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RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence handed down against a teacher convicted of kidnapping and raping eight young girls, a local daily reported on Sunday. A lower court in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah had found the man guilty last year of kidnapping girls aged between six and 11 from public areas and taking them to his home to rape them, the Makkah newspaper reported without giving his name. His last victim, a nine-year-old whom he abducted from a wedding hall, was able to guide police to the area of Jeddah where he lived, leading to his arrest in 2011. Earlier reports said the man was 42 at the time of his arrest, and married with four children. He reportedly offered the girls sweets to lure them into his car, and sent his family away while he raped his victims in the family home. Rape is one of a raft of crimes punishable by death in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia. Others include murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

A powerful jihadist group inspired by Al-Qaeda has opened a new battlefront with Iraqi security forces that could see it try to push into Baghdad, officials and analysts warn. The latest clashes, just weeks before parliamentary elections, raise key questions over the capacity of the army and police to repel militant attacks. Anti-government fighters currently hold all of Fallujah, a town that is just a short drive from Baghdad, and other pockets of territory. The push by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) into the Abu Ghraib area, sparking clashes in nearby Zoba and Zaidan, as well as a failed assault on a military camp in Yusifiyah, illustrate the group's ambition, even with Fallujah under military siege. In perhaps the most worrying sign of ISIL's capabilities, anti-government fighters paraded with dozens of vehicles last week in broad daylight in Abu Ghraib, just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the capital, according to witnesses and videos posted to...

ISTANBUL - Turkey's opposition called Sunday for an annulment of last weekend's mayoral vote in the capital Ankara, alleging fraud by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The Ankara electoral board had on Friday rejected a bid for a recount by the Republican People's Party (CHP) of last Sunday's poll, which was narrowly won by the AKP incumbent. The CHP challenger Mansur Yavas slammed the vote as "the most dubious in the country's history". "It is our holy duty to protect Ankara's votes and will. We are here to defeat the dark shadow cast over our democracy," he told a news conference Sunday. He said his party was prepared to take the issue to the Constitutional Court and even the European Court of Human Rights if necessary. The Islamic-rooted AKP scored significant victories across Turkey, winning the key prizes of Ankara and Istanbul, in the municipal elections seen as a referendum on the 11-year-rule of Prime Minist...

DAMASCUS - At least 13 rebels died in a blast in the city of Homs in central Syria on Sunday as they primed a car bomb for an attack, an NGO said. In the capital, meanwhile, two people were killed when mortar fire struck the Damascus Opera House. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 13 rebels were killed in the besieged Old City of Homs when a car bomb exploded. "The death toll is likely to rise because there are dozens of people missing and body parts in the area of the blast," the Britain-based group said. State news agency SANA also reported the blast, saying a car had exploded while being loaded with explosives. The blast took place on the outskirts of the besieged Old City of Homs, which is under rebel control. Some 1,400 civilians were able to leave the area this year under UN supervision, but an estimated 1,500 people remain until the army siege. In the capital, SANA said two people were killed in mortar fire by rebel fighters. "Two peopl...

BATNA - Ali Benflis, the main challenger to incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Algeria's presidential election, on Sunday deplored violence that erupted at a rally for his rival east of the capital. Campaigning for the April 17 election was launched two weeks ago, with the 77-year-old Bouteflika widely expected to clinch a fourth term without taking to the road due to health concerns. Tensions over his re-election bid turned violent on Saturday when protesters stormed a campaign rally in Bejaia in the mainly Berber Kabylie region and torched his portraits before attacking a television crew covering the event. Benflis condemned the violence, which prompted Bouteflika's campaign manager, former Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, to scrap the rally. "I regret that this campaign is taking place in a climate of tensions," Benflis said in a statement issued at a rally in his hometown of Batna, in another mainly Berber region, the Aures. "I have to be honest...

