BEIRUT, Lebanon — Troops backed by tanks stormed a city on Syria’s Mediterranean coast on Saturday that has proved one of the most restive in the seven-week uprising, besieging neighborhoods and cutting electricity and phone lines, opposition groups said.

The military’s move against Baniyas, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city that witnessed some of the largest protests in nationwide demonstrations a day earlier, was another signal that the Syrian government was determined to crush by force dissent that has posed a sweeping challenge to President Bashar al-Assad’s 11-year rule. It comes nearly two weeks after the military stormed Dara’a, a poor town near the Jordanian border where protests galvanized demonstrations across the country. Gunboats were spotted off the coast.

Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) says Saudi-backed forces have attacked the residence of a human rights activist and set it ablaze amid a strict martial law in the tiny Persian Gulf monarchy.

Video footage has surfaced online showing flames coming from the burning house of Saeed Ayyad after Bahraini forces attacked his home on Friday, using “teargas which carried flames.” According to the BCHR, Ayyad is an activist that has been taking international visitors around to talk to witnesses and victims and document human rights violations in Bahrain. The group said it had reasons to believe that his house was targeted due to his activities.

Meanwhile, BCHR has warned of further tortures and persecutions by the Manama regime amid tight security conditions imposed by the ruling Al Khalifa family to choke the protests in the small island nation. In its latest report, BCHR said that prominent activist Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja, a Danish citizen, has been tortured beyond recognition by Saudi-backed regime forces.

The UN's Special Representative for the Implementation of Resolution 1559 -- Terje Roed-Larsen -- spoke before the Security Council on Friday in a closed session.

1559 calls for the withdrawal of Syrian and Israeli forces from Lebanon and for Hezbollah to disband. Roed-Larsen has delivered more than a dozen such reports to the Security Council -- even though 1559 was rendered obsolete by Resolution 1701 -- which was intended to resolve the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. The question is why Roed-Larsen is still delivering briefings on an outdated resolution?

Abboud adds that recent events across the Arab world make Roed-Larsen's work as Lebanon special envoy even more redundant. Hezbollah has slammed the briefing as unjust and biased, and described the UN special envoy to the Middle East as "international official servant in the Zionist media system that reflects the full participation of hostility towards the Resistance, Lebanon, Arabs and all just causes in the world."

A collection of sensitive documents from Britain's colonial past are to be made public through the National Archives for the first time.

The files were sent to the UK from various former territories, mostly at the time they achieved independence. The documents emerged when four Mau Mau veterans sued the UK, saying they were tortured by Kenyan colonial government in the 1950s. The British government says it cannot be held responsible. It wants the claim thrown out by the High Court. Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Foreign Office only became aware of the significance of the files in January because of research linked to the court case.

■ Schadenfreude, the enjoyment of others' suffering, may be a famously German concept, but it is apparently not a feeling that many Germans aspire to. The political and public fallout following Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement on Monday that she was "glad" Osama bin Laden had been killed was among the most hotly debated topics in the German media this week. ■ Politicians, including those within her own center-right coalition, said that no death was cause for celebration, and reproved the remark as un-Christian and vengeful. But Hamburg judge Heinz Uthmann went even further. He alleges that the chancellor's statement was nothing short of illegal, and filed a criminal complaint against Merkel midweek, the daily Hamburger Morgenpost reported Friday. "I am a law-abiding citizen and as a judge, sworn to justice and law," the 54-year-old told the paper, adding that Merkel's words were "tacky and undignified."

[Google Translate] Five of the first attacked May in Kreuzberg injured policemen have been apparently by colleagues. As the police announced on Tuesday evening, two officers have filed a complaint against unknown police officers for assault in office. They were in civilian clothes at the gate Kottbusser been on the road, as they "were suddenly hit by pepper spray and injured by blows to the face". They would have to finish their service. Three other civil officials who have so far paid no ads have been taken according to the police through the tear gas. Originally had even been talk of eight injured. According to witness interviews have the number be reduced to five, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

B.C. special prosecutor Richard Peck is recommending laying perjury charges against all of the officers related to misinformation given during the independent inquiry into Dziekanski's death, the provincial Criminal Justice Branch confirmed Friday. Peck's recommendations will now be forwarded to the provincial attorney general's office for review. The veteran lawyer ruled out proceeding with any criminal charges linked to the officer's conduct at the airport the night Dziekanski died.

Syria's security forces shot dead 21 people on Friday as thousands rallied on a "Day of Defiance" against Bashar al-Assad, whose forces responded by opening fire and sending tanks to attack protests.

Syria's security forces shot dead 30 people yesterday as thousands rallied on a "Day of Defiance" against Bashar al-Assad's rule. The president's forces opened fire and sent tanks to attack protesters. About 100 tanks were stationed between the outskirts of Damascus and Homs. The latest killings came as a divided European Union failed to agree on sanctions to target President Assad despite his regime's history of violence. After talks in Brussels, a group of southern European countries blocked measures to issue a travel ban and freeze the president's assets.

Financial Times: Assad to escape EU sanctions

Photo: Ynet News

Israel’s Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has summoned Haaretz journalist Uri Blau to a formal hearing – the last procedural step before prosecuting Blau in a criminal court. The 7th eye website reports that the hearing will take place towards the end of the month. Last March, The Tel Aviv Office for the General Prosecution announced that it was considering prosecuting Blau for unauthorized possession of classified information.

Uri Blau, an investigative reporter, received hundreds of classified IDF documents from former soldier Anat Kamm. Blau published several pieces in Haaretz based on the documents, including one story which revealed that senior IDF officers—including Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazy—might have knowingly violated a Supreme Court decision when they ordered targeted killings of Palestinian militants even when those could have been captured alive. Following the procedures against Blau, dozens of Israeli journalists have signed a petition, demanding not to put Haartez’s reporter on trial (my translation from Hebrew).

We – journalists and media people who fear for our professional freedom – call upon the Attorney General not to prosecute Haaretz’s journalist Uri Blau for holding classified documents. Some of us have our reservations regarding the conduct of Blau and Haaretz throughout the affair. Yet we are all concerned about the consequences of the Attorney General’s decision regarding the work of all journalists in Israel.

Putting a journalist on trial for possession of secret documents constitutes significant injury to the independence of the media. The immediate significance of the decision will be in putting restraints on our ability to reveal injustice and corruption [...] This precedent would severely harm the [ability to conduct] investigative journalism, which is at the heart of the free press. It is impossible to expose corruption—in any field—without holding documents, also those that are considered classified [...]

Jonathan Cook:

● The dark underbelly of Israel's security state
● Mossad operation threatened against reporter
● Did Banned Media Report Foretell of Gaza War Crimes?

Stephen Lendman:

● Accelerating Fascism in Israel
● Eroding Free Expression in Israel
● Growing Thought Control in Israel