Bahrain Live Coverage: Why Did Saudis Pour Cold Water on "Union"?

See also Bahrain Live Coverage: "Union" with Saudi Arabia?

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1930 GMT: A march on Monday night rejecting union with Saudi Arabia:

1540 GMT: In another sign of the authorities' intent to crack down on expression in social media, Parliament has been considering legislation "to curb misuse of electronic means of communication as well as punish perpetrators using the platform to incite violence in the Kingdom".

The MPs are considering the formation of a committee with jurisdiction over offences allegedly committed via electronic and social media.

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Bahrain Live Coverage: Is the Regime Fostering Sectarian Conflict?

See also Bahrain Special: How Regime Supporters Used a New York Times Reporter (Again) To Denounce the Opposition
Bahrain/Egypt Video & Transcript: Nabeel Rajab and Alaa Abd-El Fattah with Julian Assange
Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "Last Chance to Avoid Civil War"?
Tuesday's Bahrain Live Coverage: Countering the Regime's Allegations Against Nabeel Rajab

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0851 GMT: Wafi Al-Majed, husband of detained activist Zainab Alkhawaja, updates on her case after a brief court hearing this morning:

Zainab case postponed to 15 May. And they want the ppl of #bahrain to be silent! In your dreams. Its either our way, or the highway. Choose!

— Wafi Al-Majed (@fetusbahrain) May 9, 2012

0529 GMT: Amnesty International has declared Nabeel Rajab, the director of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, a "prisoner of conscience". It called for his immediate release after his arrest last Saturday at Bahrain's international airport.

Prosecutors have claimed that Rajab fomented violence through social media. His lawyer said about eight insulting tweets were mentioned in a court hearing on Sunday, which gave Rajab a seven-day detention order.

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Bahrain Special: How Regime Supporters Used a New York Times Reporter (Again) To Denounce the Opposition

Drove past the Pearl Roundabout this morning...total nightmare! Filthy squalid tent camps. It's about time the government got them removed!

— Abigail Navarre (@CasaCoco) March 5, 2011

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Almost three weeks ago, in a feature and a follow-up, we revealed how three supporters of the Bahraini regime, amidst tension and clashes around the Bahrain Grand Prix, introduced themselves as the "silent majority" to three Formula 1 journalists. The men, with a great deal of success, promoted the monarchy, especially Crown Prince Salman, as the symbol of moderation and reform while characterising protesters as a violent, misguided, Iran-led minority.

Two days before that, we considered how Souad Mekhennet of The New York Times --- allowed, unlike other journalists such as her colleague like Nicholas Kristof, into the country --- proclaimed, "Bahrain Holds Grand Prix, Keeping Protesters at Bay". Indeed, she went farther, portraying the opposition as fragmented, with one faction denouncing another for the use of violence.

But could this propaganda success be extended by merging the two strands? Could Mekhennet, representing America's best-known newspaper, be introduced to people who would reinforce her denunciation of the opposition?

From Tuesday's New York Times, "Losing Faith With Protesters in Bahrain", written by Souad Mekhennet....

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Bahrain Live Coverage: Detaining Activists --- The "Twitter Excuse"

See also Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Elections Today --- Sham or Substance?
Bahrain Live Coverage: Prominent Activist Nabeel Rajab Arrested

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Cartoon: Carlos Latuff1653 GMT: The regime-linked Gulf Daily News has announced police reforms, including the construction of a state-of-the-art forensic laboratory, a "crime academy" to train officers, and 500 additional "community officers".

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Bahrain Live Coverage: Prominent Activist Nabeel Rajab Arrested

See also Bahrain Video Special: How the Tear-Gassing of A Village Begins
Saturday's Bahrain Live Coverage: The Many 1000s on the Highway

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Nabeel Rajab Leads Protest, 1 April1950 GMT: Finally, a press release from the regime that sets out its approach against detained human rights activist Nabeel Rajab....

Prosecutors, using the Bahrain News Agency, said:

[We] filed a case against the defendant after compiling compelling evidence of his involvement in inciting illegal rallies and marches online on social networking websites....The defendant's cyber-incitement proved detrimental as [it] fuelled rioting, road blocking, arsons, acts of sabotage targeting public and private properties, in addition to the use of Molotov cocktail incendiary bombs. The inquiry has also revealed compelling evidence on the defendant's role in instigating, online, acts targeting policemen whilst on duty, leaving some of them injured.

The statement effectively convicted, "[Rajab] admitted posting the defamatory and humiliating material on his account."

