Spotlight
- Middle East Syrians protest after video showing attack on Alawite shrine Angry protests broke out Wednesday in several areas of Syria after a video circulated showing an attack on an Alawite shrine in the country's north...
- Lebanon Israel airstrike targets Baalbek district building Israeli warplanes targeted a two-story house at dawn Wednesday in the plain of the Baalbek district town of Taraya, causing no casualties, the ...
- Middle East Yemen rebels claim ballistic missile attack on Israel Yemen's Houthi rebels said Wednesday that they had fired a ballistic missile at central Israel, with Israeli forces saying they intercepted...
Lebanon warned "Iran telecom" was taking over the country after uncovering a secret communications network used by Hizbullah two years ago, a U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks showed on Monday.
The Beirut government was shocked at the discovery in April 2008 of the extensive communications system used by the powerful Shiite party, which receives military and financial support from Iran, according to the cable.
Full StoryPrime Minister Saad Hariri told former U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison he feared another war with Israel would mean the "death" of his pro-Western March 14 alliance, leaked cables showed Monday.
A document reportedly obtained by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks and published on the website of local daily al-Akhbar quoted Hariri as saying he believed Hizbullah would rise again should there be another round of violence.
Full StoryAs many as 200 people may have been buried in a landslide Sunday that swept over 10 houses near Medellin, Colombia's second largest city, Red Cross relief workers said.
"The initial count is that there may be 150-200 people considered missing. So far, we have rescued three alive," said Cesar Uruena, a Red Cross operations deputy director.
Full StoryFirefighters have extinguished a grassland blaze in a remote mountainous region in southwest China that killed at least 22 people and injured another four, state media said Monday.
The wild fire broke out in Daofu County in Sichuan province -- at the edge of the Tibetan plateau -- at about noon Sunday and was initially brought under control three hours later, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Full StorySouth Korea's military began a major live-fire exercise Monday amid high tensions sparked by North Korea's deadly bombardment last month, as Washington pressed Beijing to curb its unruly ally Pyongyang.
The South, smarting over the unprecedented shelling of a civilian area, dismissed claims by the North that the five-day drill could spark war.
Full StoryPrime Minister Saad Hariri told former U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison he feared another war with Israel would mean the "death" of his pro-Western March 14 alliance, leaked cables showed Monday.
A document reportedly obtained by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks and published on the website of local daily al-Akhbar quoted Hariri as saying he believed Hizbullah would rise again should there be another round of violence.
Full StoryA major fire, which erupted in the town of Fatri in the Jbeil region a week ago, has threatened to reach the houses in the area after having had destroyed 150,000 square meters of land, the head of the municipality Imad Daou told AFP on Sunday.
"Eighty percent of the land in the town has been destroyed. The entire town is on fire starting from the river and reaching the valley, and even the mountain. There aren't enough fire department teams to control the blaze," he told AFP in a phone call.
Full StoryIsrael's plan to pull its troops out of northern Ghajar, a disputed village on the flashpoint border with Lebanon, is likely to prove more of a headache than a political victory for Beirut, experts say.
"The people of Ghajar do not want to be part of Lebanon," said Timur Goksel, former senior adviser of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), of the village's 2,200 residents -- none of whom is Lebanese.
Full StoryAn indictment of Hizbullah members in connection with the murder of ex-premier Rafik Hariri could forever tarnish the party's image as a resistance movement and threaten its raison d'etre, analysts say.
"Whether one single member or 100 are implicated makes absolutely no difference, Hizbullah won't accept it" said Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a political analyst at the Doha-based Arab Institute for Research and Policy Studies.
Full StorySaudi King Abdullah, 86, is to undergo more surgery on his back in the United States Friday, the royal court said.
"King Abdullah will return for surgery to repair several vertebrae in his spine in a follow-up to his previous treatment.... in accordance with the plan set by his medical team," the court said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
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