Palestinian woman Hana Shalabi continues administrative detention protest [Al Jazeera, Qatar]

Presenter, Female #1
Palestinian prisoner Hana al-Shalabi continues her hunger strike for the 19th consecutive day in protest of her administrative detention in the Israeli occupation's prisons. Hana refused to end her strike despite an Israeli military court's decision to reduce her six-month detention by 50 days. The prisoners are demanding an end to Israel's policy of administrative detention.

Reporter, Female #2
Signs of concern are ever-present on the face of the mother of Palestinian prisoner Hana al-Shalabi. Alongside dozens of Palestinians, she marched again in her village of Burqin, south of Jenin, in solidarity with her daughter, who is on her 19th day of hunger strike. Despite an Israeli military court's decision to reduce her six-month detention period by two months, Hana al-Shalabi decided to continue her hunger strike. And while the court proved an opposition to administrative detention, Shalabi's detention could be renewed. In a press conference held in Ramallah, new details were revealed, uncovering the reasons that pushed Shalabi to strike.

Guest, Male #1 (Issa Qaraqe, Minister of Palestinian Prisoners' Affairs)
It started from the moment she was detained in her home. Five soldiers forced her to submit to a violent strip search, and even though she was asking for a female soldier to search her, they refused. They started beating her and strip-searched her. They then placed her in solitary confinement at al-Sharon prison as punishment for nearly one week.

Reporter, Female #2
According to the lawyers who managed to visit her, al-Shalabi's state was described as difficult. She is refusing a medical examination and is only drinking water. In the Gaza Strip, another demonstration was organized in solidarity with Shalabi and other prisoners. The families of Gaza's prisoners endure their own kind of hardship as well.

Guest, Female #3
We have been deprived from visiting our children for six years. I haven't seen my son for six years, nor do I know how he's doing. I only receive letters, but we receive very few of them.

Reporter, Female #2
In addition to al-Shalabi, three other prisoners in Israeli prisons have gone on a hunger strike, while detainees held in administrative detention announced their boycott of Israeli courts at the beginning of the month. It's true that hunger striking has placed Israel in a moral predicament in front of the world. But the strike has not yet managed to mobilize a mass movement inside and outside Israeli prisons with the goal of changing Israel's policy against prisoners.

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UN nuclear chief concerned that Iran may be working on weapons [BBC Arabic, UK]

Presenter, Female #1
US President Barack Obama reiterated that his country prefers the diplomatic option to solve the issue of the Iranian nuclear program, and confirmed that other options are not off the table. The statement was made during Obama's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which the two sides discussed means to deal with the Iranian nuclear issue.

Guest, Male #1 (Barack Obama, US President)
Even as we will continue on the diplomatic front, we will continue to tighten pressure when it comes to sanctions. I reserve all options, and my policy here is not going to be one of containment, my policy is going to be one of preventing Iran from getting a weapon. As I indicated yesterday in my speech, when I say all options are on the table, I mean it. Having said that, I know both the prime minister and I prefer to solve this diplomatically because we understand the costs of any military action.

Presenter, Female #1
The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said his organization was unable to confirm that Iran's nuclear program does not have a military dimension. In his speech at the closed board meeting of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano said the agency is unable to provide credible assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran. Amano's statement comes as Israel and the US move to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear arsenal.

Reporter, Male #2
The International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors is once again fixated on Iran's nuclear program. Iran asserts the program is purely civilian and peaceful, while the West suspects it is concealing military dimensions. The IAEA's board of governors will be compelled to take action, in one shape or another, in the absence of any progress on the issue.

Reporter, Male #2
In the opening speech at a closed board session of the 35-nation IAEA, Director-General Yukiya Amano stressed he is unable to assure that Iran is using all the nuclear materials it possesses for peaceful activities. He particularly stated that Iran has recently increased its production of enriched uranium. In his February report, Yukiya Amano had pointed to major disputes between the IAEA and Iran over the means to solve the outstanding issues. This puts the ball back in the court of the 35-nation board of governors, delegated to determine the roadmap that should be followed.

Reporter, Male #2
At the same time, the P5 plus 1 group, which consists of the five permanent UN Security Council members with veto power, namely the US, France, the UK, China, Russia, in addition to Germany, are considering Iran's February 14 proposition to resume negotiations, stalled since January 2011 in Istanbul. Russia and China have adopted a more flexible position towards Iran, and doubt the necessity to adopt a resolution.

Reporter, Male #2
The pressure on Iran was recently heightened after the United States and the European Union intensified their sanctions on Iran, while Israel is threatening a military strike. In turn, Iran is accusing the United States and Israel of incitement against it. US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are holding talks to reach a joint position on the Iranian nuclear program.

