Red Cross Official Kidnapped! Death of a Protester In Bahrain,

French Red Cross official kidnapped in Yemen

He was seized late on Saturday around 30km from the Red Sea port of Hodeida.It is not yet clear who is responsible but is was said that kidnappings of westerners are not uncommon in Yemen. 


Abdullah al-Khalidi, a deputy consul in Aden, was abducted outside his home in the southern port city on 28 March. Al-Qaeda called for militants held in Saudi Abrabian prisons to be free in exchange for his release.A Swiss woman working as a teacher was also kidnapped in Hodeida in March.French news agency AFP reported that she is being held by al-Qaeda after being taken to the far eastern province of Shabwa.


Maybe the French Red Cross official is kidnapped by al-Qaeda to release more militants .


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17803302

More Clashes, and Death of a Protester In Bahrain

After a night of clashes between antigovernment demonstrators and the police, a protester was found dead Saturday near this capital, as Bahrain struggled to restore calm before an international auto race on Sunday. Opposition groups blamed the police for the death.Protesters have intensified their actions in the recent days, and clashed with the police again on Saturday.


A security official who said he had seen the body said it had gunshot wounds, but a government spokesman, Abdulaziz Mubarak al-Khalifa, would not comment on the cause of death until an autopsy was completed. A spokesman for Al Wefaq, the largest opposition group in the kingdom, said Mr. Musa had been among a group of protesters beaten by the police, and that the police had killed him.


The Bahrain government quashed the protests soon after, backed by troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but they have never entirely ended.Thousands of protesters, some hurling homemade bombs, clashed again on Saturday with the police, who responded with tear gas.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/world/middleeast/in-bahrain-more-clashes-and-death-of-a-protester.html?_r=1&ref=world

UN Syria vote is 'pivotal moment' says Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan says the UN vote to deploy up to 300 observers in Syria is a "pivotal moment for stablilisation of the country". Currently, only a small UN team is in Syria to monitor the fragile ceasefire.But on Sunday, it was reported by activists that at least two people were killed in Duoma and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the two civilians were killed during a government attack.


Saturday's vote at the UN Security council came as monitors were allowed to visit Homs for the first time. But the visit came amid a lull in fighting which rebels said was because tanks had been temporarily hidden while observers were in the city.The resolution also gave the boosted observer force a mandate to monitor for up to three months, but left it to Ban Ki-moon to decide how and when they will be deployed.


Will the government just stop making matters worse and just withdraw their forces, this is making me facepalm myself everytime i see the government saying that they would withdraw their troops but they are still trying to hide tanks temporarily from UN observers, this is a joke. 


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17803626