Spotlight
The Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar Assad have shoulder-launched missile systems, including Stingers made by the United States, Russia's top general said on Wednesday.
Russian chief of staff General Nikolai Makarov, whose country is the Syrian regime's top arms supplier and has refused to back the rebels, said it was not clear who had delivered the weapons.

Jordanian police said on Tuesday they have arrested seven Syrians for carrying 35 "advanced" walkie-talkies, which are banned in the kingdom.
"The seven Syrian men were arrested on Monday in Amman and Irbid (in the north)," police spokesman Mohammed Khatib told Agence France Presse.

Tensions soared around Gaza on Wednesday after Israeli air raids killed four fighters and Palestinian armed groups fired 68 rockets at southern Israel, seriously wounding two people.
It was the biggest surge in cross-border violence since June, and prompted both Israel and Gaza groups to vow they would not allow the attacks to go unanswered.

Libya on Tuesday celebrated the first anniversary of its "liberation" from the regime of Moammar Gadhafi, even as fighting flared in a former bastion of the slain dictator.
On October 23, 2011, just three days after Gadhafi was captured and killed in his hometown Sirte, the transitional authorities declared the country's liberation, formally ceasing hostilities.

Iran could soon host a "national dialogue" in the region between all the parties to the Syrian conflict, a senior Iranian official said in media reports on Tuesday.
"Representatives of the (Syrian) government and all political and opposition groups will soon begin a national dialogue in a regional country, and possibly in Tehran," said Hossein Amir Abdollahian, deputy foreign minister for Arab affairs, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

Doha is increasing its investment in rebuilding Gaza to $400 million, up from $254 million, Gaza's Hamas premier said on Tuesday during a landmark visit by the Qatari emir.
"The emir agreed to increase the Qatari investment from $254 million to $400 million," prime minister Ismail Haniya said during a press conference in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza to mark the emir's visit.

A group of angry Syrians set fire to their tents in protest at "bad living conditions" at the Zaatari desert refugee camp in northern Jordan, a leading charity said on Tuesday.
"A number of Syrian refugees torched 20 tents last night, protesting bad living conditions in Zaatari and demanding the authorities replace tents with caravans," said Zayed Hammad, head of the Ketab and Sunna Society, a charity that helps hundreds of thousands of Syrians in the kingdom.

Warplanes raided a district of the northern city of Aleppo as fighting across Syria kept up unabated on Tuesday, despite hopes of a ceasefire for later this week, a watchdog said.
The latest violence comes three days ahead of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, during which peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has proposed a ceasefire.

A narrow majority of Turks is opposed to any intervention by their country in Syria if President Bashar Assad's regime falls, according to a poll published on Tuesday.
Fifty-one percent of people surveyed believe that Turkey, which shares a long border with Syria, must "remain impartial without favoring any side" in the Syrian crisis, according to the Edam Center survey.

President Bashar Assad issued an amnesty for all crimes committed in Syria "up until today," with the notable exception of "terrorist crimes," state television said on Tuesday.
Assad, who has been fighting a 19-month revolt against his regime, "decreed a general amnesty for crimes committed before October 23," except for those carried out by "terrorists" -- the regime's term for rebels.
