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Israeli police: 5 wounded in ramming near Jerusalem market

A car ramming attack Monday near a popular Jerusalem market wounded five people and the Palestinian driver was shot and killed, Israeli police said, as the country memorialized its fallen soldiers.

The statement said the driver of the car was shot and killed at the scene near the bustling, open-air Mahane Yehuda market. A 70-year-old man was in serious condition, police said. It was the latest bloodshed in a yearlong wave of near-daily violence that has gripped the region.

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As Israel turns 75, its flag unfurls into deep divisions

It's become an unmistakable hallmark of the anti-government protests roiling Israel for the last few months: the blue and white national flag adorned with the Star of David.

To an outside observer, that may not be surprising, as the demonstrators say their struggle is over the very soul of the nation.

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Russia to host Syria-Turkey fence-mending talks Tuesday

Russia will host a new round of talks on Tuesday aimed at normalizing ties between Turkey and Syria, Turkey's defense minister said.

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Israel arrests Jordanian MP on arms-smuggling charges

Jordan's Foreign Ministry said a Jordanian lawmaker has been arrested by Israel on suspicion of smuggling weapons and gold into the occupied West Bank.

The ministry's spokesman, Sinan Majali, said Jordanian officials are following the case "to find out the merits of the situation and address it as soon as possible." The lawmaker was identified as Imad Al-Adwan and said to have been arrested crossing the border into the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

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Israel bombs Hezbollah-linked group near Golan Heights

Israel's army early Monday shelled a position belonging to a pro-Iran group in southern Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a war monitor said, the second such bombardment in days.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "Israeli ground forces" bombarded a location on the outskirts of Quneitra where fighters from the Syrian Resistance to Liberate the Golan are located, without reporting any casualties.

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A deeply divided Israel limps toward its 75th birthday

Orit Pinhasov strongly opposes the Israeli government's proposed judicial overhaul, but you won't find her anywhere near the mass protests against the plan. She says her marriage depends on it.

Pinhasov's husband sits on the opposite side of Israel's political divide, and joining the protests will only deepen what she says already are palpable tensions in her household.

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Amid joy and tragedy, Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr holiday

The holiday of Eid al-Fitr ushered in a day of prayers and joy for Muslims around the world on Friday. The celebration was marred by tragedy amid the explosion of conflict in Sudan, while in other countries it came against the backdrop of hopes for a better future.

After the Ramadan month of fasting, Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr with feasts and family visits. The start of the holiday is traditionally based on sightings of the new moon, which vary according to geographic location.

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Dutch salvage team set to pump oil off rusting Yemen tanker

A Dutch salvage company has reached agreement with the United Nations to pump oil from a rusting tanker off the coast of war-ravaged Yemen in a move hailed as a "critical milestone" in moves to avert a possible environmental disaster, its parent company announced Thursday.

Boskalis said that its Smit Salvage subsidiary has reached agreement with the U.N. Development Program to transfer more than one million barrels of oil from the decaying tanker FSO Safer. A specialist support ship, the Ndeavor, is setting sail Friday to the east African nation of Djibouti to prepare for the mission, the company said.

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Netanyahu taps far-right minister for New York consul post

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a Cabinet minister known for inflammatory comments and for leading a grassroots campaign against African migrants to the post of consul general in New York, a high-profile job that deals with outreach to American Jews.

May Golan, currently a minister without portfolio in Netanyahu's government, built her political career on staunch opposition to African migrants in Israel. She calls them "infiltrators" and has portrayed the estimated 40,000 migrants, mostly concentrated in poor neighborhoods of the southern part of the city of Tel Aviv, as threats to security.

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Sudan's truce falters, as Egypt repatriates army personnel

Egypt on Thursday repatriated dozens of its military personnel who had been held by Sudan's paramilitary force, which is locked in a deadly struggle with the Sudanese army to control the strategic African country.

The latest attempt at a cease-fire between the rival Sudanese forces faltered as gunfire rattled the capital of Khartoum. As global pressure to stop the violence failed, Japan and the Netherlands flew transport planes closer to the conflict-battered nation ahead of a possible evacuation of their citizens.

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