Syrian regime bracing for more protests on ‘Freedom day’

Another Friday …The authorities in Syria are reportedly bracing for the possibility of huge protests throughout the country as more than 850 protesters have reportedly been killed and thousands have been jailed since the uprising began just over two months ago . (more…)

Feltman in Beirut to meet with Key Lebanese officials

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman arrived in Beirut Thursday evening and was received at the airport by US Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly under high security measures, NNA reported (more…)

Hezbollah condemned US sanctions against Syria

Hezbollah issued a statement on Thursday condemning the US sanctions against Syria and accusing the US of targeting Syria because of its support for the resistance against Israel.

“The imposition of US sanctions on Syria and the attempt to target Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a political decision that has no relation to human rights,” the statement said. (more…)

Obama: Bin Laden was no martyr

US President Barack Obama started his Mideast policy speech Thursday by saying: ” Osama Bin Laden was no martyr!”

“Even before his death, al-Qaida was losing its struggle for relevence … by the time we found Bin Laden the majority of people in the Middle East had come to see it as an irrelevance.” (more…)

IMF Chief Resigns While Fighting Sex Assault Charges

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned his post after being arrested on sexual assault charges. The former IMF chief is being held in a New York City jail, and says he wants to devote all his strength, time, and energy to proving his innocence. (more…)

Assad must go !

Michael Young, opinion editor of The Daily Star newspaper wrote in special article for CNN that the U.S. sanctions that have just been imposed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are useful, but not enough and the time has come to ask him to leave office (more…)

Analysis: Assad’s regime of torture

President Assad reaffirms his father’s legacy by quelling dissent with brute force. In two months of protests, Syrian security forces have killed an estimated 850 people.

Al Qaeda terrorist Inayatullah commits suicide’ at Guantanamo

An Afghan detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison has died in an apparent suicide.

The 37-year-old prisoner, identified only as Inayatullah, was accused of being an Al Qaeda member and housed at the controversial U.S. jail in Cuba. (more…)

Verbal war between Aoun, Mikati escalates

MP Fadi al-Aawar, said on Thursday that the Change and Reform bloc was close to a decision to withhold the nomination of Premier-designate Najib Mikati.

Al-Aawar , who is a member of Hezbollah but allocated to FPM leader Michel Aoun’s bloc told Voice of Lebanon radio (more…)

Ahmadinejad blames the west for drought in Iran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday accused Western countries of devising plans to “cause drought” in the Islamic republic, as he inaugurated a dam in a central province.

“Western countries have designed plans to cause drought in certain areas of the world, including Iran,” the official IRNA (more…)