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Iraq VP Death Squad Trial Delayed on Defense Appeals

The trial of Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, accused of running death squads, was postponed on Sunday as judges await an appeals court ruling on the conduct of the trial.

Hashemi, last known to be in Turkey, is being tried in absentia along with several of his bodyguards in a case which when initially filed in December as U.S. troops were pulling out worsened a brewing political crisis.

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Clinton Warns Time Running Out to Save Syria

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday warned time was running out to save Syria from a "catastrophic assault" after international envoy Kofi Annan admitted his peace mission was failing.

The comments by the top U.S. diplomat came as 15 people, including 12 civilians, were killed across the country, according to a rights watchdog.

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Liberals Claim Early Lead in Libya Vote Count

Liberals claimed an early lead on Sunday in vote counting across the country after Libya held its first free elections following Moammar Gadhafi’s ouster, winning plaudits from the international community.

If the trend is confirmed, Libya, unlike neighboring Tunisia and Egypt whose strongmen were also toppled in last year's Arab Spring, will buck the trend of electoral success for Islamist movements.

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In West Bank, EU's Barroso Urges New Peace Talks

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso called on Sunday for a return to Israeli-Palestinian talks, warning the peace process must not become "an orphan of the Arab Spring."

Barroso was speaking after talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on the first day of a trip which includes stops in the West Bank and Israel.

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NGO: At Least 35 People Killed across Syria

Syrian forces pounded Aleppo and Deir Ezzor provinces as at least 35 people were killed on Sunday across the country, among them 17 civilians, a watchdog reported.

The regime forces, under the cover of heavy shelling, attempted to storm the rebel strongholds of Qusayr and Rastan in the central province of Homs, triggering fierce clashes, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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One Killed at Polling Station in East Libya

One person was killed on Saturday and another was wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire near a polling station in Libya's restive east, an official told Agence France Presse.

The attack took place in the city of Ajdabiya, where unrest had already disrupted voting in the country's first free national ballot in decades, after the ouster of Dictator Moammar Gadhafi last year.

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Palestinians Say Three Injured in Clash with Israelis

Israelis and Palestinians clashed near the West Bank settlement of Itamar on Saturday but the two sides gave conflicting accounts of the incident.

Palestinian security officials said that settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds from the neighboring village of Yanun, south of Nablus, and stabbed five of their sheep to death.

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U.S. Envoy in Cairo to Meet New Egypt President

U.S. deputy secretary of state Bill Burns was in Cairo on Saturday to meet with a wide spectrum of leaders and groups including Egypt's newly elected President Mohammed Morsi, the embassy said.

Burns was on a July 6-8 visit "to meet with a broad spectrum of Egyptian leaders, politicians, and civil society representatives," it said in a statement.

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Egypt Lawyers Protest after Clashes with Police

Egyptian lawyers protested on Saturday outside a police station in northern Cairo a day after clashes there left a dozen people injured, a security official said.

The clashes were sparked by a confrontation between a lawyer and a policeman inside the Nasr City police station, a row that quickly escalated as more policemen and lawyers arrived at the scene.

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Annan Admits Syria Mission Failure

International envoy Kofi Annan acknowledged the failure so far of his mission to bring peace to Syria.

In comments published in French by the Le Monde newspaper, Annan was quoted as saying that significant efforts had been made to try to resolve the crisis peacefully and politically.

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