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Iran A new moment of truth
Protest The Iranian election brought an unexpected victory for reformer Hassan Rouhani, marking not only the end of Ahmadinejad's rule, but a watershed in Iranian domestic politics as well as in Tehran's global standing and its troubled relations with the West. Mr. Rowhani was not initially considered as one of the top contesters to challenge key presidential hopefuls from the ...
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Syrian rebels claim attack on Shias in Lebanon
Hizbullah , the Lebanese Shia militant group that has actively helped Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in his fight against a mostly Sunni Muslim revolt. Another video posted by the same group showed the four men's identification cards as well as two assault rifles and two pistols the Syrian rebels say they found on the men. The civil war in Syria has inflamed tensions in Lebanon's ...
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8000 troops from 19 countries join Jordan war games in readiness for spreading Syria conflict
The West may be flip-flopping over whether or not to send lethal arms to the Syria rebels, but that has not stopped a 12-day military exercise in Jordan, in which thousands of troops from a variety of countries are preparing for the possibility of fighting in Syria. The war games come to an end ...
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Palestinian tobacco faces threat from crackdown on black economy
YA'ABAD, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian farmers sow tobacco sprouts in the rocky earth of the northern West Bank, reaping a harvest that provides a reliable livelihood in the struggling occupied ...
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Hezbollah fighters fight rebels near Syria capital
Residents of Qusayr in Syria's central Homs province wave yellow Hezbollah flags on June 5. Fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah joined Syrian troops battling rebels near Damascus on Wednesday, monitors said, as President Bashar al-Assad's regime kept up a push to cut off the insurgents' supply ...
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Hamas says its Iran ties worsen over Syrian civil war
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas said on Wednesday its relations with financial backer Iran have suffered as a result of the Islamist group's support of rebels battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a long-time Iranian ...
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Emirates Takes Home 2013 ‘World’s Best Airline’ Award
Emirates scooped up a further two awards including; 'Best Middle East Airline' and for a record ninth year in a row, 'World's Best Inflight Entertainment'. The awards were collected today by Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline at ...
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Rare personal touch on Twitter posts carrying Irans Supreme Leader tag
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Is Iran's supreme leader suddenly in a chatty mood? A Twitter feed believed run by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office, khamenei.ir, now sports musings about his boyhood desires to work out at a gym and the pleasures of mountain strolls. Khamenei's office has said he does not have his own Twitter account -- although he does have a website -- but the ...
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Palestinian presidents Fatah group takes hard line on returning to talks with Israel
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, speaks with Canada's foreign minister John Baird during their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Monday, June 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Majdi ...
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Video Obama America wants to end war in Syria not escalate it
Addressing the growing role of the United States in the Syrian civil war, President Obama said some of the coverage has gotten "a little over-cranked, in terms of the idea that somehow the United States is preparing to go all in and participate in another war. What we want to do is end a ...
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Jolie calls for more aid to Syrian refugees
AMMAN - Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie urged the international community to boost aid to Syrian refugees hit by what she called "the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century," a UNHCR statement said ...
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China eager for Iranian nuclear talks
The Chinese government expects peaceful nuclear negotiations will continue through multilateral dialogue with Iran, a government spokeswoman said. Iranian delegates joined officials from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany in a second round of nuclear negotiations in Kazakhstan in April but made few breakthroughs. February talks in Kazakhstan included efforts to ...
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Egypt appoints former terrorist as Luxor Governor
Adel Mohamed al-Khayat is a former leader of terrorist group Gamaa Islamiya -- which in 1997 sent a terrorist squad that massacred 62 tourists before killing themselves at the ancient Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor -- and now he's a governor. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi this ...
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Assad forces build up for Aleppo offensive
Forces loyal to Syria's embattled President Bashar Assad are reported to be tightening a cordon around the northern city of Aleppo, once the country's commercial heart, in a major offensive against rebels who hold 60 percent of the ...
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Obama silent on U.S. arms to Syria praises G-8 plan
BERLIN-President Barack Obama is refusing to describe the type of military support the U.S. will give to Syrian rebels even as he praises a decision by world leaders at a just-completed summit to seek a negotiated peace. Obama says even though leaders could not agree on whether Syrian President Bashar Assad must go, he has decided it is not possible for Assad to regain legitimacy. Obama spoke at ...
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UNs Ban meets Chinas Xi for talks on NKorea Syria
BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese president Xi Jinping and UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula and in Syria, state media reported, as Ban's visit to Beijing was overshadowed by a deadly attack on a UN compound.Ban, who arrived Tuesday, met Xi in Beijing's ornate Great Hall of the People after earlier visiting a centre which trains China's UN ...
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Iraq officials say suicide attack kills politician
A police officer said Wednesday that a suicide bomber blew himself up late the previous night inside Younis al-Rammah's guesthouse in the northern province of Ninevah. He says al-Rammah and four relatives were killed and six others ...
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UAE charges 30 Egyptians Emiratis over Brotherhood cell
UAE authorities for allegedly setting up an illegal branch of Egypt's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.The suspects have been referred to the Gulf nation's State Security Court, ...
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Obama refuses to specify U.S. aid to Syrian rebels
U.S. President Barack Obama, left, gestures during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the German Chancellery on Wednesday, June 19, 2013, in Berlin. (AP Photo/Evan ...
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Miss Algeria contest resumes after 10 years
ALGIERS: After an absence of 10 years, the Miss Algeria beauty contest is to resume on Friday in the western city of Oran, organisers said.A total of 20 women aged between 18 and 26 have been carefully selected from Algeria's main cities to line up for the beauty pageant, co-organiser and jury member Hamza Ameziane ...
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Five dead in Iraq suicide bomb ahead of vote
Iraq on Wednesday killed the leader of a provincial political party and four relatives, officials said, on the eve of elections his bloc was to participate in.Yunus al-Ramah, head of the United Iraq party, had been hosting a social gathering at his home in the town of Al-Hadhr, ...
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Syria opposition says any solution must bring down Assad
Ating President of the Syrian National Council (SNC) George Sabra (C) and members of Syrian National Council attend a press conference at the end of Syrian Opposition meeting on May 30, 2013 in Istanbul. AFP PHOTO / OZAN ...
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Syrian Forces Rebels Have Israel in the Crosshairs
JERUSALEM, Israel -- President Obama announced Thursday the U.S. will increase aid to Syrian rebel forces in response to President Bashar Assad's use of chemical weapons. But whatever the eventual outcome of Syria's civil war, both Assad and the rebel forces have Israel in the crosshairs. Assad has promised to open a new front against Israel on the Golan Heights once the civil war is ...
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Syria Russia optimistic despite differences
Violence In the run-up to the G8 Summit at Lough Erne, there was much speculation over the disagreements between Russia and the West on Syria: Claims of chemical weapons use, arms deliveries to the rebels and the prospects for a new Geneva conference. But the talks in Northern Ireland - and the meeting between President Putin and Prime Minister Cameron in London the day before, in which I ...
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Harper hails surprise agreement on Syria at G8
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, left, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin (behind), British PM David Cameron, U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, PM Stephen Harper, Italian PM Enrico Letta and European Council President Herman Van Rumpuy at G8 summit ...
Egypt Digest
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Egypt's oil industry is growing rapidly
Egypt has, in recent years, made immense gains in terms of economic performance. The country has long been the economic powerhouse of North Africa and Africa in general (second only to South Africa and Nigeria) and has taken great steps to reverse the highly-centralized economy inherited from President Gamel Abdel Nasser.
The oil and gas sector has long been one of the major strengths in the Egyptian economy, along with other natural resources such as minerals, gold and natural gas. Read more
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