Latest Middle East News
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Syrian rebel groups plan to attack Hizbollah in Lebanon
ISTANBUL // Syrian rebels are planning to attack Hizbollah in its Lebanese strongholds, in response to the Shiite militant group's growing combat role on the side of President Bashar Al Assad in the Syria conflict. Such attacks would mark a significant escalation and spread of what is fast developing into a highly sectarian, regional war. "It is really a question of when, not if, ...
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Israel in reassessment thinks Syria’s Bashar Assad will last awhile
JERUSALEM - Israel has reversed its assessment about the staying power of Syrian President Bashar Assad and now thinks he’ll remain in control of at least part of his country for some time to come – a conclusion that makes it likely, a growing number of officials think, that an escalation of violence between the two countries may be inevitable. Israeli defense officials said that ...
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Assad has enough sarin to wipe off Damascus Aleppo Homs
Exiled Syrian chemical weapons scientist tells Al Jazeera the Assad regime used sarin in small quantities to stop rebel advancements, mixes gases to make it harder to detect WMDs use; adds weapons were developed against ...
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Syria - Syria stepping up Internet surveillance
DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) technology to analyse and control the activities of Syrian Internet users - censuring websites, intercepting emails, obtaining details of sites visited and so on.As the Assad regime recovers territory in the civil war, the installation ...
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Iran - Governments actions threaten prospect of free and fair elections in Iran
Serious electoral flaws and human rights abuses by the Iranian government undermine any meaningful prospect of free and fair elections on June 14, 2013, Human Rights Watch said today. Dozens of political activists and journalists detained during the violent government crackdown that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election remain in prison, two former presidential candidates are under ...
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Obamas drone speech well-received by Pakistan Yemen UN
US President Barack Obama speaks at the National Defense University May 23, 2013 in Washington, DC. Obama used the speech to outline and justify his administration's counterterrorism policy, including increased cooperation with Congress on matters of national security, added transparency regarding the use of drones, and a review of current threats facing the United States. (Win ...
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Fighting has turned Tripoli Lebanon into a battleground – and brought the Syrian war home
He doesn't feel it, strapped up in his bed at the Nini Hospital, swathed in bandages, two bottles of painkillers pumping into him. He was driving his motorcycle on Thursday night from Badawi past the end of Syria Street - an aptly named thoroughfare that divides Tripoli's two warring neighbourhoods of Bab el-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen - whence came a single sniper's round."It ...
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Irans clerical leaders cut presidency down to size
"I think it is not possible to run the country worse than this," said the former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, right, after he became one of 700 candidates barred from standing in the election this week. He is normally reticent in criticising the Iranian authorities. There has frequently between tension between Iranian presidents and Iran's supreme spiritual leader ...
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WHO to help Saudi Arabias coronavirus investigation before hajj
Men wearing surgical masks as a precautionary measure against the novel coronavirus speak at a hospital in Dammam, Saudi Arabia on Thursday. Officials in Saudi Arabia say they've tightened infection control ...
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10 men suspected of brutally killing 3 women in Egypt for alleged affairs
LUXOR, Egypt – A mother and two daughters were allegedly killed by male relatives in southern Egypt who believed they'd had affairs, the latest apparent example of so-called "honor killings" in which women are slain for violating traditional morals in the conservative region, a security official said Friday. Police believe the 10 men stormed the house of the women, ...
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Amnesty International says Israel Hamas both guilty of war crimes
Gaza last year. The human rights group, which is based in London, released a report Thursday that alleged the Israeli air force carried out bomb and missile strikes on residential areas in Gaza, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported. Those strikes were "disproportionate and caused heavy civilian casualties," Amnesty International said. The Israeli navy also carried out ...
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Pope Appeals for End of Violence in Syria
No News on Release of Abducted Metropolitan BishopsBy Junno Arocho EstevesVATICAN CITY, April 24, 2013 (Zenit.org) - At the conclusion of his weekly General Audience address, Pope Francis called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria.The Holy Father's plea comes at a difficult moment for the Church in Syria as there is no new developments in the abduction of two Metropolitan Bishops: ...
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Groups say repealing Jordan Lake Rules makes no sense
Pittsboro, N.C. - Before crowds descend on Jordan Lake to swim, boat and fish over the Memorial Day weekend, environment groups held a news conference Friday to express concern over legislation that would repeal water-quality rules for the lake.Environment North Carolina, the Sierra Club, the Haw River Assembly and local businesspeople said they were puzzled by the Senate's passage last ...
