Bahrain Follow-Up: The Regime's Crackdown on Medical Staff (Laurance)

Harrowing testimony of torture, intimidation and humiliation from a doctor arrested in the crackdown on medical staff in Bahrain has revealed the lengths to which the regime's security forces are prepared to go to quash pro-democracy protests.

Interviews obtained by The Independent from inside Bahrain tell of ransacked hospitals and of terrified medical staff beaten, interrogated and forced into signing false confessions. Many have been detained, their fate unknown.

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"Terrorism" & Academia Follow-Up: 67 Academics Call for Reinstatement of University of Nottingham Lecturer

We write as academics deeply concerned by the suspension of Dr Rod Thornton, a lecturer in counter-terrorism in the school of politics and international relations at the University of Nottingham. We understand that Dr Thornton's suspension is the result of a whistle-blowing investigative research paper that was presented at the annual British International Studies Association conference and subsequently published on its website. In his research, Dr Thornton carefully details what appear to be examples of serious misconduct from senior university management over the arrest of two university members (The "Nottingham Two") under the Terrorism Act 2000 in May 2008.

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Iran Feature: The Ghosts of Ahmadinejad's Right-Hand Man (Pedestrian)

In 2009, when the Iranian elections were in national --- and international --- spotlight, during the TV debate between Mousavi and Ahmaidnejad,which kept us Iranians, all over the globe glued to our TV (or monitor) screens, something funny happened. Mir Hossein Mousavi, the soft spoken, apprehensive opposition candidate said on live TV: “this government is a government of fortunetellers and exorcists.”

Mousavi was to pay a heavy price for these words.

Following the election, when the Supreme Leader openly backed Ahmadinejad in his notorious Friday Prayer speech, he also directly targeted Mousavi’s statement, condemning those who “blatantly attribute magic and wizardry to the government".

How ironic indeed.

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The Latest from Iran (10 May): Ahmadinejad's Welcome Distraction

1820 GMT: Book Corner. Radio Zamaneh reports that all works of the prominent author Ali Ashraf Darvishian have been removed from the Tehran Book Fair.

1810 GMT: Parliament Watch. Back from a break to summarise latest developments in the tug-of-war between Parliament and the Government.

On Monday, the Majlis finally confirmed the 2011/12 Budget --- after a debate and delays of more than two months --- but the affirmation was far from resounding: only 144 votes of the 290 MPs voted for the package. There were 29 votes against, 12 abstentions, 23 "presents", and 82 absences.

Now a new battle is brewing: MPs, including Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, are claiming that the Government may be breaking the law in its plans for the merger of nine Ministries. On Monday, Parliament had warned that former Ministers could not continue to serve in the new Ministries.

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Clampdown

1910 GMT: Ali Tarhouni, the Minister of Finance of the Libyan opposition's National Transitional Council, says he is meeting with Obama Administration officials to establish a line of credit.

Tarhouni was a University of Washington lecturer until March, when he returned to opposition- held Libya.

1832 GMT: The Bahraini regime has expelled the Reuters correspondent, Frederik Richter, who had been based in the capital Manama since 2008.

Officials said Reuters had lacked balance in its reporting but could name another correspondent for accreditation by the Ministry of Information.

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Pakistan's "Double Game": Its Hypocrisy and US Acquiescence (Rubin)

Head of Pakistan's ISI, Ahmed Shuja PashaWe give billions in aid to Pakistan’s military and civilian government. Yet Pakistan is harboring our enemies and even the enemies, one could argue, of its own healthy survival. Portions of our money are being funneled into the variety of insurgent networks whose fighters are killing American soldiers, Afghan soldiers, American civilians, Afghan civilians, European civilians, Pakistani civilians—mothers, fathers, children on multiple continents. Why, asks a US army major, did all his friends die in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province when the real problem is on the other side of the border? Why, asks a twelve-year-old Afghan girl in Kandahar whose family has been wiped out by US air strikes, are you bombing us? How has this come to pass?

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From Iran to Syria and Back Again: 3 Rules to Establish the Truth Through Video

The first casualty in war is truth, but the first casualty in the Arab Spring is a reliable video feed. In places like Syria, as in Iran, independent media has been kicked out, shut down, or censored to the point that the only people who can document the protests and the violent crackdown against them are the demonstrators themselves.

For the last two years, those of us who follow the opposition in Iran have picked through streams of YouTube videos to separate the real from the faked. Now an exiled Syrian activist, writing under the screen name “Revolt for Your Life", has posted three guidelines for protesters to assist journalists trying to cover their stories.

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Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Occupation Extended

1745 GMT: Syrian authorities have blocked a United Nations humanitarian team from visiting the southern town of Deraa where hundreds are said to have been killed in the regime crackdown.

In Homs, occupied by the military over the weekend, snipers have reportedly been posted on the rooftops of public and private buildings.

1645 GMT: Pictures of women protesting in front of Egypt State TV headquarters in Cairo, Egypt --- the demonstration follows Saturday's attacks on churches in Imbaba in the capital:

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The Latest from Iran (9 May): Ahmadinejad Bows Down?

1900 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The husband of detained human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh says she has been cut off from her family for the past 10 days.

Reza Khandan said he has not been allowed telephone contact with his wife since she was transferred to a different ward in Evin Prison.

Sotoudeh was sentenced in December to 11 years in prison and a 20-year ban on the practice of law.

1855 GMT: Fashion Police. More on Iran's "moral security" force (see 1215 GMT), with 70,000 officers reportedly taking to the streets to enforce proper fashion and behaviour....

Commander Ahmad Rouzbehani, the head of the force, explained, “In some instances, some people have been seen to take off their head covering in their vehicles. Such vehicles will be stopped and their passengers will be referred to the judiciary.”

Commander Rouzbehani also listed “installation of satellite dishes and sale of alcoholic drinks” as violations.

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Bin Laden Follow-Up: The Crisis in Pakistan (Zaidi)

Bombing in Lahore, December 2009Could it actually be that Pakistan is now so bereft of capacity that it cannot defend itself against a ragtag set of ruffians and thugs who use teenaged boys as human missiles? Or alternatively, could it be that Pakistan is now so far off the moral deep-end that it knowingly and deliberately assists and enables the world’s most wanted terrorists, despite making claims to the contrary?

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