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Sarkozy: France Was Wrong to Abandon Former Algerian Allies

President Nicolas Sarkozy formally admitted Saturday that France failed in its duty towards the Algerian loyalists who fought on Paris' side in their country's war of independence.

Around 60,000 pro-French Algerians, known as "harkis", came to France after the war, but approximately as many again were abandoned to face bloody reprisals in Algeria at the hands of their pro-independence countrymen.

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U.N. Unanimously Approves Syria Observer Force

The U.N. Security Council on Saturday unanimously passed its first resolution on the Syria crisis, allowing an advance party of ceasefire monitors to go to the country on the brink of civil war.

U.N. Resolution 2042 approved the first 30 unarmed military monitors, who U.N. officials said could leave for Damascus within hours.

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Iraq Probes Possible Arab Summit Corruption

The Iraqi parliament is investigating possible corruption in preparations for the Arab summit which Baghdad hosted in March at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, an MP said Saturday.

"We have indications that there was corruption (in the preparations for) the Arab summit and we need four to 10 weeks to complete our investigation," MP Bahaa al-Araji said in a statement.

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Iraq's Sadr Slams 'Maliki Arrest' of Election Head

Anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday accused the prime minister of having engineered the arrest of Iraq's electoral chief to serve his own purposes of staying in power.

Faraj al-Haidari, head of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), was detained on Thursday for alleged corruption along with another of the body's members, Karim al-Tamimi.

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UK Airline Cancels 'Flytilla' Tickets on Israel Objections

British airline Jet2.com said Saturday it has cancelled tickets for an unspecified number of passengers planning to attend a pro-Palestinian activist gathering after Israel raised objections.

The Guardian newspaper had reported that Jet2.com contacted three women passengers late Friday to inform them that their seats were cancelled on a flight to Tel Aviv scheduled to take off from Manchester, northern England, at 0900 GMT on Sunday.

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Qaida Attack Kills 12 in Yemen's Aden

Twelve people including four policemen were killed on Saturday in an attack by Al-Qaida-linked militants on a checkpoint in Yemen's southern port city of Aden, police said.

"Armed men from Al-Qaida attacked a security forces checkpoint at Jawala at the northern entrance to Aden, killing four police officers," a police source told AFP.

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Report: German Ship Stopped Carrying Iranian Arms to Syria

Germany said Saturday it was investigating the possible breaking of an arms embargo after a report claiming that a German ship had been carrying Iranian weapons bound for Syria.

The news weekly Der Spiegel reported Saturday on its website that a German shipping company stopped one of its vessels on the high seas after a tip-off from opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

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Russia Says U.N. Resolution on Syria 'Practically Agreed'

Russia on Saturday said the U.N. Security Council had "practically agreed" a resolution on sending an observer mission to Syria and called on all sides to strictly obey the Kofi Annan peace plan.

"The resolution on the deployment into Syria of a U.N. monitoring mission advance group has been practically agreed for adoption at the U.N. Security Council," the Foreign Ministry said.

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U.N. Vote on Syria Mission Faces Russia Doubts

The U.N. Security Council will vote Saturday on a Western-drafted resolution allowing a ceasefire observer mission in Syria even though Russia's support is in doubt.

The United States called for the vote after a second day of wrangling with Russia over security guarantees for the first 30 unarmed military monitors who U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan wants in Syria early next week.

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Syrian Forces Kill 6 ahead of U.N. Observer Vote

Syrian forces killed six people and shelled rebel areas of Homs on Saturday ahead of a U.N. Security Council vote on a Western-drafted resolution that would send observers to monitor a shaky truce now in its third day.

Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad killed four civilians as they opened fire at a funeral procession of a demonstrator in Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

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