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Dubai Police Chief: Muslim Brotherhood Plotting against Gulf

The Muslim Brotherhood, the main Islamist force that emerged after the Arab Spring, is plotting to take over Gulf states, Dubai's police chief said in remarks reported on Sunday.

Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan said he had his reasons to claim that the "Brotherhood was plotting to change the regimes in the Gulf," in an interview published in the Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas.

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Israel Weighs U.N. Human Rights Council Boycott

Israel should boycott the United Nations Human Rights Council after it voted to authorize a probe of Israeli settlements, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told public radio on Sunday.

"This hypocritical organization has nothing to do with human rights. Its bias and lack of objectivity are obvious and we have no reason to cooperate with it," he told the radio station from Singapore, where he is currently on a trip.

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Blasts Rock Homs as 65 Killed across Syria

Blasts rocked the flashpoint city of Homs on Sunday as Syria's regime pressed its assault on protest hubs, with another 65 people, including 53 civilians, killed in violence across the country, activists and monitors said.

There was "heavy shelling of Khaldiyeh, Hamidiyeh and Old Homs neighborhoods by the regime's army, and explosions shook the whole city," the Local Coordination Committees said.

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U.S. Envoy Headed for Yemen, Qatar

The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East heads to Sanaa on Sunday to meet senior government officials and activists amid a political transition after longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down.

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Libya ex-PM Says West has Abandoned his Country

Libya's former Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril on Saturday expressed concern that the West had abandoned his country after the collapse of Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

"It is a fatal mistake to abandon Libya", Jibril said at a forum organized by public policy institute the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

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Egypt Islamists Warn Military over Government Backing

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood warned the ruling military Saturday over its backing of the current government, which it accuses of stalling the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak and saw Islamists dominate parliament.

The Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, has been pressuring the military to sack the cabinet and appoint an FJP-led government after it won a crushing victory in parliamentary elections.

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Syrian Rebel Chiefs Form Military Council to Unify Ranks

The head of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Asaad, announced Saturday the formation of a military council grouping all rebel chiefs, including Syria's most senior army deserter General Mustafa al-Sheikh.

The council "is a step towards guaranteeing the unity of the troops and armed forces (of the opposition) on Syrian territory," Colonel Asaad told Agence France Presse by telephone from Turkey.

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Egypt Liberal MPs Quit Constitution Panel Vote

Egyptian liberal MPs withdrew on Saturday from a crucial parliament vote for a panel to draft a new constitution amid a rift with Islamists over the constituent assembly's make up, liberals said.

The liberals accused the majority Islamists of trying to monopolize the 100-member panel, whose constitution will replace the one annulled by the ruling military after an uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak last year.

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Activists Say Turkish Journalists Missing Syria are Alive

Two Turkish journalists who have been missing in Syria for about two weeks are safe, according to an Islamic charity which said Saturday it was in negotiations to secure their return home.

"We are certain that they are alive and in good health," Bulent Yildirim, head of the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, told the Anatolia news agency.

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Syrian Opposition Groups to Hammer Out Objectives

Several Syrian opposition groups will gather in Turkey on Monday to hammer out common objectives in the face of the regime's deadly crackdown on dissent, the main umbrella grouping said.

The Istanbul meeting comes ahead of the second "Friends of Syria" conference in the same city on April 1, the Syrian National Council said in a statement on Saturday.

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