Bahrain 1st-Hand: Journalist Lamees Dhaif "I Can't Be Silent Knowing My People Are Being Oppressed"

Lamees DhaifI can't live my life knowing that my own people are being oppressed like this and I'm not saying or doing anything. I am a successful journalist and I had a bright future.

But I have thrown that away. I don't care about my future anymore. I care about those people. They are giving their lives, hoping for a better future - not for them, for their coming generations.

And what Bahraini people are doing is very brave. Bahraini people are really brave and they deserve for the world to see how brave they are. They are people who have nothing to defend themselves and they are facing the money of the petrol and the armies of many countries, and yet they are standing with their heads high and saying: "We will not obey. We will not go back."

Bahraini activist and journalist Lamees Dhaif speaking to Maia Newley

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Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Year After the Uprising

2359 GMT: We close today's coverage with the news that a fourth person has died in Bahrain in two days. Mohammed Ebrahim Yaqoob, a 17-year-old from Sitra,, died this evening in hospital whilst under police custody, from injuries sustained earlier today.

As we noted earlier, police action in Sitra was especially reckless, endangering many lives. The following video, where Bahraini security forces drive aggressively at defenceless citizens, allegedly shows Mohammed fleeing from the Toyota manufactured jeeps. This detail is unconfirmed, but many activists are claiming that Mohammed was subsequently run over by police and that is how he sustained his fatal injuries:

The news of Mohammed's death follows the announcement of three other deaths, allegedly at the hands of security forces.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Another Bloody Day

2102 GMT: Everything in Syria isn't about the death tolls, however. Because it's been such a busy day, we've neglected to report that there have been a large amount of peaceful protests across the nation. And many of those protests have lasted into the night.

This video was taken in Duma, Damascus, a city that has hosted some of the most impressive protests in the entire uprising in recent days:

This video was taken in Anadan, an important suburb of Aleppo and a stronghold for anti-government protests.

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Bahrain Analysis: Navigating a Rising Tide of Violence

Protesters chase security forces --- who had earlier dispersed a funeral, arresting youth and pushing away women --- out of AlEker village on Sunday

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Continued violations by the security apparatus suggest that the State’s talk of reform is disingenous. The Government are fully aware that continued repression will only antagonise the opposition, and contribute to the radicalisation of youth, whose adoption of violent tactics will create a subsequent desire for law and order to be restored. A similar situation was seen last year immediately after 15 March, where despite the presence of the Peninsula Shield, the Bahrain Defence Forces, and public security vigilantism took hold of Bahrain and generated considerable panic.

So not only does activist violence plays into the hands of the regime, but it also undermines attempts to garner broad-based popular support for a social movement, especially in a society where loyalties remain divided. This somewhat paradoxical situation underpins a conundrum faced by social movements around the world who are dealing with intransigent regimes. These regimes know that by using violence to radicalise opposition that might otherwise be peaceful, they are creating more violence, which simultaneously bolsters support for the regime amongst existing loyalists or moderates.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond): Finding the Dead in Idlib

Clashes on Saturday in AlEker in Bahrain, from police dispersing a funeral procession --- with detentions of youths and pushing of women --- to young people forcing the security forces to flee (see also 0814 GMT)

See also Syria Interview: Kurdish Leader Abdulhakim Bashar "We Demand the Right to Self-Determination"
Saturday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: An Exclusive in Zabadani, A Rally in the Kingdom

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2200 GMT: The Arab League has put forth a political roadmap for Syria, with President Assad delegating power to a deputy and setting up a unity government as a prelude to early Parliamentary and Presidential elections.

The League called on Assad to open discussions with other groups, including the opposition, within two weeks on the intiative. The new government would be formed within two months, electing a council that will write a Constitution and prepare for the elections.

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told a news conference, after the meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo, that the League would ask for the enforcement of the UN Security Council.