Mali's new prime minister was in talks on Sunday to appoint a government to lead the West African nation's post-war recovery after the surprise resignation of his predecessor and the entire cabinet. Former planning minister Moussa Mara, 39, was promoted to the premiership on Saturday after Mali's first post-war Prime Minister Oumar Tatam Ly quit just six months into office, a statement from the presidency said. He has not spoken in public since his appointment but wrote a brief message on Twitter thanking Malians for their support. "Now the hard part begins. I count on the support but also the constructive criticism of all. Have a good Sunday and viva Mali," he said. President Ibrahima Boubacar Keita's office gave no reason for the resignation of Ly and his ministers, but it emerged on Sunday that the prime minister had become frustrated over being unable to enact reforms in the administration. Ly, 50, said in his resignation letter that he had bee...

BENGHAZI - Libya's restive eastern city of Benghazi was hit by a day of "civil disobedience" on Sunday that saw some public buildings close and included disruption to air traffic. Civic groups late on Saturday urged the action to denounce security problems in the nation's second city more than three years after the onset of the revolution that ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi. They also demanded the suspension of the Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC), the country's highest political authority, and the holding of parliamentary and presidential elections. However, a reporter said Sunday's day of action was only partly observed, with some public institutions, schools and universities closed, while others and many businesses stayed open. The education ministry said all classes were being held as normal. Air traffic was hardest hit, with the international airport closed and all flights suspended "until further notice", an airport s...

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that Israel would take unilateral measures against the Palestinians if they go ahead with applications to adhere to international treaties. "These will only make a peace agreement more distant," he said of the applications the Palestinians made on Tuesday to adhere to 15 treaties. "Any unilateral moves they take will be answered by unilateral moves at our end." Netanyahu's remarks, made at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting, came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators prepared to meet with US envoy Martin Indyk, in a last-ditch attempt to save teetering peace talks from collapse. US Secretary of State John Kerry, the driving force behind the peace push, warned on Friday that there were "limits" to the time and energy Washington could devote to the talks process, as his appeals to both sides to step back from the brink fell on deaf ears. Palestinian president Mahmud Abba...

CAIRO - The brother of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri will stand trial in Egypt along with 67 others on charges of forming a "terrorist group", state media reported on Sunday. Mohamed al-Zawahiri was arrested last August for supporting Islamist president Mohamed Morsi who was ousted by the army in July and has now been referred to trial by the state prosecutor. Zawahiri and the other suspects are accused of having set up an "Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group" that plotted attacks against government installations, security personnel and members of Egypt's Christian minority, state news agency MENA said. They group was seeking to "spread chaos and undermine security" across Egypt, it said. MENA did not say whether the group had actually carried out any attacks, nor did it give a date for the trial.

BENGHAZI - A jihadist group in Libya says it plans to take over security in the restive eastern town of Derna and impose sharia Islamic law, in a posting on Facebook. Witnesses said the group "Majlis Shura of Islamist Youth in Derna" staged a show of force on Friday, parading through the town armed to the teeth. Photographs on the group's Facebook page show dozens of masked men in military uniform in pickup trucks, armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, machineguns and anti-aircraft cannon. They also brandish black and white jihadist banners. "We announce the formation of a legal committee to settle differences between people and arrange reconciliations on the basis of sharia," the group said in a statement. It said it would ensure security in Derna, and rejected "the laws of miscreants" and "institutions which violate the laws of God". "We also declare our hostility towards the enemies of God and his prophet -- Jews,...

HRANA News Agency – Hassan Javani, the aged and sick prisoner of central prison of Bandar Abbas, was transferred to suit number 5 of the prison. According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), this 57 years old prisoner of Bandar Abbas prison, who is suffering from heart disease, prostate and hemorrhoid problem, has been transferred to suit number 5 of the prison, on April 1. He is being kept with the other political prisoner, Arjang Davoodi, and they are not allowed to have any contact with other prisoners. Hassan Javani, who has long imprisonment on his record in 80s, this time has been arrested on October 2011, and in branch number 26 of revolutionary court, with chief judge Pirabbasi, sentenced to 10 years in prison on exile, in charge of threating public security by supporting one of opposition groups. This sentence was confirmed by the court of appeal. Need to be mentioned, Mohammadreza (Maisam) Hossaini, which was charge with the same allegatio...

