AFP reported that Yemen's sole presidential candidate, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has begun his campaign ahead of the upcoming elections. This is sad news. With the vice president as the only candidate to replace Saleh, surely this is more a succession than an election. It marks another setback for Yemen's journey to any form of democracy.The Gulf News has reported that controversial Omani blogger Muawiyah Al Rawahi has been detained since writing an "antagonistic post" on his widely-read blog. In a past post on this blog I commented that headline news from Oman rarely makes it into the international press. The disappearance of Al Rawahi suggests one worrying reason as to why so little news escapes from the sultanate.
The Kuwait Times reported that Kuwait has cancelled the concerts which form part of its annual festival "February Nights" as a sign of solidarity for the Syrian people. A nice gesture, but the families in Homs are going to require a little more than some disappointed would-be-concert goers to bring an end to their plight. It is time for some affirmative action and if the Arab world really does believe in any sense of Arab nationalism then they should lead the charge.
The BBC reported that 2 jailed human rights activists in Bahrain have been released. They were jailed last year for supporting the anti-government demonstrations on the tiny kingdom. It is another example of the Bahraini Governments softening response to anti-government protesters
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