One observer, journalist Blake Hounshell, has noted the plan is similar to the approach taken by the Gulf Co-operation Council to resolve the Yemen crisis. The GCC put forth its call to President Saleh to transfer power in spring 2011; Saleh finally agreed in November and said today that he is leaving for the US for medical treatment.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: An Exclusive in Zabadani, A Rally in the Kingdom

Jeremy Bowen of the BBC reports from "free" Zabadani in Syria

See also Middle East Feature: Britain Accused of Hypocrisy Over Arms Sales
Bahrain Video Feature: Celebrating Creative Resistance
Bahrain Special: The Air Show, the "Black Smoke" Campaign, and the Dark Arts of Regime Propaganda
Friday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: From Defection to Insurrection

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2010 GMT: As anticipated, the final results of Egypt's elections confirm what many believed would be a landslide victory for Islamist parties. Reuters reports that the Muslim Brotherhood coalition has won 38% of the list seats while the salafist Nour Party 29%. This gives the Islamist parties a two-thirds majority in the party list-based vote. New Wafd and the Egyptian Coalition came third and fourth, respectively.

2000 GMT: Bahraini security forces harshly suppressed a protest held in A'ali was harshly suppressed today. The protest was held to demand the release of detainee Fadeela AlMubarak. An image of the procession before it was attacked:

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Middle East Feature: Britain Accused of Hypocrisy Over Arms Sales (Dugan)

A "Throne" of Tear Gas CanistersThe British Government was accused of "a brazen return to business as usual"..., after licensing exports of weapons worth millions of pounds to regimes accused of repression, including Egypt and Bahrain. The permits were granted just months after ministers said they would "carefully review" licenses for countries that met protest with violence.

Arms approved for export by the UK last autumn include rifles, sniper sights, combat vehicle parts, artillery technology and gun silencers.

The revelation comes after David Cameron's visit to Saudi Arabia...was marred by questions over Britain's continued export of arms to the kingdom, which has been accused of human rights violations. Despite unrest in Saudi Arabia last year, the UK sold the regime bomb equipment, weapons sights and components for military vehicles and helicopters.

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Bahrain Video Feature: Celebrating Creative Resistance (Owen Jones)

People spell out "We Are With You, Bahrain" in candles --- the display is then run over by police jeeps

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While some may be forgiven in thinking that Bahrain’s protests are limited to attempted peaceful sit-ins, tyre burnings and roadblocks, they would be wrong. Protest comes in many different forms, and Bahrainis have expressed their discontent in a great variety of ways. While some methods attract more criticism than others, little attention has been paid to softer forms of resistance. I’m not talking about boycotts or withdrawing money from banks, but creative forms of protest that show defiance through humour or beauty.

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Bahrain Special: The Air Show, the "Black Smoke" Campaign, and the Dark Arts of Regime Propaganda

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The public relations campaign in Bahrain is a fierce and increasingly ugly one, which brings in a multitude of competing interests seeking to frame the situation for their own purposes. For regime supporters working to spread a certain message to the West, it is about obfuscating any apparent excesses by the monarchy and their forces and amplifying the alleged threat posed by the opposition, using sectarian rhetoric both for Bahrainis and expatriates.

What is particularly troubling about the regime's manipulation of the "black smoke" campaign is its possible links to more nefarious purposes, connecting propaganda, targeted at the Shia community, with violence.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: From Defection to Insurrection

2156 GMT: Bahraini human rights activist Said Yousif Almuhafda shares two videos, which he has described as "foreign mercenaries attacking ladies with soundbombs in manama for no reason." We're not able to confirm any of those claims, and the quality of the video makes it difficult to determine what exactly is happening.

This video, however, we can confirm was taken earlier, giving a clear impression of the size of the protest rally earlier today. Though this rally was peaceful, reports of police disrupting protests with teargas and beatings have lasted well into the night:

2136 GMT: The US State Department is preparing to close it's embassies in Syria. According to the Washington Post,

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