Bahrain

The United States continues to ignore the thwarted Arab Spring in Bahrain. Recently, a quasi-military court in the small Gulf state sentenced 20 doctors and nurses to up to 15 years in jail. The charge against them? Treating injured demonstrators opposing the regime. Doctors and nurses in the Middle East have a long and proud tradition of treating the ill, regardless of the situation. In ninth-century Baghdad, for example, Hunayn ibn Ishaq was the Caliph's physician. The Caliph asked this physician to prepare a poison to kill his enemies.

Kelly Dalla Tezza, a Fulbright scholar who planned a career in the U.S. Foreign Service, died Friday in an automobile accident in Morocco. She was 22 and lived in Parkville. Family members said she had a flat tire while driving on a road near Rabat and lost control of the vehicle. "She was the most fearless person I have ever known," said a close friend, Ashleen Williams of Bahrain, who is also a Fulbright scholar. "She was willing to go anywhere and do pretty much anything.

I'm interested in traveling to Bahrain to visit a friend. Is it safe, and are there tour operators who can help me? Although Bahrain is a close ally of the United States, you might want to reconsider a visit there given the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The U.S. Embassy in Manama, Bahrain, posted a message advising Americans living there of two scheduled demonstrations recently in support of Lebanon and, in one case, Hezbollah. Americans are advised to leave any areas where large crowds are gathered.

The United States continues to ignore the thwarted Arab Spring in Bahrain. Recently, a quasi-military court in the small Gulf state sentenced 20 doctors and nurses to up to 15 years in jail. The charge against them? Treating injured demonstrators opposing the regime. Doctors and nurses in the Middle East have a long and proud tradition of treating the ill, regardless of the situation. In ninth-century Baghdad, for example, Hunayn ibn Ishaq was the Caliph's physician. The Caliph asked this physician to prepare a poison to kill his enemies.

LONDON - It's not enough that Vladimir Kramnik was recognized as a genius at 4, was thumping chess grandmasters at 10 and won a world chess championship last year by destroying his mentor, Garry Kasparov. Now, only 26, he's defending humanity. Kramnik is preparing for the ultimate confrontation across a chess board, taking on a computer named Deep Fritz in an eight-game series in Bahrain beginning Oct. 12. "The Brains in Bahrain" is the latest installment of man vs. machine in chess, a battle of genius and computer chips, inspiration and software.

MANAMA, Bahrain -- As a liberty port, Manama cannot compete with the raunchiness of Manila or Bangkok, but the men and women of the U.S. Navy still regard it as an oasis in the heart of the Persian Gulf.Filipino barmaids, to the blare of heavy-metal music, serve up Coors in cans -- nectar in a sheikdom sandwiched by Saudi Arabia and Iran."It would take a brave man to open a girlie bar," as one foreigner points out, but Bahrain has managed to carve out a spirit so cosmopolitan that a framed commendation in one nightspot begins "Thanks for the nights we can't remember."

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is close to an agreement with Bahrain, an island nation in the Persian Gulf, to establish the forward headquarters of the U.S. Central Command there, administration and Bahraini officials said yesterday.In another development in the aftermath of the gulf war, U.S. officials said that Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, favored reversing policy to allow some U.S. ground forces to be permanently stationed in Saudi Arabia as part of any joint security arrangements in the region with Arab nations.

MANAMA, Bahrain - On one of the winding streets of this city's old market, where merchants sell everything from caged birds to exotic silks, a gold dealer named Said A. Razaq speaks both of his distaste for Saddam Hussein and his fear of what America's war might do to the Iraqi people. "We want Saddam to go," says Razaq, an Iraqi expatriate, whose store has shelf upon shelf of sparkling bracelets, necklaces and rings. "He wants to take all the wealth, and he likes to kill people, and he thinks Iraq is all for himself.

LACKAWANNA, N.Y. - The FBI has arrested a sixth man of Yemeni descent, family and friends said here last night, in addition to the five young American citizens charged Saturday with providing "material support" for al-Qaida terrorists. The new suspect, whose family said he was arrested in the tiny Gulf emirate of Bahrain as he prepared for his arranged marriage there, was identified as Mukhtar al-Bakri, who lived near the other young men in the Yemenite community of this fading steel town.

