10th December 2014

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

Disputed land
development boosts
wealth of Bahrain
royals
Bahrains royal family has
built up vast private wealth,
including a $900m portfolio
of UK real estate, after
embarking on development
projects on disputed land in
the Gulf kingdom.
The revelations, based on
company records, give a
rare insight into the closely
guarded wealth and
investment strategies of the

Sending troops to
protect dictators
threatens all of us
We may have known the
outline of the global US
kidnapping and torture
programme for a few years.
But even the heavily
censored summary of the
US senate torture report
turns the stomach in its
litany of criminal barbarity
unleashed by the CIA on
real and imagined US
enemies.

Bahrain: 2nd blast in

as many days kills 1
Bahrain's Interior Ministry
says a citizen of the
kingdom has been killed in
a "terrorist bombing" in a
village southwest of the
capital Manama, the
second deadly explosion in
as many days.

Bahraini royal family at a

time when it is under
scrutiny because of its
crackdown on protests.
A Financial Times
investigation reveals that in
the past decade Premier
Group, the secretive private
investment vehicle believed
to be owned by the king
and members of his family,
became the owner of
undersea plots that the
company used to obtain
stakes in land reclamation
joint ventures to build luxury
hotels, office buildings and
housing.

Bahrain land deals

highlight alchemy of
making money from
sand
Rising out from the sea on
the Manama shore is a new
Four Seasons hotel, a
68storey skyscraper on an
exclusive private island.
Scheduled to open early
next year, it will be home to
three restaurants run by
celebrity chef Wolfgang
Puck and will offer a range
of luxurious amenities.

The imposing structure is

part of Bahrain Bay, a
$2.5bn development that
juts out on to what
previously was an expanse
of water.
For the developers it is part
of an ambitious vision for
21st century Bahrain. For
activists, it is a symbol of
inequality in a country
marred by human rights
violations and sectarian
strife, where an acute
housing shortage persists
even as exclusive
developments multiply.
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The earlier accounts of US

brutality in Abu Ghraib and
Guantnamo pale next to
the still sanitised record of
forced rectal infusions and
prolapses, multiple
waterboarding drownings
and convulsions, the
shackled freezing to death
of a man seized in a
mistaken identity case,
hooded beatings and
hanging by the wrists, mock
executions,and sleep
deprivation for up to 180
hours.
Read More

The ministry announced the

attack in Karzakan on its
official Twitter feed
Tuesday. The blast in the
predominantly Shiite
community also injured an
Asian man.
A Jordanian police officer
was killed in a separate
attack elsewhere late
Monday.
Read More

naval base in Bahrain. The

motion says:

British MPs 'appalled'

over Bahrain base
Twelve British MPs have
signed a parliamentary
motion criticising the
government's decision to
establish a "permanent"

One killed in Bahrain

blast, second bomb
in two days

So far, eight Labour MPs

have signed, plus one each
from the Liberal Democrats,
the Irish SDLP, the Welsh
Plaid Cymru and the Green
Party. It's unlikely, however,
that the motion will be
allocated parliamentary
time for a debate.
Read More
Shi'ite Muslim majority but
whose rulers are Sunni
Muslims, since the
opposition boycotted
elections last month.

A bomb explosion killed a

Bahraini citizen and
wounded an expatriate man
on Tuesday, the Interior
Ministry said, the second
fatal attack in the Gulf Arab
state in as many days.

The ministry called

Tuesday's attack a "terrorist
explosion" and said police
were on the scene of the
blast in a village southwest
of the capital Manama.
Bahrain's largest Shi'ite
opposition group, Al Wefaq,
condemned the attack.

Political tensions have been

running high in the
kingdom, which has a

Read More

Bahrain court
sentences prodemocracy activist
Zainab al-Khawaja to
16 months in jail
Pro-democracy activist
Zainab al-Khawaja has
been handed a 16 month
prison sentence by a court
in Bahrain after being found
guilty of insulting a
government employee and
damaging public property,
her lawyer said.

It follows a previous
conviction for insulting King
Hamad by tearing up his
photograph. She was
sentenced on December 4
to three years in jail and
fined 3,000 dinars ($7,960)
for that charge.
She was free on bail and
that sentence was
suspended pending an
appeal. However Tuesday's
verdict was effective
immediately.
Read More