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Nuclear agencys Iran probe guided by US intelligence
VIENNA (AP) — The U.N. nuclear agency responsible for probing whether Iran has worked on a nuclear bomb depends on the United States and its allies for most of its intelligence, complicating the agency's efforts to produce findings that can be widely accepted by the international community.Much of the world looks at U.S. intelligence on weapons development with a suspicious eye, given ...
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Iran’s Rafsanjani should enter race...over 200 metres says ally
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 78, is not too old for politics, according to one of his supporters, who says the former president should challenge political rivals to a 200-metre sprint and a wrestling ...
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Despite word of split over al Qaida Nusra Front still key in Syria fighting
BAGHDAD - Jabhat al Nusra, the al Qaida-allied Syrian rebel group that’s also known as the Nusra Front, remains integral to efforts to topple the government of President Bashar Assad despite reported rifts within the group over its terrorist ties and claims by other rebels that Nusra’s assassinated rebel leaders in eastern Syria to consolidate its hold on oil fields and other ...
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The Conscientious Objector and Inside Iraq the Untold Stories Launched on Portico
Net2TV Corporation (www.net2television.com) is offering two award-winning movies on its Portico connected-TV service through Friday, June 7. The feature-length films -- "The Conscientious Objector" and "Inside Iraq: the Untold Stories" -- are critically acclaimed and have won awards at CINEQUEST Film ...
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United Arab Emirates - Emirati netizen sentenced to 10 months in prison
Reporters Without Borders expresses outrage at the Abu Dhabi appeals court confirmation of the 10-month prison sentence of netizen Abdullah Al-Hadidi.The appeals court made its ruling on 22 May.Arrested on 22 March, Al-Hadidi was convicted in a lower court in April ...
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Oman - Omani security forces besiege a bloggers home and arrest him
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) denounces the Omani security services' continuous targeting and arrest of activists on social networks websites without charges or judicial orders.The security forces arrested Ziab El-Amri, a blogger and activist, on 20 May 2013 after the Omani special task force unit besieged his house located in Senaw in the Modabi province north of ...
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Why Iran May Pose A Greater Cybersecurity Risk Than China
report from the Wall Street Journal about Iranian infiltration of U.S. energy firms shows why their cyber-assaults could pose a greater immediate threat to U.S. national security. While China pursues ...
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Iran filmmaker gets standing ovation for secret film at Cannes
Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof poses during a photocall for the film ''Dast-Neveshtehaa Nemisoosand'' (Manuscripts Don't Burn) at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes May 24, ...
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3 Killed In “Honor Crime” In Egypt
';honor killing'; after the women were accused of infidelity. The women were reportedly beaten with sharp objects and strangled before their bodies were wrapped in sheets, weighted with stones, and thrown into the Nile River. At least one of the men has been arrested and is in custody; police are searching for the remaining suspects. So far, only one of the women has been found. The ...
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Iran presidential candidate vows policy of resistance against the West if elected
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's top nuclear negotiator, a candidate in next month's presidential elections, vowed Friday he will pursue a policy of resistance against the West if elected. Addressing his first campaign rally in Tehran, Saeed Jalili said his priority in foreign policy will be to expand Islam's influence in the world and counter "arrogance," a reference to the U.S. ...
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Syria says Israeli vehicle entered its territory and was targeted heading to a rebel village
Syria says it targeted an Israeli vehicle that crossed a ceasefire line into its territory earlier this week because it was heading toward a village with a large rebel presence. In a letter to the U.N. Security Council circulated Friday, Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said his country exercised its right to self-defence and would respond immediately to any other violation of ...
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Israeli and Palestinian leaders are at crossroads to end the years-long conflict said US Secretary of State Kerry
Israeli and Palestinian leaders are at crossroads to end the years-long conflict, said US Secretary of State Kerry JERUSALEM - US Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Friday that it was up to Palestinian and Israeli leaders to revive stalled peace talks.Speaking at a press conference prior to his departure for the US at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Kerry described his Israel talks as ...
Iran Focus
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Iran will have men in space within ten years
Iran will have astronauts in space within the next ten years, according to government officials who recently revealed to Iran news media the Iranian Space Agency’s long-term space objectives.
Iran has pursued an ambitious space program in recent years, entering the so-called ‘Asian Space Race’ and launching the country’s first rocket in 2004, followed in 2009 by the launch of an entirely domestically-built satellite, thereby becoming the 9th country in the world to have achieved orbital-launch capability. Read more
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