Al Wasat daily to continue publishing

Manama: Al Wasat, the Bahraini daily in Arabic, on Saturday evening reversed a decision to shut down this week.

"The shareholders and the board members have agreed to continue publishing Al Wasat," Farooq Al Moayyad, the board chairman said. "The board said that the daily would keep on publishing at least until the financial issue is settled," he said.

The daily, which started publishing in 2002, waded into controversy after it was accused of lifting security-related news from Moroccan and Palestinian media and reprinting them as events happening in Bahrain.

Mansoor Al Jamri, the editor in chief, Waleed Al Nuwaihedh, the editor, and Aqeel Mirza, the local news editor, resigned in the wake of the controversy. Ubaidli Al Ubaidli, a columnist with the paper, was appointed editor in chief.

Bahrain has five dailies in Arabic and two in English.