A man, referring to today's killing of teenager Hassan AlJazeeri, defies Bahrain security forces, "You killed a 17-year-old kid. Shoot me, I don't fear you"
1918 GMT:Bahrain. The Information Affairs' Authority --- deliberately or unwittingly --- has built on a pro-regime disinformation campaign --- to warn about "direct threats" by an opposition which it calls "terrorist gangs and saboteurs".
Opposition groups, including Al Wefaq, have called for Bahrainis to refrain from shopping, banking, and fuelling their cars. Pro-regime activists have used that to put out fake flyers, in the name of the opposition, threatening people if they do not join the boycott.
1918 GMT:Bahrain. The Information Affairs' Authority --- deliberately or unwittingly --- has built on a pro-regime disinformation campaign to warn about "direct threats" by an opposition which it calls "terrorist gangs and saboteurs".
Opposition groups, including Al Wefaq, have called for Bahrainis to refrain from shopping, banking, and fuelling their cars. Pro-regime activists have used that to put out fake flyers, in the name of the opposition, threatening people if they do not join the boycott.
Now the IAA has put out the statement:
Some internet webpages and social media accounts in Bahrain circulated news about direct threats being sent by terrorist gangs and saboteurs to various individuals, groups, families, workers, shops and companies intended to compel citizens and residents to stay at home and refrain from going to work or business as usual on Thursday February, 14, 2013 in a desperate bid to forcibly impose a de facto public strike in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
On Saturday, Fars News featured an interview with a "Sheikh Sadiq Kadhim Al-Jamri", a Bahraini who extolled the Islamic Republic as a model for Muslims in the Middle East. Al-Jamri said that it was the late Ayatollah Khomeini who had first inspired the "Arab Awakening" with the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which had "brought revolutions to Muslims from Tunisia to Egypt and Libya to Yemen and Bahrain ".
Bahrain's economic reforms --- once hailed as the most ambitious in the Gulf --- seems to have stalled as hardliners in the Sunni ruling family who see Shi'ite protesters as a threat to the state bring the programme under their wing.
Stalling the reforms has involved replacing the heads of key institutions and altering their remits. And the process has the added advantage of reinforcing patronage networks stemming from resources under the control of powerful figures in the state.
Alkhawaja, the daughter of detained human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, has been briefly held on several occasions since the start of mass protests in February 2011, but this was her first extended stay behind bars. She was fined last week for alleged assault of a policewoman and was being held for participation in illegal marches.
1715 GMT: Clarifying our previous entry, Nabeel Rajab's lawyer Mohamad Al Jishi has been granted bail on the charge of inciting violence via Twitter, but the activist remains in detention on other charges. His next court hearing is on 30 May.
1200 GMT: The lawyer for human rights activist Nabeel Rajab sends the message, modifying earlier reports (see 1040 GMT), that his client will be freed on bail although he will not be able to leave Bahrain:
Nabeel Rajab will be released on bail and travel ban in twitter defamation case and adjourned the hearing to May 23. #twitdef#Bahrain
— Mohamed Al Jishi (@Mohamed_AlJishi) May 20, 2012
Cartoon: Carlos Latuff1914 GMT: The wife of detained human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who is Day 95 of his hunger strike, has seen him for two hours today.
Khadija Almousawi said her husband appears in better condition, but he is still only taking water and juice.
2235 GMT: We're taking a Saturday night break --- back at 0600 GMT on Sunday with the latest news from North Africa and the Middle East.
1718 GMT:Iraq. A Bahraini activist is reporting that human rights defender Said Yousif and former MP Sayed Hadi Al Mosawi, detained earlier today during a march in Manama (see 1525 and 1607 GMT), have been released.
1700 GMT:Iraq. Wladimir van Wilgenburg passes on reports of closed-door meetings today in Erbil in Kurdistan between Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani, Iraqiyya Party leader Iyad Allawi, and leading Shia politician Moqtada al-Sadr to discuss political tension over the national government.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, embroiled in a number of disputes with other prominent politicians, was not present.
Van Wilgenburg evaluates that the session indicates that Talabani's opinion might not be that different from that of Barzani, despite earlier reports of points of disagreement. In contrast, Sadr met with al-Maliki in Iran before heading to Kurdistan, and a Sadrist spokesperson said they would not discuss withdrawing confidence from the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, Iraqiyya list member Salih al-Mutlaq, despite his opposition to al-Maliki, criticized Barzani's call for a referendum in September for Kurdish independence.
Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 6:24 | 
