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Saudi Beheads Pakistani for Drug Trafficking

Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani man in the eastern Khubar province on Wednesday after he was convicted of drug trafficking, the interior ministry announced.

Arshad Mohammed was arrested for smuggling heroin and hashish into the kingdom, the ministry was quoted as saying by the official SPA news agency.

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Egypt Building Collapse Kills 25 People

At least 25 people were killed on Wednesday when a 12-story building collapsed in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria, the health ministry said.

Another 12 people were injured, deputy health minister Mohammed al-Sharkawi told AFP.

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Israel MPs Accuse Obama of 'Meddling' in Vote

Israeli MPs on Wednesday accused U.S. President Barack Obama of meddling in Israel's upcoming elections over an opinion piece purporting to outline his view of Benjamin Netanyahu's "self-defeating" policies.

The piece, which was published by the prominent Bloomberg columnist Jeffery Goldberg, made headlines across the Israeli press and sparked angry reactions from MPs from the Israeli prime minister's ruling rightwing Likud party.

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Toll from Aleppo Blasts Rises to 87

The death toll from twin blasts that tore through the campus of Aleppo university has risen to 87, a watchdog said on Wednesday, making the attack one of the bloodiest in Syria's 22-month conflict.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts that rocked the university in Syria's northern commercial capital as students were sitting for their exams on Tuesday, but the government and rebels have blamed each other.

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At Least 42 Dead, 245 Hurt in Series of Attacks in Iraq

Attacks in Baghdad and north Iraq killed 42 people on Wednesday as hundreds attended the funeral of a Sunni MP who died in a suicide attack a day earlier, as a political crisis grips the country.

The violence, which struck mostly in disputed territory in the north and which officials also said wounded at least 245 people, was the deadliest this year.

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Iran Vows No Change in Syria 'Cooperation'

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed no change in Iran's staunch "cooperation" with Damascus, in talks with visiting Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi, reports said on Wednesday.

"We hope that the plots and enmities against the Syrian nation will soon end and peace and security can be established in the country," Ahmadinejad said at the Tuesday night meeting, according to the official IRNA news agency.

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U.S. Downplays Report of Syria Using Chemical Weapons

The U.S. government on Tuesday brushed aside a report of a leaked State Department cable indicating that Syria had used chemical weapons in its brutal crackdown on a nearly two-year-old rebellion.

Foreign Policy, an online magazine, said it had acquired a leaked State Department report by U.S. diplomats in Turkey that made a "compelling case" that President Bashar Assad's forces had used poison gas.

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Syrian Students in Britain Hit by Funding Crisis

Some 670 Syrian students at British universities risk being expelled because they can no longer meet their fees due to the conflict back home, campaign organizers claimed Tuesday.

The collapse of the Syrian currency, the closure of the embassy in Britain, sanctions on Syrian banks and the Syrian higher education ministry stopping funding have made it hard for students to finance their tuition.

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UAE Court Jails Citizen for Spying

A United Arab Emirates court sentenced an Emirati national married to an Iranian woman to seven years in jail on Tuesday after convicting him of spying, the official WAM news agency reported.

Salem Musa Fairuz Khamis was convicted of "having contact with a foreign country" at the Supreme Federal Court, the UAE's highest court, WAM said.

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U.S. Urges Morsi to Retract Anti-Semitic Remarks

The United States on Tuesday condemned vitriolic anti-Semitic remarks attributed to Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi before he was elected to office, and urged him to make clear his views.

"The language that we've seen is deeply offensive," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, adding "we think that these comments should be repudiated, and they should be repudiated firmly."

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