A Saturday for Waiting and Watching

Dear readers, we are all in a waiting mode today.
The trials in Bahrain are over and the Formula 1 race seems to be on - so far - for tomorrow. There were mass demonstrations today, some not far from the F1 track, and one person was found dead this morning after a march near where his body was found, but so far there are no details to confirm or deny that he was shot by security forces. The marchers who found him said he was killed by pellet shot...something hard to do except at very close range or by extraordinary "luck" on the part of the shooter.
And concerning Syria, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution today that will send 300 more unarmed ceasefire monitors to the country. Will this help the situation on the ground? I have no idea, because we still do not know if the 12 advance monitors have finally been allowed to enter Homs. But, we do know that al-Assad troops continue to bomb opponent locations.
And, in Europe, the French presidential election campaign is over. There is a halt, required by law, to campaign activities on Friday midnight in France before Sunday elections. This also means that no more survey results are allowed until 8 pm Sunday night when the last polling places close in mainland France (French Departments in the Pacific, Caribbean and Indian Ocean areas are already counting their votes). So, all we now know is that the Socialist, Francois Hollande, and the incumbent president, Nicolas Sarkozy, were tied late on Thursday when the last survey was released. But, we have also been told by non-French TV, radio and newspaper outlets that they will publish exit poll results as they choose, since it would be difficult for French authorities to bring a lawsuit against any of them. The debate in France these days is whether the Internet and 21st century media have outstripped the power of the French National Assembly to prevent pre-closing voting information from being disseminated. Young people say they will find ways to encrypt the exit poll results and put them on the Net. Most candidates and politicians are against these tactics. Surprisingly, only President Sarkozy has spoken out against the ongoing viability of the law. His opinion is that France cannot shut down the Internet just because the French are voting. Does this mean that he is more confident of his results than the media are predicting? We'll know tomorrow at 8pm, French time (Eastern Daylight Time + 6 hrs). In any event, there will certainly be a run-off in two weeks between the two top vote getters, to determine finally who will be the next president of France.