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4 min 11 sec ago - Syria

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) hit back at reports on Wednesday that a leading dissident had resigned from the organisation, saying Fawaz Tello had never been a member.

Liberal politician Tello said on Tuesday he was leaving in protest at the council's failure to push through democratic reforms and unify the fractured opposition to President Assad.

The announcement was seen as a major blow to the embattled body that has seen several senior figures quit in the last few months. 

But the SNC released a statement on Wednesday saying it affirmed "after reviewing its membership list that Tello is not a member of the council and had not attended any of its meetings".

Tello, a former political prisoner who fled Syria three months ago, told Reuters he was surprised by the statement. 

"I became an SNC member while in Syria along with a number of comrades inside. I let my membership be known publicly when I left the country three months ago," he said. 

Tags Fawaz Tello, Syrian National Council
5 min 11 sec ago - Greece

A decision by Greece to leave the Europe's common currency zone would raise big questions about the impact on Spain, Italy and other countries in the region undergoing structural reforms, the head of the World Bank said on Wednesday.

"The core question will be not Greece, but Spain and Italy,"World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a question-and-answer session with a local economics club.
 
"Where the danger comes in is when events come and they start to affect confidence and you get illiquidity moments, and illiquidity moments start to mean something begins to tumble, whether its companies or banks."

 

Source - [Reuters]

Tags eurozone, Greece, Robert Zoellick, Spain, World Bank
15 min 11 sec ago - Turkey

Ammar Wawi, a Free Syrian Army officer in Turkey, denies that his movement carried out recent bombings in Syria.

He spoke to Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra about the progress of the uprising.

Tags Free Syrian Army, Hashem Ahelbarra, syria, Video
1 hour 39 min ago - Lebanon

Fighting rocked Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli for a fourth day on Wednesday, wounding at least six people in clashes related to rival positions on the Syrian uprising, security officials say. 

A security source said one Lebanese soldier and five residents were wounded in the clashes, which were mainly between government troops and gunmen in the Sunni Muslim district of Bab al-Tabbaneh. 

Eight people have been killed and dozens wounded since Saturday in Tripoli, home to both supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. [Reuters]

 

Tags Bab al Tabbaneh, syria, Tripoli
2 hours 35 min ago - United Nations

Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a UN Security Council ban on weapons exports by the country, according to a confidential draft report by a UN panel of experts seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

"Syria continues to be the central party to illicit Iranian arms transfers," said the report, which the expert panel has submitted to the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee.

The draft also said that "sanctions are slowing Iran's procurement of some critical items required for its prohibited nuclear programme. At the same time prohibited activities continue, including uranium enrichment."

Tags iran, syria
4 hours 13 min ago - Bahrain

Bahrain has summoned Iran's charge d'affaires to protest against what it called a "gross violation of its sovereignty" in a row after Tehran criticised efforts by Gulf Arab states to forge closer political and military union.

Heads of state met in Riyadh on Monday to discuss a call by Saudi King Abdullah to unite the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to counter Iran's growing influence in the Middle East and neutralise any threat of revolts by Shia communities in their countries.

They failed to agree on further integration but talks on the matter are to resume later this year.

[AFP]

Tags iran, protests, uprising
4 hours 43 min ago - Bahrain

Bahrain has issued arrest warrants on Wednesday for 20 people in an investigation into home-made bombs that injured policemen combating unrest in the Gulf Arab state.

"The criminal investigations chief announced a list with photos of 20 individuals wanted for terrorist explosions," an interior ministry statement said. "The public prosecution has permitted publishing the images to allow ... speedy arrest(s)."

It said the 20 were suspected of preparing and detonating home-made explosive devices that targeted policemen and injured both security personnel and civilians.

The names of the men, aged from 18 to 38, were obtained from questioning of detainees and other evidence. The interior minister called on citizens to help in the arrest of the men by calling a phone number with information.

[Reuters]

Tags iran, protests, uprising
4 hours 46 min ago - United Nations

Syria boycotted a hearing by the United Nations' main anti-torture body on Wednesday 

Wednesday's session at the Committee Against Torture went ahead without anyone in Syria's chair and a second session scheduled for Friday, when Syria was supposed to respond to accusations, was cancelled.

Accusations against Syria, read out by the committee's chairman Claudio Grossman, included the rape of boys, the use of snipers, electroshocks to the anus, forced oral sex, attacks on demonstrators being treated in hospitals, the use of heavy weapons in built-up areas and summary executions.

"We've rarely if ever had evidence of the scope and detail of this routine usage in prisons," said one of the committee's vice chairperson Felice Gaer during the session.

"While we wait for a political solution that is not forthcoming, we're seeing denials of physical integrity and of human life," said another vice chairperson Essadia Belmir.

"People's dignity depends on it, as does the credibility of the entire UN system." [Reuters]

Tags syria, torture
6 hours 29 min ago - Syria

A former state Tv employee has told Reuters that many of the "confessions" by alleged terrorists aired by the channel are bogus. 

Although an ardent supporter of Assad, the former producer said she is distressed by what she describes as a campaign of misinformation waged by the official "Suriya" television channel.

"I used to arrive at work and one of the editors would tell us that we have a person to confess," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from her former employer.

"Some of the men are just normal people who were arrested in anti-government demonstrations and others were thieves and criminals who were nearing the end of their sentence," said the producer, in her late twenties. "They were told they will be set free if they confess to the made-up crimes."

One confession gained particular fame in Syria when the confessor, Ghassin Selawaya from the coastal city of Lattakia, appeared to be playing to the demands of the producer. 

"Er...we burned buses...er...we resisted security patrols, it was all rioting," he muttered, sitting in a T-shirt surrounded by a shotgun and pistols, weapons the presenter said police found on him.

According to opposition activists, Selawaya's family said he was in fact arrested before the uprising for unrelated crimes.

Tags confessions, state tv
8 hours 8 min ago - Egypt

The president of Cairo's criminal court, Judge Ahmed Refaat, has announced that a verdict on Hosni Mubarak’s trial, which began in August 2011, will be delivered on June 2 this year. Mubarak can appeal the verdict if he is found guilty.

Mubarak, the deposed Egyptian president, Habib al-Adly, the country's former interior minister, and six high-ranking security officers are charged with killing protesters during the 18-day uprising last January and February which ended Mubarak’s 30 year rule. Over 850 people were killed during those 18 days, and thousands were injured.

Tags Hosni, mubarak, trial, verdict
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