Israel

Dozens of containers of gunpowder seized from an Iranian cargo ship in 2009 exploded on Cyprus' main naval base Monday in a massive blast that killed 12 people, wounded 62 and wrecked a major power station, causing extensive blackouts.

our female activists from Wales detained as they entered Israel to visit the West Bank town of Bethlehem could be deported today.The women were detained as part of a so-called "flytilla" protest after they landed at the country's Ben Gurion Airport along with eight other British nationals on Friday.

Huge blasts rocked the main Greek Cypriot naval base at Zygi in the south of the Mediterranean island early on Monday leaving 12 dead and many injured, a defence ministry spokeswoman said.

Israeli police have confirmed that an estimated 200 pro-Palestinian activists were kept from boarding flights to Israel overnight and no incidents were reported at Ben-Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv, Israel police said yesterday.

On July 5 the South African media watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), unequivocally dismissed all complaints relating to a radio advert on 5fm that called for the boycott of Israel and compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa.

The Israeli Government has warned it is determined to prevent provocations at Ben Gurion Airport as some 500 activists are expected to land in Israel in coming days.Despite the Israeli government's warning, they maintain their aim is to visit Bethlehem and allow visitors into Palestinian villages where entry is restricted.

Israel's Public Security minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Tuesday slammed the hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists who plan to flood Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport this week as "hooligans" who would be barred entry.

People around the world are writing Happy Independence Day messages to their Twitter friends in the United States and abroad. It seems that this year, the world is backing the U.S all the way as even the most secular today wrote "God bless America."

After years of repression, intimidation and exploitation, regimes in the Middle East and North Africa became aware they risked being forced out by the people they oppressed.

Israel sent a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad in recent days, warning him that if he started a war with the Jewish state in order to divert attention from domestic problems, Israel will target him personally, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported on Tuesday.

The head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah, was arrested in London on Tuesday evening. He spent the night in a prison cell, and is expected to be deported from the U.K.

For the second time in the report's 10-year history, the United States is included in the State Department's annual report on human trafficking.

Israeli army sources told the Jerusalem Post on Monday night that new intelligence information obtained in recent days shows that participants of the flotilla planning to break Israel's sea blockade over the Gaza Strip later this week plan to kill Israeli Defence Forces soldiers who board their ships.

Israel backtracked on Monday on a threat to bar foreign journalists from entering the country for 10 years if they board a new international aid flotilla that plans to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

While LulzSec continues its Operation Anti-Security campaign against the world, rival group Team Poison has issued a statement promising to unmask LulzSec's members.

The Israeli government insisted that the application, called ThirdIntifada, incited violence against Israel.

Palestinian officials say a high-profile meeting between the leaders of the rival Fatah and Hamas movements has been called off and postponed indefinitely.

The Mavi Marmara, the Turkish aid ship that clashed with Israeli soldiers on the way to Gaza last year triggering a diplomatic storm, has pulled out of a repeat voyage later this month, the Turkish charity that owns the ship said Friday.

Syrian troops trying to quash three months of protests are committing "alleged breaches of the most fundamental rights", while 1,100 unarmed civilians have been killed in the crackdown says a UN report.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has announced that Turkey will not close its doors to Syrians fleeing unrest in their country.

After last Sunday's protests in the Golan Heights, tensions are mounting between Syria and Israel. As the Israeli authorities, backed by the U.S., accused the demonstration of being an enterprise backed by the al-Assad regime, according to the Associated Press, a Syrian government newspaper warned on Tuesday that more Syrians and Palestinians plan to march to the Israeli border. In what seems like a propaganda attempt, the newspaper reportedly warned: "Israel the day will come when hundred...

Gunmen from a pro-Syrian Palestinian organization shot at people during a protest at a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus on Monday, WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, reported on Tuesday. A reported 14 people died in the attack.

The problems with intra-national conflicts are often that in order to fully understand the set of complex dynamics and circumstances that come into play, far information than what is reported in and provided by the mainstream media is needed. In Libya problems did not surface just three months ago and despite being crushed, opponents of the Gaddafi regime existed before the uprising so is it really justifiable for Mustapha Abdul Jalil, the former Gaddafi Justice Minister to now be the head of th...

On June 4 China made its first confirmed contact with the Libyan rebels. The meeting was held in Qatar between a Chinese diplomat and the leader of the rebel National Transitional Council and follows a spate of defections by high-profile figures of the Gaddafi regime, including senior oil official and former Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem.In Beijing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said Beijing's ambassador to Qatar, Zhang Zhiliang, had met and "exchanged views on developments in Li...

The National Transitional Council in Libya is slowly trying to establish itself as the legitimate successor to Gaddafi. The West has helped the rebel movement by widely promoting it and calling for countries throughout the world to officially back the new regime. However while the U.S , the U.K, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Canada have officially recognised the political organisation as the new legitimate representative body of the Libyan people, countries in Africa and in the Middle East ...

Libya's official opposition movement, the Transitional National Council (TNC), was formed rapidly as it was officially established only a week after the initial uprising began in Benghazi. The group is headed by Mustafa Abdul Jalil. The council was created to provide a structural and organised base for the rebel movement on the ground. However most of its most important positions are filled with regime defectors, not by people from the opposition.

Bernard Henri Levy announced that he delivered a message on Thursday from Libyan rebel leaders to Israel's Prime Minister, saying they would seek diplomatic ties with the country if they came to power.

As the news that 270 people went missing after a fishing boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy broke down just off the Tunisian coast came , French writer Bernard Henri Levy announced he delivered a message on Thursday from Libyan rebel leaders to Israel's premier saying they would seek diplomatic ties with Israel if they came to power.

After bilateral talks and a much talked about barbecue, both held at Ten Downing Street, Barack Obama continued his three-day state visit to the United Kingdom with a joint press conference where he and British Prime Minister David Cameron answered questions posed by the press.

After Obama's Middle East speech last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly drafted an official statement that was a first response to the U.S. President's demand to consider the 1967 border proposal as a starting point for negotiation. The tone was clear and firm, with Mr Netanyahu insisting on a common point Israel shares with the U.S.: national security is what is primordially leading the country's foreign policy.