Got a huge shock when I heard our friend Abdulhadi had been shot in Bahrain, but I just spoke with him and he insisted he wasn't hurt seriously, just a couple of birdshot pellets fired from some distance. He is much more worried about the attacks on protesters and their lack of access to the hospitals which have been closed off by the Bahraini/Saudi military.

It is hugely disappointing that the EU and the US do not seem to be responding more actively to this brutal crackdown against peaceful protesters. The Bahraini human rights defenders believe the visit of US Defense Secretary Gates "gave a green light for the crackdown," although Gates himself was quoted as saying that "baby steps" to reform was not enough.

Secretary of State Clinton visited Tahrir square in Egypt today and reportedly said: “To see where this revolution happened, and all that it has meant to the world, is extraordinary for me.” It is cruelly ironic that whilst she spoke the armed forces of two US allies, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, were brutally clearing the Pearl Square in Manama.