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Turkey Shells and Strikes North Iraq

Turkish jets carried out air strikes against a Kurdish separatist group's bases in north Iraq for a fifth day on Sunday, and began shelling for the first time, a rebel spokesman told AFP.

"At about 11:00 am (0800 GMT), Turkish aircraft started bombing five areas," Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) spokesman Ahmed Denis told AFP by telephone. He said the areas being bombed were Qandil, Khowakirk, Haftan, Jabal Mattine and Jabal Karra, all along Iraq's border with Turkey.

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Kuwait Detains MP over Threats to Syrian Envoy

Kuwait's public prosecution Sunday freed Islamist MP Mohammed Hayef after detaining him for one day for questioning over alleged threats to the Syrian ambassador, his lawyer said.

Hayef was detained after he initially refused to pay a 2,000-dinar ($7,350) bail "but later he agreed and paid the bail and was freed," lawyer Adel Abdul Hadi told Agence France Presse.

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Gaza Rockets Land in Egypt

Rockets fired from Gaza early Sunday landed across the border in Egypt but caused no casualties, state television reported.

"Several rockets from the Gaza Strip landed this morning in Egyptian territory in the region west of the Rafah terminal, without causing casualties," the television reported.

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Italy: Libyan 'Tragedy Coming to an End'

The Libyan conflict appears to be drawing to a close, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in an interview on Sunday in which he also looked forward to economic deals for Italy under a new regime.

"Everything points to this tragedy coming to an end," Frattini told the Il Mattino daily, as NATO-backed rebels and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's supporters fought skirmishes in the streets of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

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Egypt 'Spiderman' Earns Hero Status with Israel Flag Protest

A lone protester became a hero to an exultant crowd of Egyptians and many more online by hauling down the Star of David flag atop Israel's embassy in Cairo after the border killing of Egyptian policemen.

More than 1,000 protesters gathered outside the Israeli embassy early Sunday and let off celebratory fireworks when the man clambered to the top floor of a high-rise housing the mission, replacing the flag with an Egyptian one.

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Gaza Rockets Rain Down as Israel Mulls Response to Bloodshed

Israelis and Palestinians woke up to a fourth day of violence on Sunday, with militants firing 17 rockets into Israel despite an unusually quiet night in Gaza just hours after a rocket killed an Israeli.

Tensions in and around the Gaza Strip have soared since Thursday when militants staged a series of bloody shooting attacks in the Negev desert, killing eight Israelis and prompting a wave of bloody tit-for-tat exchanges.

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11 Tribesmen Killed in Two South Yemen Suicide Attacks

Eleven Yemeni tribesmen were killed overnight in two suicide attacks in the southern province of Abyan, a stronghold of Al-Qaida, tribal sources and medics told AFP on Sunday.

Tribal sources accused Al-Qaida members of carrying out the attacks in two villages of Abyan province, where Yemeni tribesmen and the army have been battling militants from the "Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law)" who are believed to be close to the Al-Qaida network.

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Israel Arrests 120 Hamas Members in West Bank

Israeli troops on Sunday arrested 120 Hamas members in the southern West Bank just hours after the faction's Gaza branch fired rockets into Israel, Palestinian security sources said.

Palestinian security sources said troops fanned out across the southern West Bank in an overnight operation which kicked off just hours after Hamas's armed wing in Gaza fired rockets into southern Israel, breaking a truce brokered in April.

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Defiant Gadhafi Vows Victory as Rebels Advance

A beleaguered Moammar Gadhafi urged supporters Sunday to "march by the millions" and quash a months-long uprising, as strong explosions rocked Tripoli amid fighting between rebels and regime supporters.

The blasts were heard shortly after 4:00 am (0200 GMT) in the heart of the city as NATO warplanes flew overhead, an AFP journalist said. The targets were not immediately identifiable but witnesses reported clashes in several quarters between insurgents and Gadhafi supporters.

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Syria's Assad to Give TV Interview on Sunday

Embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad is to address the nation in a television interview, as his forces continued to kill anti-regime protesters Saturday despite demands from world powers for him to put an end to the repression.

Assad will give an interview on Syrian television on Sunday "about the situation in Syria, the continuing process of reforms, the repercussions of American and Western political and economic pressures and a vision of the future for Syria in the current regional and international context," state news agency SANA said.

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