US Politics Special: How Stephen Colbert Reduced A Senator's 26-Year Career To #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement

Senator Jon KylJon Kyl thinks no one can see him when he puts a paper bag on his head. #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement

Jon Kyl was sent from the future to kill Sarah Conner.#NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement

Jon Kyl calls all Asians "Neil" no matter what their name is.#NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement

Jon Kyl is one of Gaddafi's sexy female ninja guards.#NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement

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US WikiLeaks Feature: The Persecution of Private Bradley Manning --- UN Visit Denied (Nakashima)

A United Nations diplomat charged with investigating claims of torture said Monday that he is “deeply disappointed and frustrated” that U.S. defense officials have refused his request for an unmonitored visit with Pfc. Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst accused of passing classified material to WikiLeaks.

Juan E. Mendez, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, said his request for a private interview with Manning was denied by the Defense Department on Friday. Instead, he has been told that any visit must be supervised.

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The Real Net Effect: Egypt, Facebook, & Protest...In 2008 (Faris)

Certainly no one could have expected a 27-year-old human resources coordinator to catalyze an event that would grip the national consciousness for the better part of a week. It perhaps seemed even less likely that Facebook, a social networking scheme hatched by Harvard undergraduates just a few years ago and still associated largely with American college students, would be the chosen platform for this massive action. After all, Egyptian blogs can claim some significant victories vis-à-vis the state in the past few years, including exposing police torture and cases of sexual harassment, and a number of articles have been written about the growing power of bloggers. But when examined against developments in the scale-free Egyptian blogosphere and the innovations in network theory, the choice of Facebook makes much more sense.

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Libya-Syria-Yemen-Bahrain: Is It All About the US and Iran? (Tait)

Iranians Protest in front of the Saudi Embassy"The U.S. is applying a relatively old strategy of linking up with elites in the region to a new situation and I don't think they're really thinking through the consequences" argues Lucas, who says the approach is unsuited to an "asymmetrical battle" that is being waged. "The issue of political legitimacy is the one that people are pushing. It's not the U.S.-Iran contest, it's not even the question of economic factors and if you are seen in any way as basically not really being on board with that question of political legitimacy, if you are seen as in effect trying to impose this Iran question on top of it, I think it'll bite you on the backside."

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The Latest from Iran (13 April): The Movie, The Hidden Imam, and Ahmadinejad's Right-Hand Man

2040 GMT: In an interview with RASA TV, Nooshabeh Amiri speaks about her interview with Said Tajik, the man accused of verbally assaulting Hashemi Rafsanjani's daughter Faezeh Hashemi in February.

Amiri says Tajik, who was briefly detained over the incident, was released out of fear of his supporters. She said he questioned why he had been interrogated and was "very arrogant towards the judiciary".

Amiri has also written an article in Rooz Online about the encounter.

1945 GMT: Setting the Election Rules. Conservative MP Habibollah Asgaroladi tries to set the ground rules for the 2012 Parliament elections --- those who are against the Iranian system (nezam) and the clerical supremacy of velayat-e faqih cannot run. He continues with the observation that reformists are not yet "off the record", i.e., eliminated"; they are, he says, "serious rivals" in the elections.

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Bahrain, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Another Death in Custody

2030 GMT: Claimed video of men lying down in a road to stop the advance of a tank near the Syrian coastal town of Baniyas:

2020 GMT: About 500 students demonstrated Wednesday in Aleppo, the first protest in Syria's second-largest city since the uprising began in mid-March.

A protest of 50 students took place Wednesday at Damascus University's Law Faculty. Security forces disperses both demonstrations, arresting at least four people in Aleppo.

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Syria Video: The Women Protest the Arrests of the Men

Clips of today's march of women and children of the village of Baida, protesting the detention of men of the village on Tuesday:

Iran Feature: Parliament Forces Civil Society Underground (Ghazi)

UPDATE 1530 GMT: The Parliament has referred the legislation on civil institutions back to committee after the Speaker, Ali Larijani, criticised "ambiguities" in the language of the bill.
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The Majlis, Iran’s Parliament, is in the process of approving a bill that, according to civil activists, aims at eliminating independent civil institutions and replacing them with a government organization. According to the provisions of this bill not only are individuals who plan to establish non-governmental or civil organizations required to be fully cleared and approved by the Ministry of Intelligence and supervisory committees, but even organizations that already have operational licenses and have been active need to reapply for new permits. If the latter are not approved, the supreme supervisory committee will annul their current permits and ban their activities.

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Pakistan Feature: Is This a "Crisis" in Relations Between CIA and Islamabad?

On Tuesday, both The Washington Post and The New York Times reported on Pakistani demands that the Central Intelligence Agency restrict its operations, including drone strikes, inside the country. The Post reported, from US and Pakistani officials, of Pakistan's demand that Washington "impose new limits on CIA drone strikes in their country and...expel agency operatives whose missions are not approved by Islamabad".

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Egypt Video: Taking Mubarak's Sons Alaa and Gamal to Prison

Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, the sons of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are taken to prison under a 15-day detention order while charges of corruption are investigated (an order against their father followed hours later).

Protesters call for the execution of the two Mubaraks, chanting: "Thieves!", and accuse Hosni Mubarak of being an American agent. They demand that Alaa and Gamal Mubarak be taken to prison in a police car, not a private vehicle.