1st/2nd March 2012

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

Bahrain delays U.N. investigator, limits rights group visit01/03/12
Bahrain has imposed restrictions on groups trying to monitor reforms including the Gulf Arab state's handling of protests and asked the U.N. investigator into torture to postpone a trip, the United Nations and rights groups said on Thursday. The U.N. human rights office in Geneva said Bahrain formally requested postponing until July the visit by the special rapporteur on torture, which had been scheduled for March 8-17. The investigator, Juan Mendez, will express his regrets to Bahraini representatives in meetings next week over this "last minute postponement," said Xabier Celaya, a spokesman of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Bahrain's big win attracts suspicion 01/03/12

A former England caretaker manager was at the centre of extraordinary events on the He would also "seek to secure nal day of preliminary new dates as he remains very committed to undertaking this qualifying in Asia for the 2014 important visit," Celaya added. World Cup. Peter Taylor's Bahrain, needing a nine-goal turnaround to progress to the Read More next stage, beat Indonesia Reprinted Here: 10-0 in a xture that may yet attract closer investigation Bahrain delays U.N. investigator, from Fifa, but were denied a limits rights group visits - Yahoo!7 place in the next round by Bahrain Postpones UN's Torture
Investigator Trip Bahrain: Government delays visit by UN torture investigator Bahrain delays U.N. investigator, limits rights group visits chicagotribune.com

Qatar's 86th-minute equaliser against Iran. Indonesia had their goalkeeper sent off after two minutes. The replacement let in a potentially pivotal ninth goal eight minutes from the end. Included in the nal tally were two penalties. The referee for the game, Andre El Haddad of Lebanon, has been involved in controversy before. Last year, he took charge of a qualier between China and Singapore that saw him make several hotly contested decisions. China won 2-1. Read More minute goal gave Qatar a 2-2 draw to clinch second place in the group at Bahrain's expense, but FIFA is still looking into the game. "Given the unusual outcome in relation to the resultsexpectation and head-to-head history, and in the interests of maintaining unequivocal confidence in our game, FIFA Security will conduct a routine examination of this game and its result," FIFA said in a statement. Read More

FIFA probes Bahrain's 10-0 win - 01/03/12

FIFA is to probe Bahrain's 10-0 Asian World Cup qualifying win over Indonesia in what it called a 'routine examination' based on the 'usual outcome' of the game. Bahrain had needed a ninegoal win to qualify in the Asian Group E match, while they also required Iran to beat Qatar. Ultimately, an 86th-

HRW demands Bahrain release activists 29/02/12

Carol Melrose arrived in Bahrain and started her career in marketing and public relations almost 21 years ago, just after the first Gulf War. "Bahrain was just was trying to emerge as a place for business," Melrose, a 55year-old citizen of the UK, told me. Excited about her new opportunity, Melrose worked in various companies and by

1997 started her own business, organising events and carrying out public relations functions for various clients. Things went well until 2009, when, Melrose said, some clients failed to pay for services she had provided. Around the same time, a business venture that she had invested in failed. She was left with substantial debt. Melrose said that only when airport authorities didn't allow her to leave Bahrain for a business trip did she discover that the creditors and international banks had filed travel bans against her. Read More was detained for over five months for participating in the democracy movement in Bahrain. Detained for longer than any other woman protestor, she was tortured and forced to sign a confession. Bahrain Military Courts unfairly sentenced her to three years in prison using this tortured confession. Read More

State oppression versus struggle for freedom - 01/03/12

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent. Martin Luther King Jr said in his speech in Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968. Abdulhadi Abdulla Hubail Alkhawaja, the prominent Bahraini human rights

activist, who now enters day 19 of his hunger strike against the regime of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, continues to make Luther King Jr proud. Alkhawaja is serving a life sentence for having refused to bend his back. The painful act of protest is not voluntary, some say. His jaws have been broken during custody: he cant chew. IV tubes, used to deliver uid into a patients body, have stopped working: his veins have shrunk due to weakness, according to his doctor. Read More

Jaleela Al-Salman: Democratizing Bahrain - 01/03/12

Jaleela Al-Salman is a teacher and vice president of the Bahrain Teachers Association. She, along with her cellmate Roula Al-Safar,

Bahraini forces kill another elderly man 29/02/12

Last week we talked about the octogenarian that they had shot dead, this week we talk about another elderly man killed by Bahraini dictatorship forces. Watch here

Formula 1 Facing Uncertainty for Future: A Fans Reaction - 02/03/12

Though the schedule was set for the 2012 Formula 1 season in December of 2011, there are some problems that may be looming in the distance. The rst race, to be held in just two weeks, is to take place in Melbourne, Australia. The current contract between the organizers and the series is expiring at the end of the 2015 season but a contract renewal is already being discussed. The series would like to convert the

race to a night race, which poses a problem for the organizers who would prefer to see it remain a daytime race. The fee for hosting the Formula 1 race is what is holding up the deal for a race in France, likely to be held in Paris. The plan is currently to start alternating races in Belgium and France annually starting in 2013. Currently, organizers of the Belgium race pay almost $30 million annually to the series. Organizers for both the Belgium race and the potential race in France have indicated that they would not be willing to pay more than approximately $20 million. Read More with the Prophet on Twitter, sentence thieves to amputation, announce that rape, sodomy, adultery, homosexuality, drug trafcking and apostasy are to carry the death penalty, and nobody except the Ofce of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights seems to care. The UN Security Council, the G20 (of which Saudi Arabia is a member), the International Monetary Fund, whose director recently visited Riyadh and expressed her appreciation of the kingdoms important role in supporting the global economy: none of them care. Read More

Bernie Ecclestone says F1 will bank 25million fee even if Bahrain Grand Prix is cancelled - 01/03/12
They [the Bahrainis] will pay if there is no race, the sports 81-year-old chief executive told The Telegraph. The money is in the bank already. So were not going because were going to get paid. That has nothing to do with it.

The fate of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which was postponed and then cancelled altogether last year in the wake of violent civil unrest which led to at least 35 deaths, has become a major talking point with the issue having been raised on numerous occasions in Westminster. One group of peers has called for a boycott of the country, whose authorities were found guilty of numerous human rights abuses last year. Another All-Party group of MPs is keen for the race to go ahead, believing it can be a catalyst for change.

Saudi Arabias freepass - 01/03/12

Saudi Arabias record is no better than Irans when it comes to respect for human rights. Yet the international community always manages to overlook the Wahhabi monarchy. Could this be connected with Saudi Arabias status as top oilproducing country and trusted ally of the US? Saudi Arabia can intervene in Bahrain, crush democratic protests there, execute 76people in 2011 (including a woman accused of sorcery), threaten to execute a blogger who posted an imaginary conversation

Nabeel Rajab: Al Khalifa are tyrant and should leave - 01/03/12

Times quoted Nabeel Rajab addressing the King of Bahrain in remarks published on Twitter: "I ask you to leave as sympathy to this country and its good people. You are a despotic tyrant who is unt to rule this land and I will cite some of the reasons. Read More

died from asphyxia on Wednesday several days after Saudi-backed forces red a tear gas canister at his home in Sihla district, southwest of the capital. Read More

Deers revolutionaries burn an armored vehicle - 01/03/12

The images were widely published in the social media networks, which showed the rebels being able to burn armored vehicle which belongs to the al-Khalifa regime. The images online showed angry people throwing cocktail Molotovs on armored vehicles which resulted in the burning of one vehicle. Read More

Thousands of Bahrainis Mourn another Tear Gas Victim - 01/03/12

The victim, identied as 60year-old Haj Habib al-Mulla