Bahrain's top court upholds activists’ jail sentences

Via : FRANCE 24

Bahrain’s highest court on Monday upheld the sentences of 13 activists for their role in anti- government protests last year, a defence lawyer said, in a ruling that could spark further unrest in the US-allied Arab state.

Bahrain's highest court upheld sentences against 13 leaders of a 2011 uprising on Monday, a defence lawyer said, in a ruling that could further fuel unrest in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state. Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based, has been in political turmoil since a protest movement dominated by majority Shi'ite Muslims erupted in February 2011 during a wave of revolts against governments across the Arab world.

The sentences, originally handed down by a military court in 2011 and upheld by a civilian court in September last year, range from five years in prison to life sentences. "This verdict is final, there are no more appeals possible, it is the last stage of litigation," lawyer Mohammed al-Jishi told Reuters by telephone from Manama. Twenty uprising leaders had been sentenced, but only 13 filed appeals. Some had been tried in absentia because they were out of the country or in hiding, Jishi said. The men who received life sentences included rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and opposition leader Hassan Mushaimaa, who has advocated turning the kingdom of Bahrain into a republic.

Kuwait police fire tear gas on defiant protesters

Source : Fox News

Riot police in Kuwait have fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse more than 1,000 anti-government protesters, defying strict rules limiting political demonstrations in the Gulf nation.

Kuwaiti authorities have said rallies must receive written permission as part of efforts to quell growing unrest over last month's parliamentary elections.

But organizers of Sunday's protest used social media to mobilize crowds.

Opposition groups have accused Kuwait's ruler of overstepping his powers by changing voting rules that appeared to favor government critics, which span from Islamist factions and pro-reform liberals. They now seek to bring down the new parliament dominated by pro- government lawmakers.

Kuwaiti rights activist Mohammed Al-Humaidi says several protesters were arrested. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Libya Islamists destroy Sufi artifacts

Via: Al Akhbar English

Conservative Islamists blew up the tomb of a 15th century Sufi scholar and burned down a library in the Libyan city of Zlitan, a military official said Saturday, the latest attacks on sites in the region branded idolatrous by some sects. The attackers used bombs and a bulldozer to destroy a complex of shrines that included the tomb of Abdel Salam al-Asmar Friday and ruined thousands of books at the Asmari Mosque library, said witnesses and Zlitan military council official Omar Ali. Hardliners, many of them emboldened by the Arab Spring revolts, have targeted a number of sites belonging to Islam's mystical Sufi tradition in Libya, Egypt and Mali over the past year. The assaults have also recalled the 2001 dynamiting by the Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan. Friday's attacks followed two days of clashes between tribal factions in Zlitan which killed two people and injured 18, according to military council counts.

"The extremist Salafis took advantage (of the fact) that security officials were busy calming down the clashes and they desecrated the shrine," Ali told Reuters, referring to conservative Muslims who see many Sufi sites as idolatrous. (Reuters)