Bahrain: Bahrain’s main human rights watchdog has reported a 25 per cent drop in the number of complaints it received in its latest annual report. The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) has just released its report for 2014, during which it investigated 88 complaints filed by a total of 119 people. That is down from 118 in 2013 and 78 of the complaints were related to civil and political rights, while seven were related to economic, social and cultural rights and three Read more [...]

Bahrain: Tens of thousands of people visited Bahrain’s ever-popular Farmer’s Market this weekend, making it one of the busiest ever. The market, held every Saturday from 8am to noon at Budaiya Botanical Gardens, also took place on Friday this weekend in celebration of National Day. Its executive manager Amani Abu Idris told the GDN that the response from the public had been “overwhelming” with 27,000 visitors recorded. “We have 35 farmers taking part this year and seven Read more [...]

Manama, Dec. 19 (BNA): Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA) will organise tomorrow (December 20) a special function to support the museum shows of Al-Hidaya Al-Khalifia Boys Secondary School at the school's premises in Muharraq. The event is part of the authority's work to preserve Bahrain's cultural memory and its festivities to mark the National and Accession Days. The gala charity dinner Read more [...]

During the demonstration in Berlin on Friday, the protesters chanted anti-regime slogans and called for prosecution of those behind the killings of dissidents.     Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has been witnessing almost daily protests against the Al Khalifa dynasty since early 2011, with Manama using heavy-handed measures in an attempt to crush the demonstrations. Scores of Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds of others injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown Read more [...]

Manama, Dec. 19 (BNA): Board member and head of the Bahraini side of the Bahraini-Saudi Joint Business Council of Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mr. Abdulhakeem Al Shemari alongside members of the council have recently visited the 2nd and 3rd industrial zones in Dammam K.S.A. Members of the delegation were welcomed by the Chairman of Al-Sharqia Chamber and head of the Saudi side of the Bahraini-Saudi Read more [...]

Batelco, Bahrain’s leading integrated digital solutions provider and Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, have collaborated to host a Datacentre Infrastructure Solutions workshop for its enterprise customers.   The Datacentre solutions offered by Batelco will enable businesses to protect their infrastructures from downtimes by managing systems through centralised monitoring system and capacity planning for Datacentres’ critical operations. Additionally, Read more [...]

Bahrain welcomed on Friday the UK’s conviction of a Bahraini dissident on charges of terrorism.Abdul Raof al-Shayeb, 51, was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison by a court in East London.Shayeb was convicted of terrorism charges after police found a cache of material on his computer, which included military files on bombs, missiles, and destruction, as well as images of him wearing army clothes.Some of the material was found when Shayeb was stopped four months ago at Gatwick Airport after Read more [...]

Manama, Dec. 19 (BNA): Energy Minister Dr. Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza left to Cairo, where he will head the kingdom’s delegation to the 95th meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) tomorrow. The delegation comprises the Secretary-General of the National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA), NOGA’s Strategies and Planning Director-General Ali Abdul-Jabbar Al-Sawad and the Minister’s Read more [...]

MANAMA: A leading Bahraini businessman, philanthropist and visionary who helped shape the nation has died. Husain bin Ali Yateem opened the country’s first cinema and its first petrol station, as well as being instrumental in the formation of national airline Gulf Air. He died yesterday, aged 101. He was the father of Ali, Mohammed, late Laila, Mary, Salwa and Sheherazede.  The funeral will be held today at 9am at the Manama Cemetery. Known as a professional, modest and humble Read more [...]

Bahrain: Food security in Bahrain could be at risk if more investment is not put into the country’s agriculture sector, a leading grower has warned. Despite vast improvements in new technologies such as hydroponics in recent decades, the whole of the GCC is still lagging around “20 years behind Europe”, according to Peninsula Farms chief operating officer Grahame Dunling. Speaking from his 300,000sqm farm in Sakhir that produces up to 1,000 packs of lettuce and 2,000 punnets Read more [...]