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Arab League Envoy Urges World Powers Deal on Syria

The Arab League ambassador to France said Sunday that world powers have to agree on a "minimum accord" on Syria for there to be any chance of resolving the crisis in the conflict-hit country.

"If we don't manage to create a minimum accord between the powers, the friends of the (Syrian government and opposition), we can never start a transitional political process," Nassif Hitti told French media TV5 Monde, RFI and Le Monde.

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Five Egyptian Copts Injured in Inter-Religious Violence

Five Egyptian Coptic Christians were injured Sunday in clashes with Muslims at a church in a village south of Cairo, security sources said.

The violence took place as Muslim villagers attempted to block access to the church as the Coptic faithful arrived from throughout the area to attend Sunday mass.

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Clinton Heads for Algeria to Discuss Mali Crisis

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will leave Washington Sunday to travel to Algeria, for discussions on the Mali crisis, before joining EU diplomatic chief Catherine Ashton in the Balkans.

The State Department said Clinton will meet Tuesday with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, which shares a long border with Mali where extremists and rebel groups have taken over large swathes of the country's north after a coup in March.

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Relief Group Posts Picture of Turkish Journalist Missing in Syria

A Turkish humanitarian relief group has published a picture of a Turkish journalist who went missing in Syria in August and is believed to be held by the government.

Cameraman Cuneyt Unal and his Jordanian colleague Bashar Fahmi, who were working for U.S. broadcaster al-Hurra, disappeared in the northern city of Aleppo on August 20.

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Al-Nusra Front Denies Carrying Out Damascus Bombing

Syrian Islamist group al-Nusra Front has denied responsibility for a bombing in Damascus that dramatically shattered a ceasefire, instead blaming the regime, SITE Intelligence Group reported on Sunday.

Friday's car bomb explosion struck a residential area housing police officers and their families, killing at least eight people and wounding more than 30, on the first day of an attempted ceasefire for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

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Syrian Hajj Pilgrims Curse Assad

Enraged Syrian pilgrims on Sunday cursed President Bashar Assad and prayed for his death as they hurled pebbles at pillars representing Satan in the final ritual of the annual hajj pilgrimage.

Rebel flags billowed among vast crowds of Muslim pilgrims who heaved towards the stoning site in the Saudi holy city of Mina amid the chanting of anti-Assad slogans.

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Iraq Searches Syria-Bound Plane from Iran

Iraq stopped and searched a Syria-bound cargo plane from Iran for weapons for the second time in a month on Sunday, but allowed it to continue as no banned items were found, an official said.

The United States has been pressuring Baghdad to ensure all Iranian aircraft flying through its airspace are ordered to land and checked for weapons, but Iraq has said it will only stop planes when it has doubts about the cargo being transported.

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Netanyahu: Rabin Murder 'One of the Worst Crimes'

The murder of former premier Yitzhak Rabin by a rightwing extremist was "one of the worst crimes," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday as Israel marked the 17th anniversary of his assassination.

"The murder of Yitzhak Rabin was one of the worst crimes of the new age," Netanyahu told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting, who held a minute's silence to mark the anniversary of his murder by a Jewish extremist who opposed his concessions to the Palestinians on November 4, 1995.

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52 Dead in Syria Clashes, Air Raids after Eid Truce Collapses

Fighting, air raids and a car bombing shook Syria on Sunday, monitors said, as the international community looked to pick up the pieces of a failed bid to halt the violence for a Muslim holiday ceasefire.

Rebels stormed regime positions in the suburbs of Damascus as air strikes pummeled opposition-held areas on the outskirts of the capital, activists and a watchdog said.

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12 Dead in Iraq after Bloody Day

Bombings in and around Baghdad killed at least 12 people on Sunday, just a day after a wave of attacks during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha resulted in Iraq's highest death toll this month.

The latest violence targeted Shiite Muslims, much like the shootings and bombings a day earlier, with the spate of attacks shattering a relative calm despite announcements by authorities that they would boost security during the four-day Eid break which began on Friday.

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