Archive: bahrain

23rd February 2013
By: Brian Whitaker
The London School of Economics (LSE) has cancelled a conference which was due to be held in the United Arab Emirates tomorrow after one of the speakers was turned back at Dubai airport. The conference, entitled "The New Middle East: Transition in the Arab World", listed several prominent Middle… Read more
21st February 2013
By: Brian Whitaker
Sheikh Nasser, the controversial son of the king of Bahrain, is organising an equestrian event in Britain, to be held next May in the grounds of Windsor Castle, Bahrain's government news agency (BNA) reports. BNA says the event – an "international endurance horse ride" – will take place "on the… Read more
13th February 2013
By: Brian Whitaker
A retired US admiral has joined those calling for the Fifth Fleet to pull out of Bahrain. Dennis Blair, a former chief of the US Pacific Command who also served as Director of National Intelligence in the first Obama administration, complains that American support for democracy and human dignity is… Read more
10th February 2013
By: Brian Whitaker
A new round of political dialogue is due to start in Bahrain today amid generally low expectations. The last such talks, in the middle of 2011, collapsed quickly. However, the Bahraini government has faced growing diplomatic pressure to talk to the opposition and the latest talks may have been… Read more
9th January 2013
By: Brian Whitaker
You couldn't make this stuff up. The Bahrain News Agency reportsthat King Hamad of Bahrain "won the title of Humanitarian Personality of the Year with absolute majority of votes" in a recent poll conducted by a Kuwaiti newspaper, al-Sharq. Apparently, "tens of thousands of personalities from the… Read more
8th January 2013
By: Brian Whitaker
There's an interesting article – for once – in today's Gulf Daily News (GDN), a generally pro-government newspaper which bills itself as "the voice of Bahrain". The article is an extraordinary attack on what its headline calls "PR mercenaries" – British and American "reputation management" firms… Read more
4th January 2013
By: Brian Whitaker
Bahrain's habit of excluding foreign journalists, NGO representatives, politicians and others whose work it dislikes has long been common knowledge – though the government denies it. Persisting in that denial may become more difficult following the publication of a report by Bahrain Watch which… Read more
21st December 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
Bahrain has violated the terms of its free trade agreement with the United States by failing to protect workers' rights, according to a US government investigation. In a report published yesterday, the US Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA) found that trade unionists and leaders in Bahrain "… Read more
1st December 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
Kuwaitis were out on the streets again yesterday – thousands of them protesting against corruption and calling for a boycott oftoday's election, while others were merely trying to catch a glimpse of Kim Kardashian, the ubiquitous American publicity-seeker. Judging by some of the "news" reports, Ms… Read more
26th November 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
There was a time when government media in the Arab countries could publish dishonest or misleading reports and expect to get away with it. Readers inside the country, having little access to information from outside, would be none the wiser. That changed years ago with the arrival of satellite TV… Read more