News: Middle East

A Western-backed resolution condemning the violent crackdown in Syria is vetoed at the UN Security Council by Russia and China.

By Saturday, at least 11 people had been killed around the country in the clashes, The Associated Press reported.

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Activists said the death toll climbed to 260 in an attack Saturday on Homs, a claim the Syrian government flatly denied ahead of a meeting scheduled for Saturday at the United Nations Security Council.

The Middle East's experts on maritime security are meeting in Abu Dhabi this week and talk of Iran's threats of closing the Strait of Hormuz will feature prominently.

Activists say at least 200 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in the Syrian city of Homs amid a barrage of mortar shells and heavy machine gun fire that began Friday night.

The reports could not be independently confirmed, but the attacks Friday night in Homs appeared to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, opposition activists said.

Life is growing harder in the Syrian capital, President Bashar al-Assad’s stronghold, as residents complain about electricity rationing, shortages of food and gas, and soaring prices.

Farouk al-Shara, 74, vice president and loyal disciple of President Bashar al-Assad, would almost certainly become temporary president under an Arab League peace proposal.

The UN Security Council is expected to vote on Saturday on a resolution backing an Arab peace plan for Syria, amid fresh reports of mass killings in Homs.

The Islamist-led opposition won control of Parliament in a snap election, according to results on Friday.

Rock-throwing protesters fought riot police officers through clouds of tear gas near Egypt’s Interior Ministry, on a second day of clashes triggered by the deaths at a soccer riot in Port Said.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has warned that any attempt to attack his country's nuclear programme will meet a forceful response.

Amid reports that the Egyptian police, firing tear gas, birdshot and live ammunition, killed at least four demonstrators on Friday, bloggers filed a series of vivid reports.

Russia said it still had a “number of concerns” over a tentative plan by the United Nations Security Council aimed at stemming the bloodshed in Syria.

The BBC's Director General, Mark Thompson, accuses the Iranian authorities of intimidating those working for its Persian service.

A cardboard cut-out version of the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution is mocked online after touring Tehran.

Russia's deputy foreign minister says Moscow 'cannot support' the current draft UN Security Council resolution on Syria, Interfax reports.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United States in particular would face severe damage to its interests if any strike were carried out against Iran’s nuclear sites.

Gunmen stormed a bus in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Friday, kidnapping two American tourists and an Egyptian tour guide, Egyptian officials said.