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U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Meets Yemen VP

U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan met with Yemen's vice president on Saturday and expressed Washington's commitment to provide support to the troubled country, official reports said.

"The U.S. will stand side by side with Yemen as it works to emerge from these difficult circumstances," the official SABA news agency quoted Brennan as saying in a meeting with Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi in Sanaa.

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Four Wounded in Israeli Air Strikes on Gaza

Three people were wounded early Sunday morning in an Israeli air strike on Gaza, medical sources said, hours after another strike injured one man.

According to the sources, the latest air strike, which targeted a home in the al-Tufah neighborhood in Gaza City, left the three in moderate condition.

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Abbas Says New Palestinian Government Will Respect PLO Accords

President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that the next Palestinian government will respect agreements signed by the PLO, a reference to the peace accords with Israel.

"The next government will remain committed to the obligations and agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization," Abbas said, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

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Maliki Says Iraq Taking Steps to Secure Syria Border

Iraq is taking measures to secure its border with Syria against weapons smuggling and the unauthorized movement of people, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said in a statement on Saturday.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime has been carrying out a bloody crackdown on an uprising in which human rights groups say more than 6,000 people have been killed since March 2011.

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Algeria Urges Neighbors to Fight Terror, Organized Crime

Algeria proposed Saturday to boost cooperation with North African neighbors against terror and organized crime as the five-nation Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) held its first high-level conference since 1996.

Algeria sought "true and effective Maghreb cooperation in the fields of terrorism, organized crime, illegal arms and drug trafficking and clandestine immigration," Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told counterparts in Rabat.

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Yemen Separatists Urge Supporters to Disrupt Poll

A faction of Yemen's separatist Southern Movement on Saturday called for a day of "civil disobedience" to disrupt next week's presidential election.

The Higher Council of the Peaceful Movement for the Liberation of the South, in a statement, called on its supporters to "take every possible peaceful action" against Tuesday's election to prevent it going ahead.

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Report: Switzerland Halt Mobile Spy Gear Bound for Iran, Syria

Swiss authorities have intercepted mobile phone surveillance equipment destined for Syria and Iran, an official told Swiss Television.

Juergen Boehler from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) told the German channel's "10 vor 10" program European suppliers had tried to send the goods via Switzerland but customs officials seized them at the border.

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Rocket Fired by Militants Hits Gaza Home

A rocket fired at Israel on Saturday by Palestinian militants instead hit a house in the Gaza Strip, but there were no casualties, witnesses said.

It apparently exploded prematurely, damaging the house, the witnesses said, without being able to provide further details.

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Egypt Trial of Foreign NGO Activists on Feb 26

Egypt was set to further widen a row with the United States by announcing on Saturday that it would go ahead with a trial of foreign democracy activists, including 19 Americans, on February 26.

A court set the date for the start of the trial of 43 suspects -- who also include Serbs, Norwegians, Germans, Egyptians, Palestinians and Jordanians -- in a crackdown on NGOs accused of receiving illegal foreign aid, state media announced.

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Thousands of Syrians Rally for Assad Ouster

Embattled Syrian president Bashar Assad's forces unleashed their heaviest pounding yet of the central protest city of Homs, monitors said, as thousands rallied for his ouster.

The protesters emerged from mosques after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday, including in Damascus, following a call by Internet-based activists for a rally for a "new phase of popular resistance."

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