Formula One has been accused of "looking the other way" by human rights groups in the case of an activist who was beaten, sexually abused and jailed for protesting against the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The First High Criminal Appeals Court upheld the 7-year-jail verdict issued against a defendant accused of assembling and hurling Molotov cocktails and revoked his citizenship.

European countries will urge Saudi Arabia this week to release detained activists and cooperate with a U.N.-led probe into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in the first rebuke of the kingdom at the Human Rights Council, diplomats and campaigners said.

The Bahraini High Court of Appeal upheld the acquittal of three defendants accused of laundering money obtained from crimes, while each defendant was fined 500 dinars for collecting funds without a license and sending them to a private institution in Tanzania, which was arranged by the third defendant residing in Iran.

Fitch estimated that there would be $3 billion to $5 billion outstanding external debt in the period from 2019 to 2022, noting that 8.7 thousand employees had applied for Voluntary Retirement Scheme out of about 48,000 employees, which would save an amount of 166 million dinars in 2019 (11% of the wage bill for 2018).

Human rights activists published a letter written by Hajar Mansour, who is sentenced to 3 years in prison, marking her 2 years if imprisonment and being deprived of her children.

The Social Insurance Organization said that it had completed all the procedures for transferring pension dues to the accounts of the second batch of those accepted in the voluntary retirement program in the first week from March, during the period from March 4-7.

The Fifth High Criminal Appeals Court objected the appeals of a suspect out of 3 accused of assembling and upheld the 3-year jail term against him.

Bahrain's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said it has introduced a uniform toll-free number (88444) to reduce spam messages in cooperation with the mobile network operators, by either blocking the messages through sending the word "Block" followed by a space and then the "Sender ID".

Lockheed Martin Corp will receive the first payment toward the installation a $15 billion missile defense system in Saudi Arabia as part of a $110 billion arms package the Trump administration said it negotiated with the Kingdom in 2017, the Pentagon said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia is using its counter-terrorism laws to silence activists, including women, in violation of international law guaranteeing freedom of speech, United Nations human rights experts said on Monday.

The European Union and Qatar signed a broad air services pact on Monday allowing Qatari and EU member state airlines unlimited airspace access between each other's territories.

The United States lowered the flag on Monday at the Jerusalem consulate that had served as its diplomatic channel to the Palestinians, merging the mission with the new U.S Embassy to Israel in the contested city.

Saudi Arabia's cabinet has approved electronic visas for foreign visitors to attend sporting events and concerts, local media reported, as the world's top oil exporter tries to diversify its economy and open up its society.

The US military sales to Bahrain between 2017 and 2018 exceeded $6 billion, according to a research paper prepared by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The First High Criminal Appeal Court in Bahrain rejected the appeal of eight convicts in a case known as the “Secret Intelligence Agency of the Revolution in Bahrain (SIA)”.

Bahraini Interior Minister Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa met with Undersecretary of the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Iraq Aqeel Mahmoud Al-Khazali on the sidelines of the 36th session of the Arab Interior Ministers Council held in Tunisia.

Bahraini Oil Minister Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said that a petroleum development company is currently conducting surveys of the shear zones with a company, without mentioning further details.

Bahrain is talking to U.S. oil companies with shale oil expertise about developing a huge oil and gas field discovered last year, and hopes to have an interested company by the end of the year, the oil minister said.

On October 20, 2018, a plane coming from the Netherlands landed in Bahrain. Dutch security men handed a Bahraini man named Ali Al-Shuwaikh on to the Bahrain state security apparatus, who were eagerly waiting for him.