The release of Ayat al-Gormezi, the young woman who has become a symbol of resistance to royal tyranny in Bahrain, is welcome as far as it goes. In June, the courts jailed the 20-year-old for a year for having had the temerity to read out a poem that was deemed insulting to the King of Bahrain.

In another sign of the growing sectarianism in the crisis in Bahrain, friends of imprisoned Shia Muslim doctors in the country are circulating lists of Sunni Muslim medical staff whom they claim have been sent to spy on them and to give false evidence against them in courts.

The 20-year-old Bahraini poet Ayat al-Gormezi, jailed and tortured for reading a poem critical of the government at a pro-democracy rally, has been suddenly released – though her sentence has not been revoked.

Bahrain's Sunni rulers today launched landmark reconciliation talks with the opposition following four months of Shi'ite-led protests for greater rights and harsh crackdowns on dissent in the strategic Gulf kingdom.

Amnesty International last night called on Bahrain to free Ayat al-Gormezi, the 20-year-old student who has become a symbol for those who have taken to the streets of the Gulf state to demand greater political freedoms.

The government of Bahrain claimed yesterday to have commissioned a UK-based law firm to file a case against The Independent for its reporting on the crackdown on protests in the country.

Eyewitness: Bahrain didn't invite the Saudis to send their troops; the Saudis invaded and received a post-dated invitation

The mass trial of doctors and nurses accused of backing efforts to bring down the government of Bahrain was postponed yesterday amid claims of torture and brutality on the part of the country's security forces.

The 20-year-old Bahraini poet Ayat al-Gormezi, who has become a symbol of resistance to repression on the island, was sentenced to one year in prison yesterday.