Iraqi Shi'ite forces fighting Islamic State west of Mosul aim to clear a large strip of land on the border with Syria to prevent the militants melting into the remote desert region and using it as a base for counter attacks, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The United States has decided to limit military support to Saudi Arabia's campaign in Yemen because of concerns over widespread civilian casualties and will halt a planned arms sale to the kingdom, U.S. officials told Reuters.

The second high appeals court accepted the objection in form but refused it in content and upheld the appealed verdict that sentenced a Bahraini woman to one year in prison over publically insulting the judiciary authority.

Hunger among Yemen's children has reached an "all time high", with nearly 2.2 million in need of urgent care, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Monday.

No one knows anything about Bahraini citizen Sayed Alawi Sayed Hussein since he disappeared from his workplace on October 24, 2016. All his family's’ attempts to get information about him were made in vain.

Awal Centre for Studies and Documentation is exhibiting its special edition of the famous “Tribe and State in Bahrain” by Lebanese scholar Fuad Khuri at its pavilion at Beirut International Book Fair.

Bahraini citizen Sayed Alawi Sayed Hussein has been away from home for 50 days, since his abduction at the hands of “civilians” on October 24, 2016.

From his exile in the Canadian city of Windsor, Bahraini critic Dr. Ali Al Dairi issued his new book “God of Monstrosity: Takfir and Wahhabi Politics”; an extensive research that seeks reading the political and ideological context of the Wahhabi Takfir, during the first Saudi state experience.

Bahraini “Awal Center for Studies and Documentation” launched at the beginning of this month (December 2016), its latest publication for 2016, the book “Mr. Ambassador: Mohammad Javad Zarif”, in its booth in the Beirut International Book Fair.

In his first comment on upholding his 9-year jail term, the leader of Bahraini opposition and Al-Wefaq Secretary-General Sheikh Ali Salman said that the verdict issued against him “strengthened his steadfastness”.

The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) affiliated to the Public Prosecution said that the unit investigated 23 complaints of allegations of torture and mistreatment in November.

The Al-Wasat newspaper said that the security authorities prevented the drinking water companies and that of food from entering Diraz to supply the shops, describing what’s going on as “the worst of its kind besiege”.

The Fifth High Criminal Court sentenced a defendant to 7 years in prison and another one to 5 years and ordered the confiscation of seized items over the case of planting a hoax bomb.

On Monday (December 12, 2016) night, hashtags #IRunNabeelRajabAccount and #ITweetFromNabeelRajabAccount were widely circulated on Twitter, in both English and Arabic languages, in a supporting campaign for Nabeel Rajab.

Bahraini clerics deemed the verdict that upheld the 9-year jail term against opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman an imprisonment of opposing political activism and condemnation of national peace, bearing the British government “responsible for supporting the Bahraini regime in delving into the security option.”

A Bahraini court has upheld a nine-year prison term imposed on the country's most prominent opposition leader, Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Ali Salman, local media reported on Monday.

The Associated Press (AP) reported on Monday that “Human rights groups are sharply criticizing a Bahraini appeal court's ruling upholding a nine-year prison sentence against the country's leading Shiite opposition figure [Sheikh Ali Salman].”

France said Monday (December 12, 2016) that it “notes with concern the upholding of the nine-year prison sentence for al-Wefaq’s secretary-general, Sheikh Ali Salman, whose movement – the main opposition party – was dissolved in July by the courts.”

Amnesty International (AI) issued a statement on its website, in which it condemned the 9-year prison verdict issued Monday against Bahraini opposition leader, Sheikh Ali Salman.

Iranian Foreign Ministry expressed its deep concerns about doubling the prison sentence against al-Wefaq Society Secretary General Sheikh Ali Salman, in response to the Appeals Court decision to uphold a 9-year prison sentence against him on Monday.