Friday's statement by the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Laura Dupuy Lasserre
See also Bahrain Special: Preaching Religious Tolerance, Practicing Religious Discrimination
1306 GMT: Claimed footage of police mobilising and using tear gas in Alma'ameer on Friday night, after a march of youth through the village:
1954 GMT: Breaking news from Bahrain - activist Zainab AlKhawaja has been arrested, apparently while trying to visit her father in the hospital:
It's been confirmed, Zainab Alkhawaja @angryarabiya arrested, lawyer will attempt to go see her now #bahrain #f1 #fia #feb14
— Maryam Alkhawaja (@MARYAMALKHAWAJA) April 20, 2012
1908 GMT: This video is destined to be iconic. The UN monitors are set to visit the Idlib town of Kafer Takharim, and the the Syrian military pulled out today so as not to be seen by the observers. As the soldiers evacuate, this young man waves a pre-Baath party flag, the flag of the Syrian opposition, right in the face of Assad's tanks and soldiers.
Syrian President Assad and his wife Asma at an aid centre in Damascus, collection donations fo residents of Homs
See also Syria Feature: How the Uprising Has Damaged the Scientific Community
Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers
Tuesday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Cease-fire? 55 Dead on Monday
2056 GMT: A major, shocking headline, and a complete turnaround in rhetoric for the Bahraini regime:
The government of Bahrain cannot guarantee the safety of Formula One teams and spectators at this Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix as violence escalates in the Gulf kingdom, according to the British former police officer who is working on security at the track.
According to John Yates, the British law enforcement official who has been hired by the regime to revamp the Bahraini police, there was a possibility that security at the Formula 1 race could be compromised...
And the Bahraini police could resort to using live ammunition if necessary:
"The police will have all the options you would expect. If the opposition started firing live ammunition, the police would respond with live," he said, adding: "But I don't think that's likely."
This is a complete reversal for Yates, who once said that Bahrain was safer than London.
Yates insisted that the government continues to reform, and though security forces have sometimes overstepped their boundaries, those incidents were limited and being investigated. He denied that police were preemptively attacking villages.
The Ministry of Interior also released a statement today saying that rioters and vandals were arrested after having committed crimes.
However, as we saw today, police responded to the presence of protesters by challenging the crowds with riot police, and only showed restraint when they saw the media. Even with media present, the police still attacked. Other videos, taken over many months, show police randomly patrolling villages, looking for protesters to challenge, sparking reprisal attacks against the police. There does appear to be a pattern of police provocation, and the journalists in Bahrain have seen that with their own eyes.
Of course, there have also been incidents where protesters have used force against police. After 14 months of uprisings, however, and many months of John Yates, the situation has hardly gotten better.
In fact, it seems to be getting worse.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 7:05 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Security forces use tear gas in Bahrain on protesters and residents after a man died in his car, allegedly following an incident with a police jeep
See also Bahrain Special: The Commission of Inquiry's Report...& 14 Key Points About It
Egypt Analysis: So What Happens Now?
Egypt LiveBlog: Déjà Vu All Over Again
Tuesday's Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Turmoil and Confusion
2150 GMT: The week of Thanksgiving 2011 will be remembered for what happened in the Middle East. Once again, Egypt was so eventful that it merited its own liveblog. Two other major developments will make the history books. In Yemen, President Saleh signed the Gulf Cooperation Council deal, effectively agreeing to trade his rule for immunity. In Bahrain, the independent report on human rights, and the regime's reaction to it, will likely set the stage for the next phase of unrest there.
With these two stories, and Egypt's news, Syria was doomed to the bottom of the priority list today. And yet, we saw some massively important developments, an unseen amount of protest in Damascus and Aleppo, and signs that Europe may be contemplating an intervention in the crisis.
There are many parallels between Yemen and Egypt, as both may have removed a dictator but neither has seen lasting change. In Bahrain, the opposition continues to struggle to be heard. But the developments in Syria may be the most important in the long run. With the news of protests reaching the reaching the two largest cities, the opposition appears stronger than it has ever been, and the Assad regime appears weaker. As Yemen and Egypt struggle to chart their next chapter, and the Bahraini opposition struggles to establish itself against a powerful regime, it appears that Syria could be the next domino to fall, perhaps the largest and most important domino yet.
Ghazi Farhan and Alaa ShehabiSo there has been an utter lack of fairness in anything that has happened. The entire state apparatus has been turned into tools of repression and persecution. As far as the types of people who have been arrested: you could be sharing a prison cell with some of the best athletes, the best teachers in the country, even the best doctors were there at one point. The dragnet just swept across the entire spectrum of society. And you must have heard of the case of twenty doctors being convicted to fifteen years in prison. These sentences were handed out like parking tickets. In fact, a parking ticket takes longer to issue than some of these sentences, given they were held in these military tribunals.
