30th September 2012

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

Bahrain court 'cuts sentence of Shiite athletes'
A Bahraini court on Sunday reduced jail sentences for three Shiite athletes who took part in a Arab Springinspired uprising last year to one year from 15 years, their lawyers said. The handball players were part of a group of 32 people accused of setting re to a farm belonging to a member of Bahrain's royal family in a Shiite village near Manama during the protests in February 2011. The athletes -- Mohammed Mirza, his brother Ali Mirza and Mohammed Jawad -had been sentenced to 15 years in prison by the quasi military court set up in the aftermath of the brutal government crackdown on the Shiite-led protests. Read More the Asian group representative, Bahrain's Information Affairs Authority said. The nomination "represents the international community's condence in Bahrain's progress in the human rights' eld," the authority said in a statement. A 17-year-old protester died Friday in clashes with security forces in the village of Sadad. Read More

Bahrain police fire on Shia funeral procession

Thousands of mourners chanted anti-government slogans and a smaller breakaway group hurled stones at the police. The interior ministry said the police acted in self defence. Shia-led protests against the rule of Bahrain's Sunni minority have been ongoing since February last year. Anmar, a Bahraini citizen who attended the funeral, told BBC News that there was no problem between Shias and Sunnis in the country - "the problem is between the people and the regime". Read More

Riot police in Bahrain have opened re on Shia protesters following the funeral of a youth killed during street battles with the security forces on Friday.

Bahraini wins human rights seat amid protests, teen's death

A Bahraini man won a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council Advisory Committee the same day a young protester in the country was killed, ofcials and a human rights group said Saturday. King Hamad Bin Isa AlKhalifa expressed support for Said Al-Faihani on his unanimous election Friday as

handling of the protest movement there, reported CNN.

Bahrain protest youth killed by police as nation wins UN rights seat

Bahrain's Said Mohammed Al-Faihani has been appointed the Asian Group's representative to an advisory body to the UN Human Rights Council despite growing concern over Bahrain's

His Saturday election came a day after theBahrain Center for Human Rights reportedthe death ofa 17year-old demonstrator, Ali Hussain Neamah, believed killed by riot police as part of ongoing nationwide antigovernment demonstrations. Read More to set it on re, BNA quoted Undersecretary Attorney General Muhammad alDosari as saying. The prosecution has referred 32 suspects to the criminal court, he said, adding that 15 of the suspects remain at large and arrest warrants have been issued against them. The rst hearing is to take place on October 18. Read More

Bahrain protest turns violent

protesting Fridays killing by a police patrol of a teenage boy. Several demonstrators were injured. Local Interior Ministry ofcials said the police acted in self-defense. 17-year-old Ali Hussein Nemat was shot and killed for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at members of a police patrol.

32 face trial in Bahrain for police centre attack

Thirty-two people are to face trial in Bahrain for allegedly attacking a police centre in the Shia village of Sitra, state news agency BNA reported on Sunday. The public prosecution has nished its investigations into the terrorist attack on Sitras police centre in which Molotov cocktails were used

Police in Bahrain used tear gas and stun grenades to break up a demonstration of more than 1,000 Shiites

Read More

The Uprising is Over. But What Is the Price of Bahrain's Victory?

For a recent publication on Bahrain, I was forced to go back and forth with an editor over the question of whether the February 14th uprising should be introduced in the present or past tense. Is it correct to say that the uprising is over?, that is, or do the continued clashes between riot police and mostly-youthful protesters constitute a continuation, qualitatively-speaking, of the original movement of early 2011?

I took--and do take--the former position: the uprising proper has ended. Or, rather, it was made to end by the sweeping security response initiated with the State of National Security and subsequently entrenched via Bahrain's effective "sectarianism as security" political strategy. In this sense, the actual rebellion has long been over, and "major combat operations," as some like to say, essentially were concluded with the second clearing (and for good measure razing) of the former Pearl Roundabout. Read More

Iran rules out interference in Bahrain

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on Sunday categorically rejected Bahraini foreign minister's claim of Iranian interference in domestic affairs of Bahrain, IRNA reported. He said that the claim made by Bahraini foreign minister at United Nations General

Assembly was old and repetitive and that such claims are made in a bid to avoid addressing public demands. Repetition of such claims will never help change the realities in the region, he said. According to Foreign Ministry's Information and Press Bureau, Mehmanparast said that the Lesser and Greater Tunbs and Abu Musa belong to Iran and will remain Iranian forever. Read More progress Bahrain has made during its decade-long reform project and commented on a number of issues pertaining to regional security. "Throughout its long history, Bahrain has opted for dialogue as an approach to all its modernization efforts oriented towards meeting the requirements of modern times, beginning by the election of municipal councils in the 1920s and the parliamentary councils during the last decades," he said. Read More

Bahraini forces open fire on anti-regime protesters

Bahrain's Saudi-backed security forces have opened re on anti-regime protesters, using shotguns and stun grenades to disperse demonstrators. Read More

Bahraini wins human rights seat amid protests, teen's death

A Bahraini man won a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council Advisory Committee the same day a young protester in the country was killed, ofcials and a human rights group said Saturday. Read More

Bahrain's Foreign Minister Outlines Steps for Reform, Commitment to Regional Security in Speech to the United Nations General Assembly
In remarks before the 67thUnited Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Bahrain's Foreign Minister His Excellency Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa highlighted the