MANAMA: A Shia protester died of wounds after he was shot during clashes with Bahraini police on the second anniversary of the February 14, 2011 uprising, the opposition said yesterday.
Mahmud Al Jaziri, 20, succumbed on Thursday to wounds suffered when he was “hit with a direct shot to the head by regime forces during peaceful protests” marking the uprising, the main Shia opposition Al Wefaq group said.
The shooting occurred on Nabi Saleh island, south of Manama, on a day that two other people died during demonstrations commemorating the uprising, which Saudi-backed Bahraini forces crushed in mid-March 2011.
Video footage posted on YouTube showed what was said to be a Bahraini policeman firing from close range at a protester hurling stones at advancing riot police. Police in the kingdom, which is ruled by the Sunni Al Khalifa dynasty, mostly use shotguns and tear gas to disperse protests by disgruntled members of the Shia majority.
Jordan Islamists protest against new parliament
AMMAN:Hundreds of Islamists demonstrated in Jordan yesterday to demand faster political reform after an election last month that produced a mostly pro-government parliament.
Supporters of the main opposition Muslim Brotherhood marched from the main Husseini mosque to downtown Amman in the first such protest since the January 23 ballot, which the group boycotted saying electoral rules were loaded against it.
“Reform is what is required. Justice and freedom and not these sham elections and deputies,” protesters chanted.
The Brotherhood boycott of Jordan’s first parliamentary poll since Arab uprisings began two years ago left an assembly dominated by conservative tribal figures and some businessmen.
Islamist leaders they would pursue demands for an overhaul of an electoral law that favours rural, tribal areas and under-represents cities where the Brotherhood is strong.
More than two thirds of Jordan’s seven million people live in cities but are allocated less than a third of assembly seats.
“The Jordanian people have resumed their protests to assert that the reform movement is not over,” the Brotherhood’s deputy leader, Zaki Bin Rushaid said.
Iran rejects Nigeria spying allegation
TEHRAN: Iran yesterday rejected it had committed any “illegal act” in Nigeria after the West African nation’s secret police arrested three Nigerians accused of spying for the Islamic republic.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was quoted in media reports as saying he “rejected Nigerian and Western media reports of illegal activities by the Islamic republic in Nigeria”.
Amir-Abdollahian said relations between Iran and Nigeria were “developing” and urged officials of the two nations to prevent such accusations from being made.Agencies
