placed them in immediate danger”. The legal experts charged with compiling the report concluded that @7areghum broke Bahraini law and international law. Despite this, the Bahrain government do not appear to have asked the US government to subpoena Twitter to release information about the account.

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Israel-Palestine Live Coverage (6 November): Moves by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority Before a UN Vote

1920 GMT: Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor wrote a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon critical of three tanks crossed into the demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel last week and of Syrian gunfire hit an Israeli military jeep on Monday.

1830 GMT: Fatah central committee member Azzam al-Ahmad said they are committed to go to the UN. He continued:

We know there is an Israeli ministerial committee to discuss the issue and to start setting punishments on use but we have decided and it's not over, we're going despite the results.

1800 GMT: After Israeli decision to construct new settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem and in Ariel in the West Bank, PLO leader Hanan Ashrawi said:

Such organized efforts to construct more units in the illegal settlements of Pisgat Zeev, Ramot, and Ariel are a deliberate attempt to breach international law and to destroy all chances for peace.

With today’s announcement, it is obvious that such actions are in response to our decision to go to the United Nations, which serves to rescue the failed peace process and end the illegal occupation. 

As such, this sends a clear message to both the international community and to the Palestinians that Israel is more committed to annexing Palestinian land than committing to any peace resolution with the Palestinian people.

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Bahrain Special: Growing Concerns Amid Questions Over Bombs and A Tide of Repression

One of the claimed sites of Monday's explosions in Manama (Photo: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters)

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The fear is that the regime will exploit the violence and tragic deaths to publicly --- and internationally --- justify its current path of repression, rather than reform, evading any accountability and obligations. Equally, regime factions will likely use the conflict to stoke up the loyalist base to ensure that any attempts at dialogue or reconciliation are undermined.

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Bahrain Timeline: The Regime's Path of Repression from 23 September to Today

Police arrest Said Yousuf Almuhafda of the Bahrain Center of Human Rights on Friday

See also Bahrain Special: Growing Concerns Amid Questions Over Bombs and A Tide of Repression

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On 19 September, at the United Nations Human Rights Council, officials of the Bahrain Government made much of their purported commitment to human rights. The subsequent weeks tell a different story:

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• 23 September 2012: Pro-government newspaper AlWatan publishes pictures of the activists and opposition figures who attended the UN Human Rights Council UPR in Geneva, with their faces circled in red. The paper accused them of being on a "mission to defame and ruin the reputation of Bahrain". The red circling recalled the period at the height of last years violence where Bahrain state television broadcast images of opposition activists with their faces similarly circled in red, seen by many as inciting violence against them.

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