Reporter, Male #2
Meanwhile, in his speech at the conference of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, Obama criticized the overzealous talks of war, reaffirming at the same time his support of Israel's positions and rejection of Iran's possession of nuclear weapons. In addition, Obama approved what he referred to as Israel's right to make its own decisions on what is required to meet its security needs. This prompted Netanyahu to repeatedly commend Obama, saying he will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons, and all options are still open in order to achieve that goal. Israel views Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its security. It continues to prepare and train for a possible Iranian nuclear attack on its territories. Hayyan Aqoub, BBC.

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Will Obama allow Iran to go nuclear? [IBA, Israel]

Presenter, Male #1
President Shimon Peres spoke to AIPAC just before Obama's address. Peres said that a nuclear Iran would be a menace, not just to Israel's security, but to the world at large.

Guest, Male #2 (Shimon Peres, Israeli President)
Iran is an evil, cruel, morally corrupt regime. It is based on destruction. It is an affront to human dignity. Iran is the center, the sponsor, the financier, of world terror. Iran is a danger to the entire world. Israel experienced the horror of war. It does not seek it. Peace is always our first option, but if we are forced to fight, trust me, we shall prevail.

Presenter, Male #1
Returning to the Obama-Netanyahu summit, I'm joined now from our Tel Aviv studio by Israel affairs expert and former ambassador Yoram Ettinger. Ambassador Ettinger, good evening.

Guest, Male #3 (Ambassador Yoram Ettinger, Expert on US-Israel Affairs)
Good evening to you.

Presenter, Male #1
The summit between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu gets underway in about an hour's time. What do you expect will be the tone and the content of that meeting?

Guest, Male #3
Well, there's no doubt that the tone of this meeting as far as Obama is concerned will be very friendly, very warm, he would initiate opportunities. He needs it because his numbers are very low, he cannot reach 50 percent yet, and he needs that in order to impress friends of Israel that he deserves, supposedly, their vote. However, the challenge for Netanyahu will be to convince the president that the threat of a nuclear Iran is not primarily to Israel, it's primarily to the US, and therefore the president has to preempt after the failure of sanctions and the failure of diplomacy during the last eight years with Iran and during the last 40 years with North Korea.

Presenter, Male #1
Ambassador Ettinger, is Israel expecting Washington to spell out what the US sees as its own red lines beyond which the military option would replace the diplomatic option?

Guest, Male #3
Well, it seems to me that Netanyahu should study the precedent of prime minister begging, where he did not want to fully coordinate with the US, because full coordination means subordination of Israel's national security, not only to the whims of an American president, but to electoral considerations. Which are very minimal compared to the survival consideration of the state of Israel. US and Israel should remain as strategic allies and therefore allow Israel to determine its own response to lethal threats.

Presenter, Male #1
Ambassador Ettinger, you were stationed in the United States for many years. You're a keen observer of the American-US relationship. It was certainly a very pro-Israel speech Obama gave yesterday. Do you believe the president, though, when he says the US will not allow Iran to go nuclear?

Guest, Male #3
Well, I think the question is not to believe, but to look at the facts rather than at the rhetoric. The president stood at the same podium in 2008, and said specifically, literally, that he, Mr. Obama, supports united, indivisible Jerusalem under Israel's sovereignty. What does that mean, as far as his current policy, where he is the first president ever to force Israel, coerce Israel into a total freeze of construction in eastern Jerusalem as a precondition for any negotiation with the Palestinians? We have seen the president basically radicalizing Mahmoud Abbas's position by posing to Israel very radical demands, and therefore today we have an impasse between Israel and the Palestinians.

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Civil rights groups challenge US administration's targeted killing program [Press TV, Iran]

Presenter, Female #1
The White House plans to outline a legal backing for targeted killings. The United Nations has condemned targeted killings by the US outside of its borders as a violation of international law. Washington has also come under fire from human rights organizations over its rights record. Here's a full report.

Reporter, Male #1
A US drone buzzing skyward from an American base on an unknown mission. The drones have been the main tools used by the US for targeted killings around the world. Legal reports say the White House is planning to outline legal backing for such assassinations. According to the reports, Attorney-General Eric Holder will argue how the US laws empower the government to kill Americans overseas who are accused of terrorism against their country. This comes months after Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen, was slain in an American drone strike in Yemen. The US government is under pressure from civil liberties groups to offer justification for what has been described as a top-secret targeted kill program. The defense department has said that the program pursues legitimate military targets overseas. But it rejected suggestions that the US is engaged in assassinations.

Guest, Male #2 (Allen Roland, Online Journalist in California)
There is no justification. This is the beginning, this is coincidental. This is the ACLU bringing a suit, a civil suit, against the Obama administration for these targeted killings for which they have no justification. But this is directly coincidal with the Occupy movement, the big spring uprising.