CAIRO - At least two more people were killed in renewed tribal clashes in southern Egypt on Sunday, after 48 hours of violence that left 23 dead, security officials said. The fresh violence came despite a beefed-up police presence in Aswan province to end fighting between the Bani Hilal, an Arab tribe, and the Dabudiya, a Nubian family. Tribal vendettas are common in Egypt's poor, rural south, but police called the latest outbreak of violence the worst in recent memory. Apart from the two dead, at least five other people were wounded in Sunday's clashes, the security officials said. Long-standing rivalry flared Thursday after a woman was sexually accosted and both sides scrawled insulting graffiti, the interior ministry said. Twenty-three people were killed in clashes over the next two days, including three people in a botched reconciliation meeting that ended in a gunbattle. Interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and his interior minister Mohammed Ibrahim both visi...

ALGIERS - Algerian police beefed up security and arrested about 20 people on Sunday at a campaign rally for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's re-election, a day after violence ended a similar gathering. Dozens of students hostile to the ailing 77-year-old's bid for a fourth term tried to demonstrate ahead of the rally in Tizi-Ouzou, in the mainly Berber region of Kabylie east of the capital. "Free and democratic Algeria!" and "Boutef, pull out!" they chanted of the veteran leader, before police arrested about 20 people, journalists said. Abdelmalek Sellal, the former prime minister who is Bouteflika's election campaign manager, then arrived to address the gathering of hundreds of supporters. Bouteflika is widely expected to clinch another term in the April 17 election, but without taking to the campaign trail because of concerns about his health. Tensions over his re-election bid turned violent on Saturday when protesters stormed a campaign ...

A British sniper killed six enemy combatants in Afghanistan with a single shot when he hit the trigger switch of a suicide bomber, causing the device to explode. The Daily Telegraph reports that the 20-year-old marksman’s shot, fired from 930 yards away, killed the suicide bomber and five others in the ensuing blast in Kakaran in Southern Afghanistan. “The guy was wearing a vest. He was identified by the sniper moving down a tree line and coming up over a ditch,” Lt. Col. Richard Slack told The Telegraph. “He had a shawl on. It rose up and the sniper saw he had a machine gun.” “They were in contact and he was moving to a firing position. The sniper engaged him and the guy exploded. There was a pause on the radio and the sniper said, 'I think I’ve just shot a suicide bomber.’” According to military officials, a second suicide vest packed with 44lbs of explosives was found nearby, leading them to conclude that the sniper prevented a major attack by the Taliban. The so...

Bahrain is going through a phase of Shia sectarian unrest, manifested in organised action designed to interfere with the daily life of ordinary citizens through seemingly random acts of violence - mostly perpetrated by youth gangs. Burnings lock out and suffocate entire neighbourhoods. Assaults on unsuspecting citizens and foreign nationals continue relentlessly. But most worrisome is the dramatic increase in ambush style attacks on Bahrain's public safety and security personnel. Recently, Bahrain paid its final respect to three brave souls who lost their lives in a roadside bomb explosion. Preponderance of video material depicting "street wars" or confrontations between terrorists and security personnel provides evidence that Hizbollah, or Hizbollah-trained cadres, have now taken a leading role in Shi'ite collective action. Also inescapable is the fact that the Shia theological oligarchy and local clergy maintain a firm grip on ideological and operational components ...

TOKYO –   The U.S. will deploy two additional ballistic missile defense destroyers to Japan by 2017 as part of an effort to bolster protection from North Korean missile threats, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday. Speaking to at a news conference following a meeting with Japan Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, Hagel said they discussed the threat posed by Pyongyang. He said the two ships are in response to North Korea's "pattern of provocative and destabilizing actions" that violate U.N. resolutions and also will provide more protection to the U.S. from those threats. In unusually forceful remarks about China, Hagel called the Asian nation a "great power" and said that when he travels to China later this week he will tell its officials that they must have respect for their neighbors. Japan and China have been at odds over territorial claims and other issues. "With this power comes new and wider responsibilities as to how you use that...

