The Kingdom of Bahrain is owned by the Sail Bahrain project, which aims to promote the island as a yachting destination and was recently launched by Team Pindar.
With no resident western journalists left on the island (a German correspondent was recently expelled) and little public accountability, Bahrain's courts and prisons have a pretty free hand.
Bahrain's Shias - who make up 70% of the population of the small Gulf island state - have long complained of discrimination in state jobs and housing, and say that they are barred from holding influential posts in the country's security forces.
On the northern tip of the island, archaeological expeditions have uncovered seven successive levels of settlements at the Qal'at al Bahrain (the fort of Bahrain).