Reporter, Male #1
Earlier, US media revealed that the administration of President Barack Obama has assembled an apparatus which is hidden from public view to advance its counterterrorism operations abroad. The secretive apparatus has a panel which decides who will live and who will die. In 2010, the United Nations condemned the US as the most prolific abuser of targeted killings in the world, accusing Washington of grossly violating international law. International human rights organizations have also blasted Washington over its bleak rights record. All this contradicts the US' image as the self-proclaimed defender of human rights worldwide. Paradoxically, the country uses the issue of human rights as political leverage to exert pressure on other countries.

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Two killed in attack on US military base in Afghanistan [Press TV, Iran]

Presenter, Female #1
A bomber has detonated explosives at the gates of a US base where copies of the holy Quran were burned. At least two civilians have been killed and four wounded in the attack. Officials say US-led forces could be among those injured, without giving further details. The blast apparently targeted a NATO vehicle at the Bagram Air Base. The Taliban have claimed responsibility, saying the attack was "revenge for the burning of copies of the Quran by US-led forces." They claim that several American troops were killed and their tanks destroyed in the attack. The desecration of the Quran sparked days of violent protests in Afghanistan last month. Over 40 people, including several US servicemembers, were killed in six days of violent protests.

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Humanitarian crisis worsens in Syria (WARNING: Graphic Content) [Dubai TV, UAE]

Presenter, Male #1
Under the slogan "Stop the executions in the neighborhood of Baba Amr," demonstrators took to the streets in most Syrian cities. Meanwhile, the conventional army widened its military operations by storming the city of Yabrud in the countryside of Damascus, and escalated its shelling of al-Rastan in the countryside of Homs.

Presenter, Female #1
The Local Coordination Committees confirmed the death of eight civilians by the army's gunfire. The Syrian Revolution's General Commission warned of a looming wide-scale military operation by the army and security forces attempting to regain control of the cities in Idlib province. Our colleague Ahmad Qassem has the details.

Reporter, Male #2
Here, no one is alive to hear this mother's cry. And here, no single home was spared from the shelling. Her son was killed in the shelling, and he will not be coming back. His fate is similar to that of hundreds of children in Syria. This is al-Rastan, where a children's story is being told every day. The story of children who didn't just witness the most cruel and horrific scenes, but also lived through them.

Guest, Male #3
The number of injured in the city of al-Rastan is continuing to rise due to artillery and rocket shelling.

Reporter, Male #2
In response, the army's defectors launched a counterattack. Here, they blew up a tank but were unable to stop the attack. Perhaps they were able to delay it, just like they did in the Baba Amr neighborhood. Once the conventional army enters the city, a different story will be told, especially amid the absence of activists. There's nothing left in the neighborhood except for the regime's media, which was filming what it described as "a mopping operation." The media visited a shelter housing residents whose homes were demolished. The regime continues to block relief aid from reaching the displaced. This was a story from the city of Homs.

Reporter, Male #2
In the northern province of Idlib, talk is growing about an anticipated wide-scale military operation aimed at bringing the city back under the control of the regime's army. Some of the residents decided to flee the city in a bid to spare their families and children from paying a heavy toll. What has become known as the fate of Baba Amr has divided the residents into two camps. While one group decided to flee, others preferred to stay and defend the remaining residents.

Guest, Male #4
They are killing us and slaughtering us. We will defend ourselves, whether they like it or not. God willing, we will defend ourselves and our children until death.

Reporter, Male #2
Today, just like the past 350 days, the Syrians took to the street to mourn their dead despite the fact that the road to the cemetery is dangerous and under gunfire, especially in Damascus. The Syrians demonstrated today under the slogan "Stop the executions in Baba Amr." In Syria, horror stories are being told every day, just like those coming from the city of Yabrud after it was shelled, or the story of the army adding fuel to the fire in the city of Deir ez-Zor in the far northeastern part of Syria.

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Iranian parliamentary election turnout reaches 64 percent [Future TV, Lebanon]

Presenter, Female #1
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said turnout in the Iranian parliamentary elections has reached 64 percent, adding that 225 candidates won in the first round. The second round will witness competition for 65 parliamentary seats. Iranian media sources quoted Najjar saying the turnout in the parliamentary elections increased by 13 percent in contrast to previous elections that held a 51 percent turnout. The Iranian interior minister said the second round of legislative elections will be held in a month. The final results are showing clear gains by the conservative movement at the expense of reformists.

