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The protest movement that swept Bahrain in February and March has since turned into a bitter sectarian confrontation. Sunni authorities have destroyed at least 47 Shiite mosques across the country in recent weeks. Analysts say the royal family is pushing a sectarian agenda that might be its undoing.

President Obama is expected to address changes in the Middle East and North Africa on Thursday. Although democracy movements there and the death of Osama bin Laden will allow Obama to strike an optimistic tone, there will still be limits on how much policy change he can promise.

In 1989, Iran's leader issued an edict that sentenced Salman Rushdie to death for writing the novel The Satanic Verses. Rushdie reflects on the fallout from that order — from the years spent in hiding to the alias he created to avoid detection — in a new memoir called Joseph Anton.

U.S. authorities are using laws dating to the 1700s in novel ways to combat piracy on the high seas, going after people who may never actually climb aboard a ship. The targets include men who negotiate and finance piracy plots as far away as the horn of Africa. And the strategy may be working.

Talks on Iran's nuclear program may have produced a deal that could ease Western fears that the Islamic Republic is out to create a nuclear bomb. The agreement could be the key to resolving the long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

With limited budget resources, the U.S. is focusing on trade and debt relief in an effort to encourage democratic and economic reforms in North Africa and the Middle East. It's also a way to tackle youth unemployment, one of the main problems that sparked the Arab uprisings.

Israeli naval commandos storm a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip, killing at least nine people in a predawn raid that set off worldwide condemnation and a diplomatic crisis. Dozens of passengers and at least five Israeli soldiers were wounded in the confrontation in international waters.

Myanmar's president has announced reduced sentences for prisoners. But the clemency will affect few political prisoners and falls far short of the expectations of the Obama administration. The U.S. has been trying to encourage Myanmar to go forward with political changes.

The Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo may be imprisoned, but his voice will not be silenced. His recent writings and poems have been collected in No Enemies, No Hatred.

When protests spread to the tiny island kingdom, they were met by a government crackdown. Saudi Arabia sent troops to help quell the demonstrations. The U.S. had been muted in its public criticism until President Obama's speech Thursday. Still, it's unclear whether his warning will have an effect.