JERUSALEM (AFP) - An environmental group on Wednesday called for a halt to baptisms in the Jordan River where tradition holds that Jesus was baptised, saying the waters there were dangerously polluted.
"Friends of the Earth Middle East call on regional authorities to halt baptism in the lower Jordan River until water quality standards for tourism activities there are met," said a statemen [...]
BEIRUT (AFP) - A Lebanese military court on Wednesday sentenced a former school principal to death on charges of spying for Israel in 2008, a judicial official told AFP.
The court found that Hassan Ahmed al-Hussein, 58, provided Israel with information concerning the leadership of Hezbollah and the location of sites used by the militant group, which fought a devastating war with Israel in [...]
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israeli fire killed two Palestinians and wounded 10 in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, medics and witnesses said.
The head of Gaza emergency services, Dr Muawiya Hassanein, confirmed the casualty toll and said two of the wounded were in a serious condition.
Among the wounded were children, an AFP photographer at the hospital where the casualties were taken for tre [...]
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Palestinian and Israeli envoys talked past each other in the UN Security Council Wednesday on prospects for resuming direct Middle East peace talks under US sponsorship.
Each side accused the other of hampering attempts at peace, during an open debate on the Middle East that came as US envoy George Mitchell has been shuttling between both sides to try to coax them i [...]
ANKARA (AFP) - Suspected Kurdish rebels blew up a pipeline carrying natural gas from Iran to Turke
y, forcing the shutdown of the conduit, officials said Wednesday.
The powerful blast occurred overnight at a section of the pipeline near the eastern Turkish town of Dogubayazit, in Agri province, several kilometres (miles) from the Iranian border, a local official told AFP by telephone, with [...]
CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian experts have begun to explore the depths of Lake Qarun south of Cairo using remote sensing radars in search of sunken artefacts, antiquities officials told AFP on Wednesday.
Antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass said the work was launched a few days ago. "It is the first time ever that the antiquities department carries out an archaeological mission in Lake Qarun."
Khale [...]
ZAGREB (AFP) - Israeli President Shimon Peres will visit Croatia this week where he will pay tribute to the victims of a notorious World War II concentration camp, the presidency said here on Wednesday.
Peres, who is to arrive for a three-day visit to Croatia on Friday, is to meet his Croatian counterpart Ivo Josipovic and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, a statement from Josipovic's office [...]
SANAA (AFP) - Officially, slavery was abolished back in 1962 but a judge's decision to pass on the title deed of a "slave" from one master to another has blown the lid off the hidden bondage of hundreds of Yemenis.
The judge in the town of Hajja, which is home to some 300 slaves, according to residents, said he had certified the transfer only because the new owner planned to free the slav [...]
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - Arabs and Israelis boogeyed ecstatically together in the occupied West Bank late into the night as 70s band Boney M belted out their nostalgic disco tunes at an open-air concert.
Tuesday's event in Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, was part of a six-day music and dance festival taking part across the West Bank to highlight water [...]
TEHRAN (AFP) - A government-linked Iranian studio said on Wednesday it plans to make a television movie about Shahram Amiri, the Tehran scientist who claims he was abducted by US spies last year.
Amirhossein Ashtiyanipour, a director at Sima Film, said a "young group of movie school graduates" had been hired to write the script for the movie but gave no further details.
The project was c [...]
Passengers jump out of plane in India after bad landing
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