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Barak Pledges Response to Gaza Tunnel Blast

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak blamed Hamas on Friday for the detonation of an explosives tunnel along the Gaza border which wounded a soldier, and said he was mulling how and when to respond.

The blast, which was claimed by the armed wing of the ruling Islamist Hamas movement, took place several hours after a Palestinian teenager was shot dead by troops in the same area, just east of the southern city of Khan Yunis, Palestinian medical officials and witnesses said.

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Israel Warns Syria over Conflict Spilling into Golan

Israel's deputy prime minister Moshe Yaalon warned Damascus on Friday it would act to defend its sovereignty if the bloody fighting in Syria continued to spill over into the occupied Golan Heights.

His remarks, published on his official Twitter account, were made a day after three stray mortar rounds fired from Syria hit the occupied Golan, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.

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8,000 Syrian Refugees Flee to Turkey Overnight

Some 8,000 Syrian refugees fled to Turkey overnight in the face of escalating clashes between rebel forces and troops loyal to Damascus near the border, a foreign ministry official told Agence France Presse on Friday.

The latest influx brought the total number of Syrian refugees in Turkey to more than 120,000, the official added on condition of anonymity.

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Assad Says Only 'Ballot Box' Can Decide his Future, Describes Erdogan as 'Caliph'

Syrian President Bashar Assad said his future could only be decided through the ballot box, in an interview with Russian television where he warned the country could face a protracted war.

Assad told state-run Russia Today (RT) that whether the president can "stay or leave" is a "popular issue" and "the only way (it) can be done (is) through the ballot boxes.”

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U.N. Concerned over Red Cross Aid Problems in Syria

The U.N. human rights chief expressed concern Friday after the Red Cross said it was struggling to deliver aid in war-ravaged Syria.

"The fact that they've now said they are unable to perform their core functions there is very significant," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told Agence France Presse.

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Gaza Teen Killed by Israeli Helicopter Fire, Bomb Injures Soldier

A Palestinian teenager died Thursday after being hit by bullets fired from an Israeli helicopter in the Gaza Strip, and a booby-trapped tunnel in the same area lightly wounded an Israeli soldier, officials said.

Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, named the victim killed near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip as 13-year-old Hmeid Abu Daqqa, and said he had been killed near the border.

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Assad Foes Near to Opposition Unity Deal

Syrians from a broad spectrum of opposition to President Bashar Assad seemed close Thursday to reaching agreement on a unified political structure that world powers will accept as credible and representative.

"We are moving towards agreement," said Burhan Ghalioun, former chief of the main opposition Syrian National Council hours after the meeting started.

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Damascenes Braced for Long War

Woken up by artillery pounding the outskirts of Damascus, three-year-old Ammar runs crying to his mother who reassures him it was only a ball that hit a wall of their home.

Long spared the violence that has engulfed the rest of the country, the Syrian capital is now submerged in the war between government forces and rebels out to topple the regime of President Bashar Assad.

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Damascus: Arabi Submitted Credentials to States, Terrorists Seeking to Destroy Syria

Damascus on Thursday lashed out at Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, saying he has “submitted his credentials to states and terrorist organizations that are seeking to destroy Syria.”

“Arabi is hallucinating about changing the political system of a founding state of the Arab League and he's only an employee who works for its states,” Syria's foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdisi said.

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Iraq Court Sentences Fugitive VP's Guards to Death

Two guards of vice president Tareq al-Hashemi were Thursday sentenced by an Iraqi court to death for planting a roadside bomb, at a hearing boycotted by defense lawyers who said it was unfair.

Hashemi, a top Sunni official and a prominent critic of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has himself being handed four death sentences in absentia. He dismisses the charges against he and his staff as politically-motivated.

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