Middle East Today: Iraq --- Results from Provincial Elections Inconclusive

See also Bahrain Special: How British Government Helped Regime Denounce Press Freedom...on World Press Freedom Day

Syria Today: Israel Airstrikes "Hit Military Research Centre"
Saturday's Middle East Today: Libya --- Tensions Continue Over Post-Qaddafi Laws

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Bahrain: Protestors Sentenced

A court has sentenced 31 protesters to 15 years in prison each for alleged roles in firebomb attacks against security forces during a demonstration last year, according to defence layer Mohamed al-Tajir.

The defendants, aged 16 to 34, all come from Sitra Island, a centre of protests since the rising began in February 2011.

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Iraq Audio Analysis: The Political Story Behind This Week's Deaths --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24

I spoke with Monocle 24's The Daily last night about Tuesday's fighting --- following a raid by security forces on a protest camp --- which killed at least 27 people in Hawija, near Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

Listen from the 7:42 mark on The Daily homepage or in a pop-out window

The discussion began with the provocative questions, "How deep does the sectarian schism run? Is this a return to civil war?"

To deal with this, I focused on the context for the event to look at what is likely to follow: the months of escalating, mainly-Sunni demonstrations against the al-Maliki Government; the sparks for the protests last December; and the issues that persist.

My take-away line from Monocle 24's final question, "What can we do about tbis?"....

"Nothing. The change will have to come from Iraqis themselves."

Iraq (and Beyond) Live: Scores Killed in Protest Camp and in Attacks Outside Mosques

1841 GMT: Iraq

At least eight people were killed and 23 more wounded when a car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, police and medical sources said.

1256 GMT: Bahrain

The visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has been put off until further notice at the request of the regime.

Juan Mendez was due in the Kingdom from 8-15 May.

This is the second time that my visit has been postponed, at very short notice. It is effectively a cancellation as no alternative dates were proposed nor is there a future road map to discuss.

Let me be clear this was a unilateral decision by the authorities. Unfortunately, it is not the first time the government has tried to avoid responsibility for the postponement of my visit, which was originally supposed to take place over a year ago.

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Iraq (and Beyond) Live: Provincial Elections Amid Spike in Violence

See also Syria Live: "Terrorists Eliminated by Army Operations"
Friday's Iraq (and Beyond) Live: Dozens Killed in Suicide Bombing in Baghdad Cafe

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1712 GMT: Egypt

In a statement pointing to the seriousness of the financial crisis, Central Bank head Hesham Ramez has said that each day that goes by without international support adds more risk.

Ramez pointedly noted that a promised $3 billion investment from Qatar to buy bonds, promised earlier this month, has not arrived.

Egypt failed this week to complete a deal with the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan.

The Central Bank head called on political groups to meet for dialogue, and said all attention should be placed on the economy so it can provide employment opportunities and confront poverty.

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Iraq (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Dozens Killed in Attack on Police Headquarters

Today's opposition rally in Bahrain "Change is Coming"

See also Syria Live Coverage: Diplomatic Breakthrough? Opposition Leader Meets Russia & Iran Foreign Ministers
Saturday's Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Beatings, Molotovs, & a Death in Clashes

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2102 GMT: Mali. French warplanes have carried out airstrikes in the far north near the Algerian border.

Thirty jets targeted insurgent training and communication centres around Tessalit in a mountainous area.

The French forces are trying to remove insurgents from their last urban foothold in the north, the town of Kidal. Paris's troops captured the airport on Wednesday, but --- contrary to some reports last week --- have not taken the centre of the town from an insurgent group, the MNLA, which is part of the Tuareg people.

Malian Interim President Dioncounda Traore has offered to hold talks with the MNLA to help secure Kidal.

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Iraq Revealed: A Mysterious Death and Britain's Secret Detention Camp (Cobain)

British Soldier with DetaineesThe helicopter crews had been told that a number of detainees were under armed guard at the side of the highway. They were to pick them up after dark and take them to a prison camp. What followed was far from routine: before the night was out, one man had died on board one of the helicopters, allegedly beaten to death by RAF personnel.

The incident was immediately shrouded in secrecy. When The Guardian heard about it and began to ask questions, the Ministry of Defence responded with an extraordinary degree of obstruction and obfuscation, evading questions not just for days but for weeks and months. The RAF's own police examined the death in an investigation codenamed Operation Raker, but this ended with some of the most salient facts remaining deeply buried. The alleged culprits faced no charges.

Asked where the men were being taken, the MoD had initially indicated that they were en route to a prisoner of war camp, one inspected regularly by the Red Cross.

Later it became clear that this was not correct: they were being transported to an altogether more secret location.

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Iraq Feature: State Department Drones Are Overhead...But For How Long? (Schmitt/Schmitt)

A month after the last American troops left Iraq, the State Department is operating a small fleet of surveillance drones here to help protect the United States Embassy and consulates, as well as American personnel. Some senior Iraqi officials expressed outrage at the program, saying the unarmed aircraft are an affront to Iraqi sovereignty.

The program was described by the department’s diplomatic security branch in a little-noticed section of its most recent annual report and outlined in broad terms in a two-page online prospectus for companies that might bid on a contract to manage the program. It foreshadows a possible expansion of unmanned drone operations into the diplomatic arm of the American government; until now they have been mainly the province of the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency.

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Iraq Opinion: Is This Really A Sectarian Conflict? (al-Khoei)

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and rival Iyad AllawiThe current political crisis in Iraq is often portrayed as a sectarian conflict between the Shia prime minister on the one hand and the deputy prime minister and vice-president – both Sunnis – on the other.

No one can claim that sectarianism in Iraq does not exist, but a closer look at the intra-sectarian conflict, sometimes just as bloody, can help paint a more nuanced picture.

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Iraq Feature: How Torture Revelations May Touch the Highest Levels of NATO (Kaye)

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh RasmussenA scandal unfolding in Denmark over the transfer of Iraqi prisoners by Danish forces to Iraq authorities, even as they knew they would be tortured, threatens to implicate the current Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen, formerly prime minister of Denmark from 2001-2009.

The defense ministry in the government of former Prime Minister Rasmussen is charged with withholding its knowledge of Iraqi torture from legislators when a copy of a 2004 inspection at Al Makil prison in Basra was sent to Parliament.

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Iraq Feature: Counting the Cost of the American Occupation (al Rubei'i and Al-Diyali)

After all these years, there's still this one thing that I can't quite understand. How could the same people who put the first man on the moon -- people who are so intelligent, so good at politics, so important in international affairs -- have made the mistake of invading Iraq? I can imagine two third-world countries deciding to go to war with each other and failing to plan ahead. But the Americans? Americans are good at business, aren't they? Normally, people in business would do a feasibility study. You'd think that you'd do that too before invading an entire country. You should make sure you have the right tools, alternative courses of action, back-up plans. But that didn't happen. There was no plan at all, as far as we could see. They should have been able to see, in a country with so many sectarian and ethnic divides, what would happen. But they didn't. They didn't understand anything.

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