You're listening to From Our Own Correspondent from the BBC.

You can also hear the World Service Edition of the program on the BBC I Player,

but this is the latest program from Radio 4, introduced by A.D. Today future war how the US military

is preparing for attacks from cyberspace. A powder keg diffused's accession to the EU means for the stability of Europe.

We learn how thousands now depend upon the pirate economy of Somalia.

And the British war dead who lie all but forgotten in the mountains of northern

Italy.

The United Nations Secretary General has told the government in Bahrain that those convicted this week for allegedly

trying to overthrow the country's royal family should be allowed to appeal

against their sentences. Eight opposition activists who'd been arrested after protests against the authorities in February and March

were sentenced to life in prison. Hundreds of others are still awaiting trial.

Rupert Wingfield Hayes watched the court proceedings in the capital

Manama and later was able to discuss them with a member of Bahrain's ruling family.

Amid the continuing violent turmoil in Libya and Syria, it's easy to forget what

happened on the island of Bahrain three months ago.

It's certainly what the Bahraini royal family and its many friends in the Western business community

would prefer. Sitting on the 52nd floor of a glistening office tower overlooking the

center of Manama this week it's also what I was asked to do.

Bahrain's Royals are nothing if not charming.

Over lunch of pan-seered seabrem and chilled spinach soup,

Sheikh Abdullahis bin Mubarak al-Kalifa spoke wistfully of his love

for Leeds Football Club and of rainy days at Ellen Road back in the 1970s when Leeds was one of the great English clubs.

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