Kelly Dalla Tezza, a Fulbright scholar who planned a career in the U.S. Foreign Service, died Friday in an automobile accident in Morocco. She was 22 and lived in Parkville. Family members said she had a flat tire while driving on a road near Rabat and lost control of the vehicle. "She was the most fearless person I have ever known," said a close friend, Ashleen Williams of Bahrain, who is also a Fulbright scholar. "She was willing to go anywhere and do pretty much anything.

WEDNESDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS MLB Mets@Washington (T) MASN9:30 a.m. Dodgers@Florida MLBNoon Philadelphia@Arizona TCN5 Oakland@Angels ESPN7 Boston@Orioles MASN7 Mets@Washington MASN27 Boston@Orioles (T) MASN11:30 C. base. La Salle@Penn State (T) BIGTEN2 NBA play. Philadelphia@Miami: Gm. 5 TNT7 Memphis@San Antonio: Gm. 5 NBA8:30 Denver@Oklahoma City: Gm. 5 TNT9:30 Bowling Women's USBC Queens ESPN27 NHL play.

When revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt erupted earlier this year quickly forced out long-time autocratic rulers, many in the West hoped that the pro-democracy demonstrations there would unleash a tidal wave of change across the Arab world. To an extent, those hopes were borne out. In the months since the ouster of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, Libya and Syria demanding democratic reforms and an end to dictatorship.

The U.S. government watched without interfering as the citizens of Tunisia and Egypt changed their governments. We have not dispatched troops to Yemen, Syria or Bahrain as their citizens demonstrate and die. Yet we have intervened in Libya in support of an opposition group that apparently not only is leaderless but is unable to generate support among the people in areas still under government control. Haven't our ill-advised adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan wasted enough lives and treasure?

I'm interested in traveling to Bahrain to visit a friend. Is it safe, and are there tour operators who can help me? Although Bahrain is a close ally of the United States, you might want to reconsider a visit there given the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The U.S. Embassy in Manama, Bahrain, posted a message advising Americans living there of two scheduled demonstrations recently in support of Lebanon and, in one case, Hezbollah. Americans are advised to leave any areas where large crowds are gathered.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen fired at vehicles carrying the chief envoys of Bahrain and Pakistan in separate attacks yesterday in what apparently is a campaign to intimidate nations from upgrading ties with Iraq. The Bahraini diplomat, Hassan Ansari, was wounded in what his government said was an attempt to kidnap him. Pakistan's envoy escaped injury, but his Foreign Ministry said it would pull him out of Iraq until security here improves. Yesterday's attacks came three days after Egypt's top diplomat was abducted from a Baghdad street.

MANAMA, Bahrain -- It may be one of the world's largest trauma centers, a ship with a mission both rewarding and grim. It might be the most distinctive Maryland presence in the Persian Gulf, thanks to its home berth in Baltimore and a crew that mostly hails from between the Potomac and the Mason-Dixon Line. But the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship taking on injured from Iraq, is also something else. It is a small city where people live and sleep, make new friends and long for others, eat junk food and watch their weight, read fiction and philosophy, work hard and sit around, do taxes and plan their divorces -- some prompted by Dear John letters that have already arrived.

Lebanese man is suspect in blaze that killed 10LUEBECK, Germany -- Police said yesterday that they had detained a 21-year-old Lebanese man as a suspect in Thursday's fire that killed 10 immigrants at a shelter for asylum-seekers. They said the suspect lived there.A local newspaper said the man and two of his brothers had been taken into custody Friday. The brothers were released.Bahrain threatens to use armed forces to stop riotsMANAMA, BahrainMANAMA, Bahrain -- Bahrain's defense ministry warned yesterday that the armed forces were ready to step in to quell the year-old riots that reflect tensions between the country's Sunni Muslim rulers and its Shiite Muslim population.

MANAMA, Bahrain -- There is nothing more beautiful than watching people get to vote in a free election for the first time -- particularly in the Arab world, where elections have been so rare. That's what happened in Bahrain on Thursday, as this tiny island nation off the east coast of Saudi Arabia voted for a parliament that will, for the first time, get to share some decision-making with Bahrain's progressive king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. As I visited polling stations, what struck me most was the number of elderly women who voted, many covered from head to toe in black burqa-like robes.