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Hamas Cracks Down on Gaza Pro-Abbas Demo

Thirteen people were arrested on Sunday as Gaza security forces broke up a demonstration backing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of key talks at the White House, organizers said.

The rally was organized by Abbas' Fatah party which is the dominant faction in the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, but a minority in the Gaza Strip which is ruled by the rival Islamist Hamas movement.

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Algeria PM Visits Scene of Deadly Communal Fighting

Algeria's premier on Sunday visited a town on the edge of the Sahara where three people were killed in communal violence between Arabs and Berbers.

Prime Minister Youcef Yousfi was accompanied by Interior Minister Tayeb Belaiz on the visit to Ghardaia, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) south of Algiers, where they met with local leaders, according to the national news agency APS.

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Israel Minister Says Kerry Pressuring on the Wrong Side

An Israeli minister on Sunday said Washington's top diplomat was "wrong" for pressuring Israel in peace talks, a day before Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas visits the White House.

His remarks came two days after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

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Burundi Opposition Party Suspended

A key Burundi opposition party has been suspended for four months, Interior Minister Edouard Nduwimana said late Saturday night, amid worsening tensions in the small central African nation.

The four-month suspension of the Movement for Solidarity and Development (MSD) follows violent clashes in the capital Bujumbura on March 8 that pitted party activists against police.

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Militants Attack Iraq Anti-Qaida Leader, Kill Four

Heavily-armed militants attacked the home of an anti-Qaida militiaman north of Baghdad Sunday, killing and decapitating his wife and two sons and killing another person in a brutal pre-dawn assault.

The militia leader, Abu Salim, was not in the house at the time of the attack, which involved more than a dozen vehicles and fighters armed with heavy machine guns and other weapons and also left two of his young sons wounded.

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Israel to Allow Fuel into Gaza on Sunday

Israel is allow the resumption of diesel deliveries into Gaza on Sunday, a day after the territory's sole power plant stopped working due to a lack of fuel, officials said.

The defense ministry had on Thursday shut down the Kerem Shalom goods crossing into southern Gaza after militants there fired scores of rockets over the border, although no-one was injured.

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Syrian Refugee Children Die in Jordan Fire

A fire caused by a candle tore through a Syrian refugee caravan in a town north of Jordan, killing two children, a civil defense department official said on Sunday.

"The two Syrian brothers, aged two and five, died late last night after their caravan caught fire in Zaatari town in the Mafraq governorate," he told Agence France Presse.

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Syrian Army, Hizbullah Seize Full Control of Rebel Town Yabrud

The Syrian army and Hizbullah seized full control of the rebel bastion Yabrud on Sunday, dealing the opposition a heavy symbolic and strategic blow in the Qalamoun region adjoining the Lebanese border.

An Agence France Presse reporter entered the town and said the Syrian army took total control of it after a fierce 48-hour-battle with rebels.

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Thousands March in Western Capitals to Support Syrians

Thousands marched in Western capitals Saturday to support the people of Syria, who entered the fourth year of a conflict that has left at least 146,000 dead and spawned the world's largest displaced population.

Around 1,000 people marched to Downing Street in London, waving Syrian flags and denouncing the international community's inaction.

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Syria Refugees Dismayed at Prospect of Assad re-Election

Syrian refugees in a sprawling desert camp in Jordan fear that President Bashar Assad's likely re-election this year will leave their dream of a return home as distant as ever.

As Syria's war entered its fourth year this weekend, many of the around 100,000 refugees in Zaatari camp see no end in sight to their misery.

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