Upholding “eight life sentences and other sentences ranging from five to 15 years against 20 political and rights activists,” Bahrain “Â sends a signal that government concessions are unlikely even as officials begin low-level talks with some opposition groups”:
- Bahrain Activist Verdicts Send Tough Message on Protest (Christian Science Monitor)
For the first time in its 80 year history a publisher is raided for publishing a book in which a police officer charges that West Bengal’s chief minister’s plan to grant imams and madrassas state benefits is a violation of separation of mosque and state, a “trick … to buy off a Muslim and make him a slave“:
- Sharp Criticism for Mamata Banerjee in Muslim Officer’s Book (NY Times / International Herald Tribune)
Hamas has replaced seven of its 14 ministers “in what officials and analysts say was a move to put more popular, competent officials in power,” but “as long as tight Israeli restrictions on the coastal strip continue, the Hamas leadership will remain limited in what it can deliver to its citizens”:
- Hamas: An Islamist Party Tries to Regain Its Luster (Christian Science Monitor)
The murdered American girl’s case “is unique because she was the first foreign national to be killed while protesting Israeli occupation, though she was hardly the last;” her  family failed to receive compensation but has succeeded in exposing “the Israeli culture of impunity” in its “systematic policy of destruction and demonization”:
- Rachel Corrie: Blaming the Victim (Haaretz)
Turnabout is fair play department:
- Pakistani Cleric Faces Possible Blasphemy Charge for Allegedly Trying to Frame Christian Girl (AP / Washington Post)
- Iran’s Navy to Place Warships off US Coast ‘in the Next Few Years’ (Christian Science Monitor)
“[S]napped up for distribution in Germany, Switzerland and France, with further purchases expected in Venice this week[, t]he one place where [Saudi-directed the film] is unlikely to play is in Saudi Arabia itself: the kingdom currently does not contain a single movie theatre”:
In his first foreign policy address, Egyptian President Morsi calls on Assad to step-down from power, for Iran to stay out of Arab affairs, and for the Palestinians to get full membership at the United Nations:
- Egypt’s President Urges Syrian Regime to Go, Warns Iran to Stay Out of Arab Affairs (AP / Washington Post)
From “the stupidest thing I have ever heard†and “patently illegal under international law†to “ we can’t do it alone”:
- Bomb Iran? Why 5 Top Israeli Figures Don’t Want to Do It (Christian Science Monitor)
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