Police in Washington, D.C., are working to identify a man as part of their investigation into the disappearance of 8-year-old Relisha Rudd. According to MyFoxDC.com, police have released video of a man walking off an escalator at what seems to be a Metro station. Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the man, although it is still unclear how he may be connected to the case of the missing girl. The video shows an African-American man wearing a dark hoodie, leather jacket, gloves and dark boots. There is no timestamp on the video, according to the station, and police will not reveal where and when it was recorded for fear of compromising the investigation. Kahlil Tatum, the man suspected of abducting Relisha Rudd, was last captured on camera on March 19 and 20 outside the Red Roof Inn in Oxon Hill, Md., where detectives say he killed his wife. Tatum was then driven by a friend to the Southern Avenue Metro station. It is not known whether the unidentified ma...

Amnesty International has launched an urgent appeal for medical attention for a critically ill Iranian cleric being held in Tehran's Evin prison. Prisoner of conscience is serving an 11 year sentence for advocating the separation of religion and state and has faced constant demands to recant his beliefs in a signed letter of confession - or face never being released. He is also suffering from diabetes, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, kidney and heart problems and severe pain in his legs and waist. He has reportedly gone partly blind in one eyes and frequently collapses. He has not been provided with the medical treatment he requires, though prison doctors said in February 2014 that he needed to be hospitalized outside the prison. But during the eight years he has spent in prison, he has only been admitted to hospital three times, Amnesty said. Prison guards reportedly raided his cell on 15 March and destroyed his personal belongings, while he was with his family, who have...

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden suggested Sunday the Obama administration’s apparent offer to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard to salvage the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is a desperate effort that could open the door for criminal spies like Edward Snowden to walk away free. “I certainly don’t think it's a good idea to keep some people at the table,” Hayden, a Bush administration appointee and former NSA director, told “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s almost a sign of desperation to throw this in the pot, offer a third view. If this were to take place … people in the intelligence community would not be hearing the name Pollard, they would be hearing Snowden.” Last year, Snowden, then a National Security Agency contractor, gave news outlets classified documents that exposed the federal government’s massive, global surveillance efforts, which include data on the phone calls and Internet activities of Americans and foreign leaders worldwide. Snowden is cha...

Political prisoners in Iran have called on the UN to investigate human right's abuses in the regime's prisons and called for 'freedom, equality and respect' for all Iranian citizens. Inmates at Gohardasht prison in Karaj and Evin Prison in Tehran also demanded free access to medical treatment, phone calls and family visits which are being denied to prisoners across Iran. In a letter to Dr Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Situation of Human Rights in Iran, they wrote: "We want freedom, equality and respect for the rights of all citizens in Iran to live in peace and harmony besides each other regardless of their race or belief. "Our ideals, political organizations, political parties and any kind of political act have been faced with the suppression of the regime, which has imposed heavy sentences on us as political prisoners, prisoners of conscience and human rights. "The Iranian government has created trouble and ha...

An exodus this year on Capitol Hill is creating a void in Congress, with some of its most experienced and skillful lawmakers suggesting the partisan gridlock is finally taking a toll.   The announcement this week by GOP Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, marked the eighth committee chairmen to retire this year from Congress -- four in the House and four in the Senate. In total, 23 House members are retiring this year. In the Senate, Oklahoma GOP Sen. Tom Coburn has resigned. The 12-term congressman’s decision not to seek re-election came just several days after Rep. Mike Rogers, another Michigan Republican and House committee chairman, said he also would leave in January. Though Camp said he didn’t want to make the “mistake” of staying too long, as he had seen other congressional members do, he left with essentially no support for his plan to revise the country’s complicated tax code. Roger purportedly cast some of the blame for gridlock ...

Three distinct but brief signals from the Indian Ocean revived hope for investigators in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Sunday, as authorities rush to determine the origin of the signals before the batteries of the plane's black box run out. Australian authorities confirmed on Sunday that a Chinese patrol vessel, the Haixun 01, had picked up a fleeting "ping" signal twice on Friday and Saturday in waters west of Perth, near where investigators believe Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went down on March 8. As a consequence, more planes and ships were being sent to assist in that area. Meanwhile, on Sunday, an Australian ship carrying sophisticated deep-sea sound equipment picked up a third signal in a different part of the massive search area, some 300 nautical miles away. After weeks of fruitless looking, the multinational search team is racing against time to find the sound-emitting beacons and cockpit voice recorders that could help ...