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  • Obama voices concern to Lebanon on Hezbollah role in Syria

    Lebanon's President Suleiman talks during a news conference with Ivory Coast's President Ouattara at the presidential palace in AbidjanWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama told his Lebanese counterpart on Monday he was concerned about Lebanese Hezbollah militants fighting in Syria to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the White House said. Obama and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman spoke by telephone the same day Syrian activists said about 30 Hezbollah fighters and 20 Syrian soldiers and militiamen loyal to Assad had been killed in the fiercest fighting this year in the rebel stronghold of Qusair. Lebanon has maintained a policy of "dissociation" from Syria's 2-year-old conflict. ...




  • CA-NEWS Summary
    Dagestan bombs kill 4, 2 dead in shootout near Moscow MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - Two car bombs killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others on Monday in one of the bloodiest attacks this year in Dagestan, a turbulent province in Russia's North Caucasus region where armed groups are waging an Islamist insurgency. Car bombs, suicide bombings and firefights are common in Dagestan, at the center of an insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet wars against separatist rebels in neighboring Chechnya. ...

  • Bomb attacks kill more than 70 Shi'ites across Iraq

    Residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack at the Kamaliya district in BaghdadBy Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 70 people were killed in a series of car bombings and suicide attacks targeting Shi'ite Muslims across Iraq on Monday, police and medics said, extending the worst sectarian violence since U.S. troops withdrew in December 2011. The attacks increased the number killed in sectarian clashes in the past week to more than 200. Tensions between Shi'ites, who now lead Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims have reached a point where some fear a return to all-out civil conflict. No group claimed responsibility for the bombings. ...




  • State Dept: Reports of anti-Semitism increase
    WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department appointed a special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism Monday as a new report documents a global increase in incidents of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

  • Syrian Army, Hezbollah bear down on rebels in strategic Qusayr
    Funnels of dirty gray smoke erupted silently from the center of Qusayr, followed seconds later by the ground-shaking thump of exploding artillery shells as the Syrian Army and Hezbollah pressed on today with a grueling offensive to capture the strategic Syrian rebel-held town.

  • Hezbollah suffers big losses in Syria battle: activists

    People travel on the back of a pickup truck in Deir al-ZorBy Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Dominic Evans AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - About 30 Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and 20 Syrian soldiers and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been killed in the fiercest fighting this year in the rebel stronghold of Qusair, Syrian activists said on Monday. Sunday's reported death toll was the highest for Hezbollah in a single day's conflict in Syria, highlighting the increasing intervention by the guerrilla group originally set up by Iran in the 1980s to fight Israeli occupation troops in south Lebanon. ...




  • Russia: Assad foes must come to Syria meeting without conditions
    SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday it is crucial for Syrian opposition envoys to engage in peace talks without setting preconditions, apparently referring to demands for President Bashar al-Assad's removal. Lavrov also reiterated that Iran must be invited to the conference that Russia and the United States are trying to organize to seek a resolution to the more than two-year-old conflict that has killed at least 80,000 people. Days after U.N. ...

  • Iran election overseers may bar former president

    FILE -- In this Saturday, May 11, 2013 file photo, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 78, waves to media, as he registers his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, at the election headquarters of the interior ministry in Tehran, Iran. Iran’s election overseers say they will bar physically weak hopefuls from running in next month presidential election, a direct hint at Rafsanjani. Iran's Constitution doesn't set any age limit for presidential candidates. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's election overseers said Monday they will bar candidates who are physically weak from running in next month's presidential election, a reference to a former leader seen as a threat to hard-liners.




  • With end of Afghan war in sight, Europe pushes business
    By Amie Ferris-Rotman HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The European Union threw its weight behind developing Afghanistan's small but promising private sector this week, in the hope that business can usher in stability and peace once foreign troops leave by the end of next year. In the largest ever EU visit outside the capital Kabul in 12 years of war, a 21-country delegation of envoys jetted to the western city of Herat on Sunday, whose flurry of business activity is largely seen as a rare success story in desperately poor, insurgency-plagued Afghanistan. ...

