Bahrain Live Coverage: Day 100 of a Hunger Strike

The march today protesting closer ties with Saudi Arabia

See also Bahrain Opinion: On Day 100 of a Hunger Strike, Thoughts About the Regime's Strategy
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2008 GMT: After today's mass rally, the Ministry of Interior is trying to cap the show of oppposition:

Chief of Pub Security: gathering called for by Alwefaq tomorrow evening near UN House was denied permission. Participation is illegal #BAH

— Ministry of Interior (@moi_bahrain) May 18, 2012

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Bahrain Live Coverage: Challenging the US Arms Sale

See also Bahrain Feature: A Very British System of Repression
Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Pause in the Conflict?
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Cartoon: Carlos Latuff1914 GMT: The wife of detained human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who is Day 95 of his hunger strike, has seen him for two hours today.

Khadija Almousawi said her husband appears in better condition, but he is still only taking water and juice.

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Bahrain Live Coverage: Is the Regime Fostering Sectarian Conflict?

See also Bahrain Special: How Regime Supporters Used a New York Times Reporter (Again) To Denounce the Opposition
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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "Last Chance to Avoid Civil War"?
Tuesday's Bahrain Live Coverage: Countering the Regime's Allegations Against Nabeel Rajab

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0851 GMT: Wafi Al-Majed, husband of detained activist Zainab Alkhawaja, updates on her case after a brief court hearing this morning:

Zainab case postponed to 15 May. And they want the ppl of #bahrain to be silent! In your dreams. Its either our way, or the highway. Choose!

— Wafi Al-Majed (@fetusbahrain) May 9, 2012

0529 GMT: Amnesty International has declared Nabeel Rajab, the director of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, a "prisoner of conscience". It called for his immediate release after his arrest last Saturday at Bahrain's international airport.

Prosecutors have claimed that Rajab fomented violence through social media. His lawyer said about eight insulting tweets were mentioned in a court hearing on Sunday, which gave Rajab a seven-day detention order.

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Bahrain Live Coverage: Detaining Activists --- The "Twitter Excuse"

See also Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Elections Today --- Sham or Substance?
Bahrain Live Coverage: Prominent Activist Nabeel Rajab Arrested

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Cartoon: Carlos Latuff1653 GMT: The regime-linked Gulf Daily News has announced police reforms, including the construction of a state-of-the-art forensic laboratory, a "crime academy" to train officers, and 500 additional "community officers".

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Bahrain Live Coverage: Prominent Activist Nabeel Rajab Arrested

See also Bahrain Video Special: How the Tear-Gassing of A Village Begins
Saturday's Bahrain Live Coverage: The Many 1000s on the Highway

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Nabeel Rajab Leads Protest, 1 April1950 GMT: Finally, a press release from the regime that sets out its approach against detained human rights activist Nabeel Rajab....

Prosecutors, using the Bahrain News Agency, said:

[We] filed a case against the defendant after compiling compelling evidence of his involvement in inciting illegal rallies and marches online on social networking websites....The defendant's cyber-incitement proved detrimental as [it] fuelled rioting, road blocking, arsons, acts of sabotage targeting public and private properties, in addition to the use of Molotov cocktail incendiary bombs. The inquiry has also revealed compelling evidence on the defendant's role in instigating, online, acts targeting policemen whilst on duty, leaving some of them injured.

The statement effectively convicted, "[Rajab] admitted posting the defamatory and humiliating material on his account."

Most telling, however, might be this element of truth about this morning's court hearing, "The defendant stood the trial, in the presence of his lawyer, but he refused to answer the questions about the charges leveled against him, saying that he does not recognize the court."

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Bahrain Live Coverage: Zainab Alkhawaja Appears in Court

See also Bahrain Analysis: The PR Game, the BBC, and Alkhawaja's Hunger Strike
Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "War Crimes" in Idlib, Deaths in Cairo
Tuesday's Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime Plays for Time

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1430 GMT: Police repeatedly fire tear gas into Diraz on Tuesday night to disperse protesting youth:

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Bahrain Analysis: The PR Game, the BBC, and Alkhawaja's Hunger Strike

The surprise news that resonated throughout Tuesday was the five-minute visit of BBC reporter Frank Gardner to detained human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja on Day 83 of his hunger strike. The photograph of the meeting and Gardner's article testified to a thin but alert Alkhawaja, who maintained that he had been force-fed during the previous week but that he would continue his fast.

Opposition activists were pleased to see that Alkhawaja --- cut off from his family, his lawyer, and the Danish Ambassador for six days until the ban was lifted on Sunday, briefly missing from his room in the military hospital, and feared near death --- was sitting up and coherent. (The BBC went even farther in its article, reporting that Alkhawaja said he had been walking for three days.) But at the same time, some of those activists noted the regime's game in allowing the interview.

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Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime Plays for Time

Detained activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, on Day 83 of his hunger strike, with BBC correspondent Frank Gardner (see 1241 GMT)

See also Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Idlib Explosions Raise the Stakes
Monday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Enter the Observers

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1710 GMT: Blurred but still notable footage of protesters scattering in Bani Jamra after a charge by police firing tear gas:

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Enter the Observers

A protest in Aleppo on Sunday night

See also Bahrain 1st-Hand: Smuggled Footage of Crackdown & Interview with Ala'a Shehabi
Iraq Snapshot: The Divisions Among the Shia Factions
Bahrain Snap Analysis: The Regime's Propaganda Struggles
Bahrain 1st-Hand: The AlKhawaja Story - Wife/Mother Speaks Out
Turkey Live Coverage (30 April): Questions on the Syrian Front
Sunday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Two-Step of Protest and Detention

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2100 GMT: Iraq. In a further escalation of political tension, fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi and some of his bodyguards have been charged with a series of murders, including the killing of six judges.

Hashemi, a Sunni politician, fled Baghdad in December when the Shia-led Government issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing him of running death squads. He is now in Turkey and is not expected to attend the trial when it begins on Thursday.

2034 GMT: UAE. Amnesty International has called on the United Arab Emirates to immediately and unconditionally release nine political activists who have been detained in the last month.

The nine men belong to the Reform and Social Guidance Association (al-Islah), a non-profit organization that advocates --- through peaceful debate --- greater adherence to Islamic precepts.

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Bahrain Snap Analysis: The Regime's Propaganda Struggles

Bahrain's Minister of Justice on BBC's HardTalk

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In a series of messages last night via Twitter, hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja's wife Khadija Almousawi documented the pain of her husband while putting out his continued hope: "Despite all that happened to Hadi, he is as strong as a mountain, very thin but content and with his large smile. Again he said to us today he has never been happier."

Almousawi continued, referring to her detained daughter, activist Zainab Alkhawaja, as well as her husband: "No matter what they do, they cannot break my Hadi or my Zainab and this gives me strength to continue being hopeful."

The regime response? Saqer Al Khalifa, a leading figure in the social media campaign and former media attaché at the Bahraini Embassy in Washington, took the spectre of threat to a new level: Alkhawaja was comparable to the Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the planner of the attacks of 11 September 2001.

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