Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protest Here, Protest There, Protest Everywhere?

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.

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Yemen Feature: CIA Seeks Authority to Expand Drone Programme (Miller)

The CIA is seeking authority to expand its covert drone campaign in Yemen by launching strikes against terrorism suspects even when it does not know the identities of those who could be killed, U.S. officials said.

Securing permission to use these “signature strikes” would allow the agency to hit targets based solely on intelligence indicating patterns of suspicious behavior, such as imagery showing militants gathering at known al-Qaeda compounds or unloading explosives.

The practice has been a core element of the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan for several years. CIA Director David H. Petraeus has requested permission to use the tactic against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, which has emerged as the most pressing terrorism threat to the United States, officials said.

If approved, the change would probably accelerate a campaign of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen that is already on a record pace, with at least eight attacks in the past four months.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Will the Observers Make A Difference?

1959 GMT: Before today started in Syria, the UN Human Rights investigators had already expressed concern that the violence escalated significantly before the deadline for the ceasefire had arrived.

"The commission is also concerned by reports of new arrests, especially in Hama and Aleppo."

With news that the wholesale shelling of Homs continued, activists reported that Assad's air force was conducting attacks against Idlib and Saraqeb, and that at least 50 people have been killed today, I wonder how long the the UN monitors can keep a straight face when saying that things have gotten better since the ceasefire.

1948 GMT: Activist Zainab AlKhawaja reports that she may be receiving preferential treatment by Bahraini police because she is so high-profile, but there may be a case filed against her for taking pictures of tonight's protests:

The last thing I heard was "you must go to the police station, there's a case against u" apparently for taking pics #bahrain

— angry arabiya (@angryarabiya) April 16, 2012

Walking back to my car there was nobody on the streets but riot police started shooting lots of teargas #bahrain

— angry arabiya (@angryarabiya) April 16, 2012

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Free Alkhawaja

One of Friday's "Free Alkhawaja" rallies in Bahrain --- see also our Bahrain Video and Photo Special

See also Bahrain Feature: A Call from Hunger Striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja to His Family
Bahrain Video and Photo Special: Friday's "Free Alkhawaja Protests"
Lebanon Feature: Is Hezbollah's Syria Policy A Regional and Domestic Mistake?
Turkey Video Feature: Will the "Coup Trial" Heal Political Wounds?
Friday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Kingdom on Edge

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2045 GMT: On Friday night, Bahraini activist Zainab Alkhawaja was seized as she stood outside a military hospital and called out to her father, political prisoner Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, held inside on his hunger strike. She was released this afternoon.

Tonight Zainab returned. According to her mother, she was seized, tied to a wheelchair, and taken to the security room at the hospital.

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Yemen Feature: The Unresolved Economic Crisis (Salisbury)

Yemen's economy, fragile and sclerotic at best, effectively ground to a halt in 2011. A series of explosions damaged a major oil pipeline which is the source of most of the country's fuel. The ensuing shortage of diesel fuel, used to transport goods across the country and to pump most of the country's water, led to a sharp increase in the price of food and water. The government was forced to import fuel and hemorrhaged foreign currency reserves normally used to settle the hefty import bill that covers most of the wheat and rice eaten in the country.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 70+ Dead, 70+ Bodies Found as Homs Hospital "Liberated"

Claimed video of Syrian forces moving through the destruction in the Baba Amr section of Homs --- at the end of the clip, a soldier looks in on a family slain in their home

See also Saudi Arabia Feature: Assessing The Regime's Counter-Revolution
Bahrain Propaganda Special: Introducing the Regime's Best Friends in the US Congress
Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers
Monday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: What Happens After the "Friends of Syria" Meeting?

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2001 GMT: A march towards Bahrain's Ministry of Interior tonight:

1851 GMT: In the Bahraini capital Manama, prominent activist Nabeel Rajab has been protesting at the roundabout by the Ministry of Interior, holding a photo of political prisoner and hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja.

Nearby, protesters chanted "Free free Khawaja" before they were attacked by police --- one woman kept shouting, "Free Khawaja", as they ran away:

Mary Lawlor of the Irish activist group Front Line Defenders sends the message:

Leaving demo for Release of#Abdulhadi .the pent up aggression of the police was very obvious. Brave participants

— Mary Lawlor (@MaryLawlorFL) April 3, 2012

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Yemen Feature: An Arab Spring? No, Just More US Drone Strikes (Woods/Slater)

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Covert US strikes against alleged militants in Yemen have risen steeply during the Arab spring, and are currently at the same level as the CIA’s controversial drone campaign in Pakistan, a new study by the Bureau reveals.

At least 27 US military and CIA strikes involving cruise missiles, aircraft, drones or naval bombardments have taken place in the volatile Gulf nation to date, killing hundreds of alleged militants linked to the regional al Qaeda franchise. But at least 55 civilians have died too, the study found.

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Teenager is Shot to Death in Salmabad

After Bahraini police attack funeral procession for Ahmed Ismael Hassan (see 1445 GMT), youth respond by throwing Molotov cocktails at armoured vehicles

See also Bahrain Feature: The Killing of Ahmed Ismail Hassan
Libya Feature: With the "Islamists" in a New Country
Syria Flashback: The Schoolboys Who Sparked an Uprising
Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers
Friday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: No Sleep Until....

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2150 GMT: The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria report that 65 people have died today across the country, including six children and 10 defected soldiers. Twenty-seven of the deaths were in Daraa Province, including 18 claimed executions; 19 perished in Homs Province, and 12 in Idlib Province.

2145 GMT: Human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, detained earlier this evening in the Bahraini capital Manama, has been released:

Rajab facing a policeman before he was detained (Photo: EPA):

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Bahrain Feature: In Deaths, The Kingdom Handily Beats Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia

Fadhel AlObaidi, killed March 2012Last week over a pleasant cup of coffee, a colleague asked me a strange question: "I don't get it. Only 80 or so Bahrainis have died in the uprising. Why are they so furious?"  

Citing the number of people killed in the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen --- not to mention civil wars in Libya and Syria --- she said that by the umbers, Bahrain was at the bottom of the list. The anger and frustration expressed by Bahraini protesters was lost on her since "King Hamad really hasn't been as bad as Saleh, Ben Ali, and Mubarak."

I was a bit puzzled by this assertion. So I looked up the figures.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Peace Plan?

Mass protest in Jarjanaz in Idlib Province in northwest Syria today

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2130 GMT: A disturbing close to our coverage today --- footage has been posted claiming to be of women executed by regime "shabiha" (plainclothes forces) in Addawia in Homs in Syria.

2057 GMT: An evening demonstration in Kharab Al-Shaham in Daraa Province in southern Syria:

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