  • Iran electoral watchdog hints at Rafsanjani rejection

    Former President Rafsanjani casts his ballot in a parliamentary election in TehranBy Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's electoral watchdog said on Monday it would bar physically feeble candidates from running for president, in an apparent hint that it could disqualify 78-year-old former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from the race. Rafsanjani, if he is allowed to run, would be a significant challenge to conservative hardliners who are ultra-loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and who otherwise dominate the field for the June 14 presidential election. ...




  • Syrian troops push into strategic rebel-held town

    This citizen journalism image provided by Qusair Lens which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels preparing to repel a coordinated attack by government forces, in Qusair, Homs province, Syria, Sunday, May 19, 2013. Syrian troops backed by tanks and warplanes launched an assault Sunday on a strategic rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, pounding the area with airstrikes and artillery salvos that killed tens of people and forced residents to scramble for cover in basements and makeshift bunkers, activists said. (AP Photo/Qusair Lens)BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops pushed into a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border on Sunday, fighting house-to-house and bombing from the air as President Bashar Assad tried to strengthen his grip on a strategic strip of land running from the capital to the Mediterranean coast.




  • Outlook dim as Syria diplomacy gathers force
    By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Peter Graff AMMAN/LONDON (Reuters) - The world's diplomats will make a major new push in the coming days for negotiations to end Syria's civil war, but their chances of achieving a peace deal look as remote as ever. President Bashar al-Assad poured scorn on new plans for peace talks announced unexpectedly by the United States and Russia two weeks ago and planned for Geneva in early June. ...

  • Militants kill 10 Iraq policemen in checkpoint attacks

    Tribal men pose with their weapons as they patrol a road north of RamadiRAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - - Militants killed at least 10 Iraqi policemen in a series of attacks on checkpoints in the West of the country on Sunday, police and local officials said. Sectarian tensions in Iraq have been amplified by the conflict in neighboring Syria, where mostly Sunni rebels are fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad who is backed by Shi'ite Iran. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Iraqi attacks, but Sunni militant groups have previously targeted security forces in a campaign to destabilize the Baghdad government, which they reject as illegitimate. ...




  • Hezbollah steps up Syria battle, Israel threatens more strikes

    A Free Syrian Army fighter is seen with his weapon in a damaged house in Deir al-ZorBy Khaled Yacoub Oweis 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 fail. Activists said it was the fiercest fighting in Syria's two year-old civil war involving Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group backed by Iran which they said appeared to be helping President Bashar al-Assad secure a vital corridor in case Syria fragments. ...




  • Report: Obama Administration Apologizes for Another National Security Leak
    “Can you imagine if things were reversed and somebody did that to the U.S.?"

  • Syrian army, Hezbollah attack rebels in border town: opposition

    A man is seen on a damaged staircase in HomsBy Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian troops supported by Hezbollah militants 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 guerillas in nine points in and around the town of Qusair, 10 km (six miles) from the border with Lebanon's Bekaa valley, they said. ...




  • Report: Iran hangs 2 men convicted of spying
    TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's state radio says authorities have executed two men convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad and the American CIA intelligence agency.

  • Iran's Guard warns against post-election turmoil

    An Iranian worshipper prays at the start of Friday prayers at Tehran University in Tehran, Iran, Friday, May 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard has warned that his forces will be on watch for possible unrest after next month's presidential election, calling the outcome "unpredictable" and sending the strongest message yet against any attempts to revive street protests, media reported Sunday.




  • Iran hangs two spies working for Israel and U.S.: report
    DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian authorities executed two men on Sunday convicted of working for Israeli and U.S. spy agencies, Iran's Fars news agency reported. Mohammad Heidari, accused of passing security-related information and secrets to Israeli Mossad agents in exchange for money, and Kourosh Ahmadi, accused of gathering information for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, were hanged at dawn, it said. The sentence for their execution was handed down by Tehran's Revolutionary Court and confirmed by the country's Supreme Court. ...

  • Cannes helps actors Bejo and Rahim cross borders

    Actress Berenice Bejo poses for portraits at during the 66th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Laurent Emmanuel)CANNES, France (AP) — The magic and glamour of Cannes can be hard to spot on a day when rain is lashing the palm trees, roiling the gray Mediterranean and pooling in puddles along the Croisette.