Mideast News from WN Network

Thursday, 01 December 2011

UN rights chief says Syria death toll over 4,000

GENEVA — The U.N.'s top human rights official says her office estimates the death toll in Syria's nine-month uprising is now "much more" than 4,000. Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, gave the latest figure a day before the global body is due to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis in the country. Pillay told reporters in Geneva on Thursday that evidence emerging of abuses committed by Syrian security forces affirms her call that the country's leadership should be...

Full Story: Palm Beach Post

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Turf Battle Forms Over Hussein's Palaces Wall Street Journal

By SAM DAGHER CAMP VICTORY, Iraq—A quarrel is brewing among Iraqi officials over who gets to decide what to do with the sprawling complex of grandiose former palaces of Saddam Hussein that has served for years as Camp Victory, the headquarters of the U.S. military in Iraq. The compound,...

Syria Opposition Leader Interview Transcript Wall Street Journal

Burhan Ghalioun, the leader of the Syrian National Council, Syria's main opposition group, spoke with The Wall Street Journal Wednesday at his home in south Paris. It was his first major interview as SNC president. Below, an edited transcript. The Wall Street Journal: Do you feel there is momentum,...

Gaza Dissident Is Free, but Fearful Wall Street Journal

By JOSHUA MITNICK TEL AVIV—Mohamed Abumuailek, a disillusioned Gaza militant, was jailed by Hamas security forces in April 2009 on spy charges after going on camera to denounce rocket fire on Israeli cities and talking about an online friend from Tel Aviv. After a two-year trial, more than a...

Syria Would Cut Iran Ties, Opposition Leader Says Wall Street Journal

By JAY SOLOMON And NOUR MALAS PARIS—A Syrian government run by the country's main opposition group would cut Damascus's military relationship to Iran and end arms supplies to Middle East militant groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, the group's leader said, raising the prospect of a dramatic...

U.S. Will Win Fight for Influence in Iraq, Biden Says Wall Street Journal

By CAROL E. LEE ERBIL, Iraq—Vice President Joe Biden said the U.S. will flex its diplomatic and economic might to ultimately beat Iran in the battle for influence in Iraq after the withdrawal of U.S. troops this month. "The real way people gain influence other than through force is having an...

Sanctions blowback crippling Iran's shipping trade MSNBC

LONDON — Iran's vital seaborne trade is suffering from escalating sanctions pressure as shipping companies scale down activities or pull out, with the Islamic Republic facing more hurdles in transporting its oil, trade and shipping sources say. Only on msnbc.com Reuters Myanmar’s new...

Russia delivers anti-ship missiles to Syria: report MSNBC

MOSCOW — Russia has delivered anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria, the Interfax news agency cited an unnamed military source as saying on Thursday, days after a United Nations commission of inquiry called for an arms embargo on Damascus. Only on msnbc.com Reuters Myanmar’s new capital: a...

United Nations Says Unrest in Syria Amounts to Civil War The New York Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The United Nations declared Thursday that Syria was in a state of civil war, as the death toll from nearly nine months of bloodshed rose to more than 4,000 people and more soldiers were reported to have defected from the army to join an armed uprising against President Bashar...

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