At Funeral of Qaddafi's Son (Photo: Reuters)
1852 GMT: A Bahraini official has denied that the government is targeting Shi'ite mosques for destruction. Bahrain's Justice and Islamic Affairs minister, Shaikh Khalid Bin Ali Al Khalifa, claims that many buildings that were built illegally are being destroyed, but mosques were not being singled out:
"By taking action against illegal buildings that have accumulated over the years, the municipality should be praised, not criticised," he said. "We are not targeting mosques, but any building that was put up in violation of the laws and regulations. Claims that some of the buildings were more than 200 years are also untrue because under Bahrain's laws, any real estate that is more than 60 years old is duly recorded in the country's registers. We should not fall for baseless allegations and should learn to co-exist peacefully," he said.
He also took offense to the classification of Shiite and Sunni mosques.
1830 GMT: Algeria has approved a big wave of government spending, subsidies for food staples and the removal of duties, in order to pacify growing discontent there as well. The move will increase public spending by 25%.
1620 GMT: Switching to Bahrain, 47 medical professionals are facing prosecutions, some of them for the death of two protesters. The two deceased were injured during the anti-government protests, and some of the medical professionals are being accused of providing "unnecessary" treatment on them, leading to their deaths.
It is widely thought that the government is cracking down on the doctors and other medical professionals because they have credibility, and have witnessed many of the wounds that the protesters have suffered at the hands of government security forces.
Also, two former MPs, both members of the opposition group Wefaq, have been arrested.
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Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 8:51 | 