Bahrain Snapshot: The New Look of the "Last Independent Newspaper"

British Minister of Defence with Bahrain's KingFor weeks, Bahraini authorities and their supporters have waged a campaign against Al Wasat, the only newspaper which is not connected with the Government. A steady "information" effort has accused the paper of lies and distortions, and its printing works were attacked by armed civilians last month, forcing a reduction in the newspaper's number of pages.

On Saturday, after hours of "special" coverage on State TV denouncing Al Wasat, the newspaper was suspended by authorities. It was allowed to resume publication yesterday, after the board replaced the editor-in-chief, chief, and local news editor.

So what does the "new" Al Wasat look like? 

Well, this morning, only two of its featured nine stories are about Bahrain: 1) The Ministry of Education reports on the "negative impact" on the educational process and threat to the safety of students from recent events challenging national unity, and 2) Why is the Ministry of Municipalities not developing some of the old public parks?

Oh, yes, there is also the lead item in Local News: "King Receives British Minister of Defence and Confirms Importance of Cooperation and Joint Defense".

Ivory Coast: An Introduction to the Conflict (Purefoy)

Latest (10 April): The Battle for Abidjan

The west African country of Ivory Coast --- also known as Cote d'Ivoire --- has been rocked by civil conflict as forces loyal to opposition leader Alassan Ouattara seek to oust incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo after a disputed presidential election last November. Most of the international community recognize Ouattara's victory and are urging Gbagbo to go.

What's the wider background to the unrest?

Ivory Coast, which won independence from France in 1960, is one of west Africa's leading powers and, historically, had been one of its success stories.

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Libya: Getting the Rebels Wrong (Abdurrahman)

Photo: New York TimesThe recent remarks by Adm. James Stavridis, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, alleging "flickers in the intelligence of potential al Qaeda, Hezbollah" among Libyan rebels are indicative of a disturbing trend in much of the discussion --- and reporting --- on Libya over the past several weeks. Ambiguous statements linking Libya and al Qaeda have repeatedly been made in the media without clarifying or providing appropriate context to such remarks. In many instances, these claims have been distorted or exaggerated; at times they have simply been false.

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Iran Feature: A Blogging Competition (Within Limits)

Weblognews.irElizabeth Flock of The Washington Post follows up on a story first reported by Deutsche Welle, which is holding its own competition for Best Persian Blog.

Of course, we will be watching to see how EA fares in the Iranian contest:

Iran, a country that holds the “grim distinction” of having arrested and jailed the most bloggers, according to journalist watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, has organized a blogging competition.

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Latest from Iran (3 April): The Zionist Lobby and Clay Tablets

1840 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Repentance Edition). More from the interview published by State news agency IRNA of Ebrahim Yazdi (see 1730 GMT), the former leader of the Freedom Movement of Iran who was detained from early October until 20 March:

In the interview [carried out on the same day he was released, but only printed today], Yazdi maintains that his heart problems and weakened physical condition have prompted him to leave the leadership of the Freedom Movement.

Yazdi insists in the interview that he has the utmost respect for the Iranian constitution, but adding: “Whoever states a criticism cannot be regarded as a dissident. The dominant mode of thinking should not be that you are either for me or against me. If someone criticizes you, this does not mean they are your enemy.”

“I have no problem with the system but I am against certain actions that are unconstitutional,” the octogenarian politician says in his interview.

He is also quoted as saying that demonstrations are free so far as they do not disturb public order.

“It is best to coordinate relevant regulations,” Yazdi is quoted as saying, “because without such coordination, it is not just your supporters that come to the streets but also undesirable groups.”

Yazdi is quoted as saying that he had told opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi that when he invites people to join street demonstrations, it is clear that many of those who take to the streets are not in fact his supporters. “They chant their own slogans and demonstrate against the regime… and they damage the reform movement.” IRNA writes that Yazdi recommends a close investigation of Mousavi’s actions to determine why he has reached his current position.

According to IRNA, Yazdi also says that he was against Mousavi’s candidacy because he felt it was not right to have “a president that was not coordinated with the leadership.”

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Israel-Gaza: Reconsidering the Goldstone Report (Goldstone)

We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.

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Israel-Gaza: Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on the War (Reich)

The Goldstone commission’s findings on deliberate attacks on civilians is one of at least seven broad findings (which comprise hundreds of specific incidents) that raise issues about Israel’s conduct....Goldstone’s op-ed pointedly excludes discussion of all of these very serious charges of possible war crimes and possible crimes against humanity

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: How Far with the Opposition?

1915 GMT: An update on the violence today in Taiz, south of the Yemeni capital Sanaa (see 1350 GMT)....

Officials at a field hospital say one person died and at least 830 people were injured by security forces who charged the square where people were demonstrating. Nine people suffered gunshot wounds, including the person who died. More than 60 were injured in the beatings, and the rest were injured from tear gas inhalation.

The Governor of Taiz, Hamoud al-Soufi denied any deaths and said that clashes did not occur in the square but on the main street> He claimed "infiltrators and some young hotheads" threw stones at soldiers, wounding eight, one seriously.

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Yemen: The Dangerous US Game (Scahill)

Hillary Clinton and Ali Abdullah SalehThe prospect of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s departure is a source of great anxiety for the White House, but the United States has unintentionally played a significant role in weakening his regime. For more than a decade, US policy neglected Yemen’s civil society and development, focusing instead on a military strategy aimed at hunting down terrorists. These operations not only caused the deaths of dozens of civilians, fueling popular anger against Saleh for allowing the US military to conduct them; they also fed Saleh’s corruption while doing nothing to address Yemen’s place as the poorest country in the Arab world, which proved to be major driving forces behind the rebellion.

A serious case could be made that the stakes are much higher for the United States in Yemen than in Libya, yet its response to the repression of protests in the two countries has been starkly different.

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Ivory Coast: Hundreds Killed in a Western Town (Nossiter)

As rebels swept across Ivory Coast in a rapid advance last week to oust the nation’s strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, hundreds of people were killed in a single town, the United Nations and aid groups said Saturday, in the worst episode of violence during the four-month political crisis that has plunged the country back into civil war.

The exact number of dead was unclear. The United Nations said that 330 people had been killed, while aid organizations put the death toll as high as 1,000. It was also uncertain how many were civilians, and how many were combatants, but Caritas, a Catholic charity whose staff members visited the town, Duékoué, in western Ivory Coast, called it a “massacre.”

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