Latest Middle East News
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Syrian army Hezbollah kill over 30 in border town
AMMAN - Syrian troops supported by Hezbollah operatives launched an offensive to retake a major town near Lebanon from rebels on Sunday, the heaviest fighting yet involving Lebanese armed group, opposition activists said.At least 32 people were killed when rebel fighters clashed with mechanized Syrian army units and Hezbollah guerrillas in nine points in and around the town of Qusair, 10 km (six ...
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Bahrain slams claims about the non implementation of the BICI recommendations
Manama, May 19 (BNA)--Bahrain's Attorney General slammed as untrue a newspaper report that claimed that recommendations by a fact-finding panel on freedom of expression had been ignored by the state's legal authorities. "The report by the local daily about the non-implementation of the recommendations by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) to drop the ...
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Palestinian kids swept up in wave of Israeli arrests
Ahmed Jawabreh, 14, was arrested in the middle of the night for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in the West Bank refugee camp where he lives and wasn't released for another 18 days. His was only one of a recent wave of arrests of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities, human rights groups ...
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Bahrains Rights Britains Failure
, claimed that "so-called human rights organisations" are "largely administered by ex-ideologists and even terrorists". It continued: "As much as beasts cannot be left to roam freely, so in human society the feral element’s freedom should be under control." In fact, it is well documented ...
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Report Palestinian lost speech ability after PA torture
A Palestinian man who was detained by the Palestinian Authority security forces in Hebron has lost the ability to speak as a result of severe torture, according to a report released by the Independent Commission for Human Rights.Mohamed Abdel Karim Dar of Hebron was hospitalized after being tortured while in detention, the report, which documented 28 cases of torture in PA prisons in the ...
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Egypts Morsi rules out talks as hostage video appears
CAIRO: Egypt's President MohamedMorsion Sunday ruled out negotiating with the kidnappers of three policemen and four soldiers who appeared to plead for their release in an online video.The abductions on Thursday in the Sinai Peninsula prompted angry police to shut down border crossings with Gaza and Israel, piling the pressure onMorsito secure the hostages' release."There are no ...
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Russia to Sell Air-Defense System to Syria
JERUSALEM, Israel -- Two days after American and Russian leaders met in Moscow to talk about restoring peace in war-torn Syria, Russia announced plans to sell advanced anti-missile defense systems to the Syrian government, ...
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Israel’s ‘illegal’ military entry permit bars selected tourists from West Bank - report
Tourism Many tourists hoping to visit the West Bank are finding it impossible to do so - because Israel requires certain visitors to have an entry permit. Obtaining permission is anything but easy, because Tel Aviv doesn't explain the process, Haaretz reported. The requirement for military entry permits reportedly began at the beginning of 2013. However, not everyone is required to ...
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Key Israeli leader calls for interim peace deal with Palestinians
File - In this Jan.16, 2013 file photo, Yair Lapid, popular former TV anchorman and head of the new centrist party Yesh Atid, poses for a portrait at his house during an interview for the Associated Press, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Lapid, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior coalition partner, said in a published interview Sunday, May 19, 2013, that reaching a final peace agreement with ...
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FM seeks enhanced bilateral cooperation with Qatar
Indian economy and its vast potential for the gulf country's firms. Chidambaram, who is on an official visit to Qatar, met with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and the country's Minister of Economy and Finance Yousef Hussain Kamal in Doha, ...
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In Israel a modern wall is halted by ancient terraces
Israel's high court has issued an injunction against extending the separation barrier through the Palestinian village of Batir, famed for its 2,500-year-old terraces and ...
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Egypt hit with security abductions in Sinai
Security sources identified the abductors as members of the Al Qaida-aligned Tawhid W’al Jihad, which also maintains a presence in the neighboring Hamas-ruled Gaza ...
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Netanyahu warns of more Israeli strikes on Syria
JERUSALEM // Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect yesterday of further Israeli strikes inside Syria, pledging to act to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hizbollah and other militant groups. Although Israel has not publicly taken sides in the civil war between Syrian ...
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Israel denies its forces killed Palestinian boy
JERUSALEM // Israel has completed an investigation into a decade-old French TV report that claimed Israeli forces killed a Palestinian boy in a gunbattle with Palestinian militants, saying the video was misleading and unfairly blamed Israel. France 2's images from September 2000, days after a Palestinian uprising erupted, allegedly showed the death of Mohammed Al Dura, cowering with his ...
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Israel to return settlements land to Palestinian owners
Jerusalem, May 19 : The state of Israel has said it would return the lands of a settlement evacuated in 2005 back to its original Palestinian owners, an Israeli daily said ...
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Hezbollah takes fight to rebels as Syria’s war spills into Lebanon
Hezbollah launched a major offensive in support of the Assad regime today, with fighters from the Lebanese militant group playing their most significant role yet in Syria's two-year-old civil ...
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Analysis West learns to jaw not war on Syria as the countrys civil war destabilises the region
Sunday's reports that the Syrian conflict was spilling over into Lebanon can be taken as further evidence that the sectarian civil war is destabilising the region. There are also signs that the unending strife is pushing the two players who really matter, America and Russia, towards trying for negotiations and a ceasefire based on the Geneva Accord signed last ...
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Syria army in centre of Qusair amid assault on rebel town
Syrian government forces have launched a major offensive to retake the strategically important rebel stronghold of Qusair, near Lebanon. Syrian officials say the army have taken control of key points in the the city centre. According to opposition activists, government troops are being supported by militants from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. More than 30 people are reported killed, mostly ...
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EU delays plans to label West Bank settler goods
JERUSALEM, - The European Union has postponed plans to introduce separate labelling for products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported on ...
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Israel acts to deny Hezbollah arms says PM Netanyahu
Israel is "acting" to prevent weapons from Syria from reaching Lebanon's Hezbollah and will continue to do so, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on ...
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UAE Foreign Minister Criticises Iranian Foreign Ministrys Statements Regarding Bahrain
Abu Dhabi, May 19 (BNA)-- UAE Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan strongly criticised the statements issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry regarding Bahrain yesterday. He said the Iranian neighbours have got a real problem which is understanding how to deal with their neighbours. He added it is understood that Iran has local elections but still continues to throw its internal ...
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Hezbollah steps up Syria battle Israel threatens more strikes
AMMAN (Reuters) - Lebanese Hezbollah militants attacked a Syrian rebel-held town alongside Syrian troops on Sunday and Israel threatened more attacks on Syria to rein the militia in, highlighting the risks of a wider regional conflict if planned peace talks ...
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Cairo airport baggage handlers end strike that left passengers on 20 flights waiting
CAIRO - Cairo airport officials say baggage handlers have resumed work after a strike that left passengers on 20 international flights from Europe and Arab countries waiting several hours for luggage. Baggage handlers went on strike Saturday afternoon to demand stronger safety measures after a colleague died when a conveyer belt used to unload luggage fell on his head. His EgyptAir co-workers ...
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Tough measures against expatriates raise concerns in Kuwait
Deportations of hundreds of expatriates coupled with controversial decision to limit morning hospital check-ups for Kuwaitis raise fears among ...
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Oversupply from North America pushes oil prices lower
"Crude oil prices have continued their recent declines, despite the IEA increasing its forecast for oil demand for 2013," said CMC Markets analyst Michael ...
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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