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Israel worried that Russian weapons will reach Hezbollah
Israel has warned Russia about sending arms to Syria. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni has spoken on Channel Two television's Meet the Press to condemn shipments of arms from Russia that she said may be used against Israel. She said: "These are not just any weapons, they are tie-breakers, and that's why there is a responsibility with all world powers, certainly Russia, not to supply such ...
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Syrians on alert as bombs explode in Damascus
At least eight people have been killed and ten others injured in a bomb attack in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The incident took place in the north of the city, where cars and buildings were set alight by a bomb. The bomb had been concealed in another car which was parked near a school in the Rukn Eddin neighbourhood. Another explosive device was defused by military experts who had ...
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Egyptian Police Block Israel Border Crossing in Fury at Kidnapping
CAIRO Egyptian police enraged by the kidnapping of seven of their colleagues by Islamist gunmen in the Sinai Peninsula blocked a commercial border crossing with Israel on Sunday, security sources said. Police have been blocking another border post, the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, since Friday to press the government of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who belongs to the Muslim ...
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Netanyahu Takes Aim at Weapons Leakage in Syria
JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect on Sunday of further Israeli strikes inside Syria, pledging to act to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah and other militant groups. Although Israel has not publicly taken sides in the civil war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels trying to topple him, Western and Israeli sources say it has ...
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Internet in Iran goes into coma ahead of presidential elections
Iran has reportedly gone into 'internet coma' by tightening internet controls ahead of next month's presidential election, mindful of violent protests inspired last time around over claims of fraud. Authorities refuse to officially confirm the new restraints, but former officials and media reports have accused the Supreme Council of Cyberspace of ordering them, reports News.com.au. According ...
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Saudi clerics blame Twitter for immoral souls
A leading senior religious clerics in Saudi Arabia has said that Saudi citizens using Twitter will risk damnation. Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh's declaration comes as a move to attack the US-based microblogging service, the Huffington Post reports. According to the report, Saudi leaders fear that Twitter and other social media services are platforms for making the dissidents voice out ...
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Iran executes two spies working for CIA Mossad
Two Iranian spies, allegedly working for America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israel's Mossad were Sunday hanged in Iran, state-run IRIB TV reported. Mohammad Heidari, one of the executed men, had prepared information in a number of security issues and had given them to Mossad in several meetings outside the country, Xinhua cited the report as saying. Heidari received money in ...
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Conference on Syria settlement very soon UN chief
After consultations with UN Security Council permanent members, a conference on the Syrian settlement will take place "very soon", possibly at the beginning of June, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said here Sunday. "As I have been asked by the parties to convene this conference on the auspices of the United Nations, I'm now actively engaging with all the parties I have spoken to: the US, ...
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Assad blasts West claims of chemical weapons in Syria as pretext to wage war
Syrian president Bashar Assad has said that claims of the West that the Syrian government used weapons of mass destruction against its countrymen are nothing but a pretext for waging war against Syria. The statement comes after US, Britain and Israel strongly put forth their opinions that there is evidence of chemical weapons being used in Syria, News 24 reports. However, Assad said that the ...
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Car bomb kills eight in Syria
At least eight people were killed and 10 others wounded when a car bomb ripped through a Damascus district Saturday night, local media and activists said. A huge explosive device was planted under a car in the northeastern district of Ruken Addien, the state media said, adding that bomb squads dismantled another explosive device in the same area, reports Xinhua. Meanwhile, the oppositional ...
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Ozzy Osbourne moves back in with wife Sharon
Sharon Osbourne, who was snapped wearing a huge diamond on her wedding finger again, is apparently giving her marriage another chance by letting her wild-man husband, Ozzy Osbourne, move back in with her. The couple, who were reportedly living apart with their marriage in shambles, is spending nights under the same roof once again, the Sun reported. The star's assistants were spotted moving ...
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Suspected U.S. drone attack in Yemen kills 4 Al Qaeda militants
A suspected American drone attack has reportedly killed four Al Qaeda militants in the southern province of Yemen according to security officials. A fight between Yemeni forces and Al Qaeda in Abyan province last year had drove away militants from several cities that the outfit had ruled over for a brief period in 2011, Fox News reports. According to some security officials, the attack took ...
