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Egypt Grants Permits to 171 'Illegal' Syria Immigrants

Egypt said Tuesday it has granted three-month residence permits to 171 out of a total of 206 Syrian and Palestinian immigrants who were detained for illegally entering the country.

Foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty said the Syrians and Palestinians had entered Egyptian waters "under the pretense of being tourists, with the intention of passing through Egypt and illegally immigrating to other countries."

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Jarba Takes Part in GCC Summit, Accuses Regime of Arming Qaida-Linked ISIL

Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba on Tuesday appealed for urgent help for the Syrian opposition and civilians as he took part in the opening session of the 34th Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Kuwait.

"The Syrian people need you today to tell the whole world that the Syrian regime will have no future in the country," said Jarba, who also thanked Kuwait for launching an "aid fund" without providing any details.

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Kuwait Emir Opens Gulf Summit with Call to End Syria War

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah opened an annual summit of wealthy Gulf states on Tuesday with a call for an end to the "human catastrophe" in Syria.

Sheikh Sabah, who gave a share of the spotlight at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit to the head of Syria's main opposition bloc, also condemned the United Nations for failing to halt the 33-month conflict.

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Iran Dismisses Peres Offer to Meet Rouhani

Iran on Tuesday dismissed an offer from Israel's president to meet his Iranian counterpart as a propaganda ploy to ease Israeli isolation over a nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers.

"This propaganda to help the regime out of isolation will prove fruitless," foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told reporters.

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Israel in Settlements Row with Romania

A diplomatic spat has erupted between Israel and Romania after Bucharest reportedly refused to allow Romanian construction workers to be employed in West Bank settlements, Israel's military radio said Tuesday.

The row comes in the wake of tensions between Israel and the European Union over new guidelines that bar EU funding for any Israeli entity operating in the occupied Palestinian territories.

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Yemen Forces Defuse Bomb-Laden Cars, Search for More

Yemeni security forces have defused two booby-trapped vehicles and are searching for five others in Sanaa following a deadly attack on the defense ministry last week, police said Tuesday.

Acting on a tip-off, the security forces launched a major operation to locate and rid the capital of the bombs, and managed to find two of them on Monday, a police official told Agence France Presse.

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Four Prominent Syrian Activists Kidnapped in Rebel-Held Area

Four prominent Syrian activists, including one whose work was recognized by the European parliament, were kidnapped Tuesday in a rebel-held area near Damascus by unknown individuals, an activist network said.

"On the morning of December 10th, a group of unknown people broke into the headquarters of a group documenting abuses in Syria in the Douma area in besieged Eastern Ghouta," the Local Coordination Committees said.

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11 Dead, 19 Hurt in Suicide Attack on Iraq Shiite Shrine

A suicide bomber attacked a Shiite shrine in Iraq Tuesday, killing 11 people, including some mourning seven who were shot dead earlier in the day, police and a doctor said.

The blast at the Abu Idris shrine in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad in the religiously and ethnically mixed province of Diyala, also wounded 19 people, the sources said.

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Syria Opposition Says Regime Has Killed 2,900 'with Knives'

Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have killed some 2,900 people "with knives," the opposition National Coalition said in a new report Tuesday.

The publication, timed to coincide with International Human Rights Day, accuses Syrian government forces of carrying out "at least 20 massacres that involved the slaughter of 2,885 people" with knives and other crude weapons.

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Tribe Says to Lift Libya Oil Terminals Blockade on Dec. 15

A months-long blockade by armed protesters of vital oil terminals in eastern Libya will be lifted on Sunday, allowing exports to resume, a tribal chief announced.

"We expect that the export of crude from the oil terminals will resume from December 15," Saleh al-Ateiwich, head of the powerful al-Magharba tribe which launched the blockade in July in support of its demands for regional autonomy, said Tuesday.

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