EA Audio Analysis: Why Hollywood is Blowing Up the White House --- Scott Lucas with the BBC

I joined BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, with Catherine Bray of Film4.com, to discuss Hollywood's spate of films portraying the White House under terrorist attack.

Listen to the discussion from the 2:19.54 mark.

What's going on? "There's this perpetual 'culture of fear' --- even when America thinks it has won, from the end of the Cold War to the killing of Osama bin Laden."

And, for what's it worth, Team America did this almost a decade ago and did it far better.

Iraq (and Beyond) Live: At Least 20 Killed in Bombings Across Country

This morning's bomb in Kirkuk in northern Iraq (Photo: Abu Rasheed/Reuters)

See also Syria Live: Mass Deaths from Airstrikes
Sunday's Bahrain (and Beyond) Live: Protests Build Again Before Grand Prix

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1725 GMT:Bahrain. The Government has backed proposals to impose penalties of up to five years in prison for insulting the King or its national symbols.

The Cabinet approved proposals to impose the sentences and fines of 10,000 dinars ($26,500) for defaming King Hamad or Bahrain’s flag or coat of arms.

1635 GMT:Turkey. Fazil Say, an internationally-acclaimed pianist and composer, has been given a 10-month prison term, suspended for five years, for insulting Islam and offending Muslims in postings on Twitter.

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Pakistan Video Feature: Who is Being Killed in the US Drone Attacks? (Al Jazeera English)

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Last week an investigation by McClatchy Newspapers revealed that many low-level operatives and people only thought to be "associated with armed groups have been killed in the US drone attacks in Pakistan.

In the first independent analysis of the Obama Administration's internal accounting of the strikes, McClathcy found that of about 482 people killed between September 2010 and September 2011, at least 265 were not senior Al Qa'eda leaders. More than 40 of the 95 drone strikes in the same period hit groups other than Al Qa'eda.

The reports also estimated that there was one civilian casualty during that time.

Jonathan Landay of McClatchy joins Al Jazeera English's Inside Story Americas to discuss the report.

Before that item, the programme considers the disapperance of tousands of legal documents, concerning detainees at Guantanamo Bay, from secure Department of Defense servers.

The incident has delayed military tribunals for the detainees, some of whom have been held since 2002.

Iran Live: Meet the Presidential Hopefuls

Tehran Mayor Qalibaf1455 GMT:Election Watch

Hojatoleslam Hossein Jalali has said the "hard-line" Constancy Front, formed before the 2012 Parliamentary elections, will present a Presidential candidate next week in a speech by Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi.

1325 GMT:The House Arrests

Detained opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard have been allowed to meet Rahnavard's mother last week.

Mousavi, the primary challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed 2009 Presidential election, and his wife Rahnavard have been under strict house arrest since February 2011. They have been to allowed to speak to, let alone sse, their three daughters since Iranian New Year on 21 March.

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Bahrain (and Beyond) Live: Protests Build Again Before Grand Prix

Police fear tear gas into a market in Sanabis on Thursday

See also Syria Live: Assessing the Insurgency
Saturday's Egypt (and Beyond) Live: Mubarak Retrial Opens

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1605 GMT: Iraq. Two more Sunni Muslim election candidates have been killed less than a week before local votes.

At least 13 candidates, most of them Sunni, have been slain.

Saturday's election to select provincial council members is seen as a measure pf strength of the largely-Shia national government before the Parliamentary elections in 2014.

No group claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks in Baiji town, 180 kilometres (112 miles) north of Baghdad.

Another Sunni candidate escaped a roadside bomb in Balad Ruz, 90 km (55 miles) northeast of the capital, on Sunday.

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Syria Live: Assessing the Insurgency

Claimed footage of a "barrel bomb" that killed between 12 and 24 people in Saraqeb in Idlib Province on Saturday

See also Syria Video Feature: The Boys Who Sparked a Revolution
Bahrain (and Beyond) Live: Protests Build Again Before Grand Prix
Saturday's Syria Live: "We Are Stronger Than Those Who Would Divide Us"

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1655 GMT: Protest. A sudden demonstration in the Medhat Basha Souk in Old Damascus:

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Syria Video Feature: The Boys Who Sparked a Revolution (BBC)

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The BBC's Fergal Keane speaks to some of the boys whose spraying of graffiti in Daraa Province, celebrating the Arab Spring, sparked the uprising of March 2011 against the Assad regime.

Keane notes that 15 boys from the school were arrested and tortured, leading to mass demonstrations, with other boys killed or forced into exile.

EA Video Analysis: Iran and the American Lasers of Doom

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Last week the Pentagon announced that a new laser weapon will be placed aboard a destroyer, the USS Ponce, to deter Iranian boats from attacking the US fleet in the Persian Gulf.

I assess the propaganda angle: "The Pentagon needed to thump its chest" after the current US budget dispute prompted the withdrawal of one of two American aircraft carriers from the Gulf.

There's the tactical angle: if Israel were to attack Iranian nuclear installations, a likely response from Tehran would be the deployment of the small boats in the Gulf.

And then there's some advice for our American propaganda warriors, given that a "ponce" is a man who living off the earnings of women of ill repute:

Guys, you just put your experimental laser aboard a Pimp Ship.

Iran Live: Supreme Leader's Men Try to Regain Election Initiative

The Supreme Leader's "2+1 Committee": Ayatollah Khamenei's aide Ali Akbar Velayati, leading MP and Supreme Leader relative Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, and Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf

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1035 GMT: Foreign Affairs Watch (Egyptian Edition). Is this a sign of Tehran's disappointment that developments in Cairo have not gone quite as hoped since the fall of President Mubarak in February 2011?

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said today, “If we want the Iran-Egypt ties to officially reach a favorable level, which is expected by the people of both countries, we should have patience."

The spokesman continued, “It has been declared by Iran on numerous occasions that we have no restrictions on establishing ties with Egypt and that we are ready to resume the relations, but the internal situation in this country (Egypt) is not yet prepared."

Soon after Mubarak's downfall, the Supreme Leader declared that Egypt was at the centre of an "Islamic Awakening", following the model of the 1979 revolution in Iran, but political ties have not developed as quickly or as closely as Tehran hoped.

Even the limited step of encouraging tourism has run into trouble this month, with flights of Iranians into Egypt halted almost as soon as they began amid protests by Egyptians.

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Iran Live: Ahmadinejad's Latest Tour

See also Iran- Syria-North Korea Shocker: Congress Reveals US Threatened by "Evil Love Triangle"
Friday's Iran Live: Ex-President Rafsanjani's Camp Makes Its Election Move

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1905 GMT: Sanctions Watch. Billionaire businessman Babak Zanjani has shrugged off his sanctions black-listing by the US Treasury on Thursday.

Zanjani, who was also named by the European Union in December for being a "facilitator of oil deals", said, "We haven't had any problems in our business since the EU ban. Actually, business is much better since December. Sanctions have provided publicity for us."

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