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Iran Plane Blows Tire Injuring 11

An Iranian airliner blew a tire on landing in the country's second-largest city Mashhad early on Sunday, injuring 11 people, three of them seriously, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Eight people received treatment at the scene and three others were taken to hospital," after the 12:02 am (1932 GMT Saturday) accident at the city's Shahid Hasheminejad airport, the news agency quoted the head of the provincial medical emergency center, Reza Vafainejad, as saying.

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Rome Calls for No Repeat of 'Big Mistake' in Iraq

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Sunday urged the international community and the new Libyan authorities to avoid making the same "big mistake" as in Iraq.

"If somebody used to work for the regime but has no blood on his hands, why destroy all the structure, all the apparatus of Libya like we've done in Iraq, making a big mistake?" he said.

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At Least 24 Dead as Red Cross Chief Starts Syria Mission

At least 24 people died in violence across Syria on Sunday, activists and state media said, as the visiting Red Cross chief sought access to those detained in five months of anti-regime protests.

The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which groups anti-regime activists on the ground, said 12 people were killed in various operations by security forces across the country.

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Suicide Bomber Kills 3 Yemen Troops in Aden

A suicide car bomber killed three Yemeni soldiers in an attack on an army post at the gates of the southern city of Aden on Saturday, a military official told Agence France Presse.

The bomber died and seven soldiers were wounded in the attack targeting a checkpoint at al-Aalam in northeastern Aden, southern Yemen's main city where al-Qaida has a strong presence, the official and a medical source said.

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400,000 Join Israel 'Social Justice' Demos

An estimated 400,000 Israelis poured into streets across the Jewish state on Saturday to protest the high cost of living, after organizers called for a "million-man march" to revitalize their movement.

The estimated figures were record-breaking, exceeding even the 300,000 people who took part in similar demonstration on August 6, and lending new life to the six-week old movement calling for sweeping economic reforms.

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Iraq-Based Kurdish Rebels to Unite against Iran

The separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has battled Turkey for years, said on Saturday it will aid another north Iraq-based Kurdish rebel group in fighting against Iranian forces.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said earlier they had resumed operations against Kurdish rebels in northwestern Iran along the Iraqi border, inflicting "heavy blows."

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Appeals for Turkey, Israel to Make Up in Flotilla Row

Top diplomats piled pressure on Turkey and Israel to make up Saturday after Ankara's decision to expel the Jewish state's ambassador in retaliation for last year's deadly Gaza flotilla raid.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, senior European foreign ministers and officials in Washington all urged the one-time allies to end their increasingly poisonous dispute that they worried could impact on the wider Middle East.

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NTC Forms Supreme Council to Secure Libyan Capital

Libya's National Transitional Council on Saturday announced the creation of a supreme security council tasked with protecting the capital Tripoli.

"This committee represents all those who are concerned for the security of our new capital," Ali Tarhuni, who chairs the newly formed body as well as the NTC's executive committee, told reporters.

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Egypt Military Cracks Down on Gaza Tunnels

Egypt's military has started to close smuggling tunnels to Gaza, witnesses said on Saturday, amid Israeli warnings of plans by Gazan militants to attack the Jewish state through Egyptian territory.

Witnesses along the 12-kilometre border with the Islamist Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave said soldiers had begun using earth-moving equipment to seal tunnel openings with rocks and sand.

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Fighters Tell Gadhafi Town to Surrender by Sunday

Libyan fighters have given forces in Bani Walid until 08:00 GMT Sunday to surrender, a commander said, adding Moammar Gadhafi's son Saadi was still there but another, Seif al-Islam, had fled.

"The revolutionaries have given an ultimatum to the tribal chiefs in Bani Walid," Abdulrazzak Naduri, deputy chief of the military council in Tarhuna, told AFP.

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