The Obama administration is stepping up its criticism of the Bahraini government, as anti-regime protests in the U.S.-allied Persian Gulf nation entered their third day on Wednesday. “What the president believes … is that Bahrain, like all the countries in the region, needs to respect the universal rights of its citizens, their right to protest, their right to have their grievances heard,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday. “They should refrain from violence on both sides,” he said. “We are obviously watching events from Bahrain and around the region very closely.” Protests in Bahrain, which hosts the U.S....