title: hillary clinton enjoys solid lead in early voting reutersipsos poll
text: uk royals in bahrain amid crackdown wed nov   am persian gulf britains prince charles speaks to bahrains crown prince salman bin hamad bin isa al khalifa upon arriving in the bahraini capital manama on november   photo by ap 
  britains prince charles and his wife camilla have arrived in bahrain on a threenation tour of the persian gulf states amid strong criticism of londons continued arms sales to the repressive regime in manama 
  the plane carrying the british royals touched down at sakhir air base in central bahrain on tuesday on the last leg of the tour which had already taken them to oman and the united arab emirates 
  they were received by bahrains crown prince salman bin hamad bin isa al khalifah and then taken to a nearby palace to meet with the countrys king hamad bin isa al khalifah 
  since  the united kingdom has sold  million dollars worth of arms to bahrain the year saw the eruption of peaceful antiregime protests on the island 
  london has been under fire by international rights organizations for selling military equipment to manama which is involved in a harsh and deadly crackdown on opposition activists 
  it was reported late last month that the uk will open a massive permanent military base in bahrain and deploy warships to the persian gulf a bahraini protester shouts slogans during clashes with regime forces in the village of sitra south of manama on february   photo by afp 
  the military base which is the first such facility being opened by britain in  years in the persian gulf region will be launched next month britains express newspaper reported 
  britain will station around  military forces at the royal navy facility and will deploy its warships to patrol the surrounding waters and guard oil and gas shipments in the waters 
  when britain kicked off the project in  defense secretary michael fallon described it as a permanent expansion of the royal navys footprint in the persian gulf the project has bypassed the parliament 
  according to data released by the uk trade and investment in september the uk government has become the worlds second biggest arms dealer with bulk of its weapons fueling deadly conflicts in the middle east loading