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Ajloun Castle in Jordan
Tourists visit the Ajloun Castle, some 73 km north of the capital Amman of Jordan on May 19, 2013. Ajloun Castle, better known as Qal'at Ar-Rabad, was built by one of Saladin's generals in 1184 AD to control the iron mines of Ajloun, and to deter the Franks from invading the ...
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Scenery of Israels el-Wad Cave
Sites of human evolution at Mount Carmel, including the caves of Tabun, Jamal, el-Wad and Skhul, were recognized as World Heritage Site by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in ...
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Arab League organises emergency Syria meeting
The flag of the Syrian opposition is shown at the seat of the delegation representing Syria at the Arab League summit in Doha in March. Image courtesy of The Daily ...
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More Israeli attacks inside Syria possible Israel
/enpproperty--> Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect on Sunday of further Israeli strikes inside Syria, pledging action to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah and other militant groups. Although Israel has not publicly taken sides in the civil war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebels trying to topple him, Western and Israeli sources say ...
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Sectarian clashes in Tripoli northern Lebanon kill two injure six
A Sunni Muslim gunman sits with his child on Syria Street during fighting in the Bab al-Tebbaneh neighbourhood of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. AFP Photo/Getty ...
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Policemen Killed in Iraq Attacks - Report
MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) - At least three policemen have been killed as gunmen launched an attack on their station in the north of Iraq, media quoted local officials as saying. Two police officers were also wounded in the town of Rawa about 260 kilometers (160 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad, the BBC reported late Sunday. According to reports cited by the British broadcaster, ...
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Israel favors interim deal with Palestinians
JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's senior coalition partner says that reaching a final peace agreement with the Palestinians is unrealistic at the current time and the sides should instead pursue an interim ...
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PMW Accuses UNRWA for Exposing Map Erasing Israel
reported that the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, Ann Dismorr, posed with a map that erases the State of Israel and presents all of it as "Palestine," at an UNRWA event in Lebanon. These pictures were broadcast on Palestinian Authority TV and on the Palestinian news site pn-news.net, corroborating PMW's ...
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Egypt’s NGO Funding Crackdown
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are essential to democracy and a key way for people of all political views to band together to influence public debate. But once more, the Egyptian government is threatening to restrict NGOs that receive foreign funds. Exercised about criticism from some of these groups, the ruling party is pushing a bill that would empower the government to decide which ...
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Intertwined fates The Lebanon-Syria-Iran axis
The instability rocking Syria has caused three critical security arenas - Lebanon, Syria and Iran - to become more closely intertwined than ever before.As has been widely reported, Hezbollah, acting on Iranian orders, has mobilized a significant portion of its fighting force to Syria to help secure a turnaround for the regime of President Bashar ...
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Assad Hezbollah forces advance into Qusair
Hezbollah fighters have reportedly advanced into the main square of besieged Qusair, with fierce battles continuing overnight Monday for control of the strategic city near the Lebanese border. At least 40 people were killed, activist organizations said, in battles that saw forces loyal to ...
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Gunmen abduct father of Syria deputy FM official
Faisal Mekdad Saturday, apparently in reprisal for the arrest of one of their relatives, according to a government source and an activist. "Today armed men abducted Mr. Mekdad’s father from his home in the village of Ghossom," in the southern province of Deraa, the government source said on condition of anonymity. "They beat him up in front of his family then took him ...
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Riyadh strives to avoid Afghan-style blowback from conflict
RIYADH: Chastened by the experience of Afghanistan, where hundreds of Saudis fought before returning to sow terror at home, the kingdom is battling to avoid similar blowback from the conflict in Syria, analysts say.In recent months, Saudi officials have issued increasingly stern warnings against volunteers from the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom heading off to fight alongside the mainly Sunni ...
Middle East Focus
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Israel and Palestine as one country?
Peace in the Middle East, it’s as illusive now as it was ten years ago and ten years before that. For many commentators, peace in the Middle East has become a myth, something local and international governments strive for or claim to support without any real hope of realization of the goal. With the current impasse between Israel and the Palestinian Authority ongoing, an old theme is being kicked around again, that of a single state that incorporates Israel and Palestine.
A single state solution is an idea that grew up in the 1920s and then died with the Six-Day War when divisions between the newly-founded Israeli state and the rest of the region were too entrenched for the idea to retain any traction. The political landscape after the war and even today is what many Jewish groups feared when Jewish Zionists were calling for a return to the biblical homeland to develop a Jewish state. Read more
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