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Bomb blast near Turkish PM's offices [Future TV, Lebanon]

Presenter, Male #1
A sound bomb exploded near the Turkish Prime Ministry's headquarters in the capital Ankara, an hour before a cabinet meeting, slightly injuring one person. The police combed the area of the blast, the entrance to the parking lot of the Prime Ministry, and the court of appeals. The blast comes after a bomb was remotely detonated in Istanbul last Thursday, injuring 15 police officers and a civilian.

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Iraq: 27 police officers wounded in armed attack [Future TV, Lebanon]

Presenter, Female #1
In Iraq, 27 police officers were wounded in an armed attack on checkpoints in the town of Haditha in western Iraq. Police said armed assailants killed members of the security forces and injured three others. They added that a gunman was killed in the attack. The police imposed curfew on the town following the predawn attack.

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Egypt's al-Azhar calls on Muslims to defend sacred sites [Al-Alam, Iran]

Presenter, Male #1
Religious scholars at the noble al-Azhar Mosque called on all Muslims to speak up against the affront to Islamic sacred sites, and take action against any country violating Muslim sanctities. This came in response to the apology by the US for burning copies of the holy Quran in Afghanistan.

Reporter, Male #2
The incident of burning copies of the holy Quran by American soldiers in Bagram Air Base of Afghanistan is still rousing resentment and anger among Muslims in Egypt. The incident may be leading to additional consequences as long as the desecration and burning of Islamic sanctities is ignored.

Guest, Male #3 (Mohamed Nagm, Editor-in-Chief of Egyptian October Magazine)
This was a mistake, but it is the deliberate act that we reject, and a recurring mistake is rejected as well. So if a group of young people committed this mistake, they must be punished. I mean, the issue is not just about a book, it's about a faith and a symbol. So for us, as journalists, our duty is to continue to follow this issue, but there must be an official response by all Arab countries.

Reporter, Male #2
The Egyptian street, angry over the desecration of sanctities, was further angered by the country's political leadership for ignoring this crime. Leaders attribute it to Military Council's preoccupation with the case of foreign funding that ended by rewarding the American side.

Guest, Male #4
It is not smart for official institutions to ignore such an issue just after having released the people involved in the foreign funding case. So they just released them, and at the same time they won't say anything about the burning of the Quran. This issue is not favorable to the ruling regime.

Guest, Male #5
It is our might that will bury them, and push them to act within certain limits. We Muslims respect all religions, but these people are immoral.

Reporter, Male #2
The religious scholars did not only issue a statement by the Sheikh of the noble al-Azhar Mosque, condemning the burning of the holy book, but also called on Muslim youths to struggle and seek retribution for insulting their sanctities.

Guest, Male #6 (Sheikh Abdul Majeed, Noble al-Azhar Mosque Scholar)
Real Muslim youth will not let allow this to pass by without seeking retribution against those who committed this act. Because a person without the Quran, here, in the Middle East, and in the Muslim world in general, is considered to be like a damaged house.

Reporter, Male #2
US President Barack Obama sent his apology over the burning of the holy Quran to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, as if the holy Quran only concerns Afghans, not a nation with nearly a population of one billion. This is a message from the heart of al-Azhar Mosque to anyone who attempts to burn the holy book: you can never remove God's words from the hearts of Muslims.

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Algeria grapples with Mali refugees fleeing violence [Algérie TV, Algeria]

Presenter, Female #1
Efforts to accommodate Mali refugees in Algeria's Bordj Badji Mokhtar continue, both by families who sheltered some of them, and the refugee camps set up in the border region of Timiaouine. Ismahan Muamin reports.

Guest, Male #1
Seven families are living in this home. We all live in this home.

Guest, Male #2
Twenty people are living here with this Hajj. The Hajj doesn't have the capacity to provide us with good accommodation, but may God bless him! He doesn't have enough room.

Reporter, Female #2
The family of Ansar Mohamed al-Mokhtar is one of the families staying in Bordj Badji Mokhtar, which opened its arms to receive those who escaped from the hell of war.

Guest, Female #3
She met some people who provided her some clothes. She came here with no clothes; she had nothing. She met some people who gave her clothes.

Guest, Male #3
What brought us here is something worse than hunger, death. Death is the final spoken word. Praise God, praise God. I found nothing but good deeds here.

Guest, Female #4
We are fine. We found peace here in Algeria.

Reporter, Female #2
So the search for security and safety continues.

Guest, Male #6
We are headed to Algeria. We will go by taxi. We hope to return one day to our country when the situation improves.

Reporter, Female #2
Other Mali refugee families are embraced by refugee camps in Timiaouine amid strong reassurances.

Guest, Female #7
Praise God, praise God. The Algerian authorities have provided us with accommodations, thank God. We feel very safe here. Although we communicate in our language, and they communicate in Arabic, we are bound by brotherhood.