Most telling, however, might be this element of truth about this morning's court hearing, "The defendant stood the trial, in the presence of his lawyer, but he refused to answer the questions about the charges leveled against him, saying that he does not recognize the court."

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Bahrain Live Coverage: Zainab Alkhawaja Appears in Court

See also Bahrain Analysis: The PR Game, the BBC, and Alkhawaja's Hunger Strike
Syria, Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "War Crimes" in Idlib, Deaths in Cairo
Tuesday's Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime Plays for Time

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1430 GMT: Police repeatedly fire tear gas into Diraz on Tuesday night to disperse protesting youth:

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Enter the Observers

A protest in Aleppo on Sunday night

See also Bahrain 1st-Hand: Smuggled Footage of Crackdown & Interview with Ala'a Shehabi
Iraq Snapshot: The Divisions Among the Shia Factions
Bahrain Snap Analysis: The Regime's Propaganda Struggles
Bahrain 1st-Hand: The AlKhawaja Story - Wife/Mother Speaks Out
Turkey Live Coverage (30 April): Questions on the Syrian Front
Sunday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Two-Step of Protest and Detention

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2100 GMT: Iraq. In a further escalation of political tension, fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi and some of his bodyguards have been charged with a series of murders, including the killing of six judges.

Hashemi, a Sunni politician, fled Baghdad in December when the Shia-led Government issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing him of running death squads. He is now in Turkey and is not expected to attend the trial when it begins on Thursday.

2034 GMT: UAE. Amnesty International has called on the United Arab Emirates to immediately and unconditionally release nine political activists who have been detained in the last month.

The nine men belong to the Reform and Social Guidance Association (al-Islah), a non-profit organization that advocates --- through peaceful debate --- greater adherence to Islamic precepts.

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Bahrain Snap Analysis: The Regime's Propaganda Struggles

Bahrain's Minister of Justice on BBC's HardTalk

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In a series of messages last night via Twitter, hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja's wife Khadija Almousawi documented the pain of her husband while putting out his continued hope: "Despite all that happened to Hadi, he is as strong as a mountain, very thin but content and with his large smile. Again he said to us today he has never been happier."

Almousawi continued, referring to her detained daughter, activist Zainab Alkhawaja, as well as her husband: "No matter what they do, they cannot break my Hadi or my Zainab and this gives me strength to continue being hopeful."

The regime response? Saqer Al Khalifa, a leading figure in the social media campaign and former media attaché at the Bahraini Embassy in Washington, took the spectre of threat to a new level: Alkhawaja was comparable to the Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the planner of the attacks of 11 September 2001.

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Bahrain 1st-Hand: The AlKhawaja Story - Wife/Mother Speaks Out

With Zainab Alkhawaja in jail awaiting prosecution and her father Abdulhadi, now 81 days into a hunger strike, cut off from contact with his relatives from Monday until today, this has been a particularly difficult week for the family.

The Bahraini regime has been keen to reassure the world that Abdulhadi is in good health, but their decision to deny access to his family, lawyer and even the Danish Ambassador led to much speculation and concern over his condition. Authorities postponed the review of Abdulhadi's case, now scheduled to take place on 30 April. When the family was finally allowed to see him, they found that Abdulhadi was being drugged and force-fed with an energy drink, categorically against his wishes.

Today, Abdulhadi's wife Khadija al-Musawi wrote after she saw him and also spoke with her daughter Zainab:

#Bahrain Today it was a happy/sad day. Happy cus i saw my daughter Zainab and my dear husband Hadi.

— Khadija Almousawi (@tublani2010) April 29, 2012

#Bahrain and sad cus i had to listen to Zainab telling me how she was beaten and almost suffocated by the police and then she is accused.

— Khadija Almousawi (@tublani2010) April 29, 2012

#Bahrain Sad cus I had to listen to dear Hadi telling me how he was drugged, restrained, force fed and kept incommunicado for five days.

— Khadija Almousawi (@tublani2010) April 29, 2012

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Bahrain Analysis: Some Guy Wins Grand Prix, Regime Loses Legitimacy

Sunday's Grand Prix (Photo: Reuters)A Grand Prix run "without a hitch"? Not at all. The serious issue now is whether the regime will be successful in reducing the near-future to "just a hitch" which does not impede its legitimacy. The best it can hope for, however, is that media shrug their shoulders with the narrative of a "divided" Bahrain: that at least gives the authorities the Emperor's new clothes of stalwart support from a minority on the island, facing a more dangerous minority (Molotovs. Religious Extremism. Iran.) ---- and thus stability must be assured.<

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