SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- Tensions in Bahrain are beginning to run high again with the controversial Grand Prix circus soon to return to the country. After the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on April 14, the multi-million pound race will descend upon Bahrain again on April 21. This picture, taken on Easter Sunday, shows foreign labourers in the village of Barbar, west of the capital Manama, collecting equipment against a wall sprayed with graffiti in protest at the upcoming…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Fatima Haji, one of a group of Bahraini doctors who faced five years in jail but was acquitted in June 2012, told RT about the physical and psychological torture she experienced while in police custody. She explained that she was arrested from her own apartment along with 19 other doctors who disappeared from their homes, hospitals and operating theatres. None of them were allowed contact with lawyers or their family during interrogation and they…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- The Formula One (F1) has always been a loss-leader for Bahrain. The country pays a fee to host it -- estimated to be at least $40 million each year -- and doesn't recoup this in direct ticket sales. Rather, the race is supposed to stimulate business worth hundreds of millions of dollars through its knock-on effect on other business. A 2008 study commissioned by the state sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, suggested that the race added…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- On Wednesday, Bahrainis marched in a large funeral in Sitra, south of the capital Manama, mourning the death of a 35 year old named Jaffar al-Taweel, who is the latest of many toxic teargas victims. The mourners were angered by the regime's ongoing killings within its organized terror against peaceful citizens for their political opinions and demands for a democratic transition. The outraged mourners chanted demanding all killers be held accountable regardless of their high-ranking…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- A defence lawyer in Bahrain says 21 medical personnel have been cleared of charges linked to anti-government protests but cases remain open against two others who failed to appear in court. Lawyer Abdulla al-Shamlawi said a court on Thursday issued the acquittals, but left charges against two who did not appear in court. Arrests of dozens of doctors and nurses were part of the crackdown by the Gulf kingdom's Sunni rulers after an uprising began…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- The Bahrain i government’s official spokeswoman has accused Prof Tom Collins, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RSCI) Bahrain campus, of “utter lies” after Prof Collins said he was resigning because a conference he helped organise on medical ethics failed to get a permit. Prof Collins informed staff and students at the weekend that he was stepping down in protest over the cancellation of the two-day event which was to examine “medical ethics and…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- A large rise in the number of sickle cell disease deaths in Bahrain has prompted concern. The Gulf island kingdom has a high incidence of the genetic red blood cell disease, but in 2012 the number of people in Bahrain who died from sickle cell disease (SCD) rose from 32 the previous year to 50. Two experts contacted by the BBC have said that the rise may be linked to the heavy use of teargas…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- On Sunday, Zainab al-Khawaja, a 29-year-old human rights activist and mother from the tiny and pro-American nation of Bahrain, did two things. First, she wrote an open letter, from prison, asking the U.S. to reconsider its support for the increasingly authoritarian Bahraini monarchy and imploring her fellow activists, frustrated by two years of mass protest that had achieved some of the most meager gains of the Arab Spring, to never give up their commitment to nonviolence.…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –A jailed Bahraini rights activist who launched an open-ended hunger strike eight days ago after being denied visitation rights has published a letter explaining her actions. Zainab al-Khawaja, who is serving a six-month prison sentence for “insulting” a police officer and participating in unsanctioned protests, began refusing food and water on March 17 after prison authorities prevented her from seeing her three-year-old daughter, Jude. Authorities wanted to punish the political prisoner, she wrote, for refusing…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- Sawsan Al-Shaer pro -government writer wrote in Alwatan newspaper article threading USA and Shia that they will face Al-Qaeda if US give the power or share in Bahrain to bring the majority Shia She said "  USA risks their full interests in the Gulf region, also displays Shia groups in these countries at great risk while make them in the face of others, by attempts to enable radical Shia group on Bahraini people capabilities forcibly and threatened. US will…