Six bomb attacks in Baghdad kill at least 17 people [Dubai TV, UAE]

Presenter, Male #1
In the bloodiest attacks on the Iraqi capital in weeks, six bombings rocked Baghdad today, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens.

Presenter, Female #1
Today's attacks broke the weeks of relative calm in Baghdad, as the country is witnessing conflict inside the Iraqi government over a political crisis that threatens to fuel sectarian strife again. Shafiq Abdul Jabbar reports from Baghdad.

Reporter, Male #2
The bustling residential neighborhood of Shuala in the northwestern part of Baghdad was the hardest hit by a wave of bombings that also targeted the areas of al-Ghazaliya, al-Ameriya, al-Yarmouk, al-Zafaraniyah, and al-Dora. As usual, booby-trapped vehicles and explosive devices claimed the lives of dozens of innocent people, and a state of emergency was declared at the hospitals in the Iraqi capital amid today's new wave of violence targeting civilians.

Guest, Male #3
Around 20 to 25 were killed. He left the car in a busy area. People were in restaurants, and taxis driving around, so many people were killed. God and the prophet Mohamed do not condone this. How did they come over here if there is a checkpoint? How come the checkpoint didn't stop them? This is unacceptable, unacceptable.

Reporter, Male #2
The response of Nouri al-Maliki's government included a vow to maintain security and eliminate terrorism.

Guest, Male #4 (Dhiyaa al-Wakil, Spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command)
The security institutions have managed to foil other attacks and aborted plans by the masterminds of terrorism and the criminals. They protected the civilians' lives and their properties from attacks and imminent danger.

Reporter, Male #2
Once again, members of the ruling coalition resorted to rejecting the ongoing political crisis in the country.

Guest, Male #5 (Fouzi Akram, Iraqi National Alliance Member)
Everyone has a responsibility to give concessions, even national benefits or electoral achievements, to protect the Iraqi people and Iraq's unity.

Guest, Male #6 (Ahmed al-Aribi, Member of the Iraqi White Party)
All the crises that appear on the Iraqi street were accompanied by bombings. Their purpose is to destabilize the security situation, and to deepen the division between the political blocs.

Reporter, Male #2
Another bloody day passed through Baghdad, where the continuous political impasse allows for all forms of violence, tension, and counter-accusations. This could bring further deterioration of the security situation, which will continue as long as the political opponents fail to address the issue. Shafiq Abdul Jabbar, Dubai TV, Baghdad.

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Palestinians honor dead returned by Israel [Al Jazeera, Qatar]

Presenter, Female #1
The Palestinian Authority has received the remains of 91 Palestinian martyrs, held by Israel for years in a cemetery in the Jordan Valley.

Presenter, Male #1
The remains were transferred from the Jordan Valley to Ramallah and Gaza. The remains of 12 martyrs arrived to Gaza amid a public ceremony attended by representatives of the various factions.

Reporter, Female #2
The Nasser al-Bouze family went into a state of shock in the city of Nablus. Nasser, who was an active member of the Fatah movement and one of the founders of the Black Panthers group during the first Intifada, vanished in 1989. Over the past 23 years, Israel has denied it was holding him, but today, Israel is supposed to return his remains to his family.

Guest, Male #2
When we asked the Palestinian Authority and Israel about him, they said they don't have him. So where is he? He is not a needle that can be easily lost. This has been a problem for us. We have put our trust in God, all praise to him, and hoped that he was still alive.

Reporter, Female #2
The family has lived with disappointments, and the hope that their years of waiting could come one day come to an end.

Guest, Male #3
Our family has made a definite decision, which is to request a DNA test to make sure that he is our brother. Now, after 23 years, they want to give us a pile of remains. Whose remain are these?

Reporter, Female #2
In the early hours of the morning, the Palestinian Authority received the remains of 91 Palestinian martyrs, including 12 from the Gaza Strip. For years, the remains were nothing but a number in a mass grave inside Israel. Today, they are reclaiming their identities. And on their tombs, a story of life, revolution, and martyrdom will be written.

Reporter, Female #2
The oldest remains belong to seven martyrs who carried out the Savoy Hotel Operation in Tel Aviv in 1975. However, they don't have any relatives in Palestine to claim their bodies. They will be buried, along with 10 other martyrs, in a memorial cemetery in Ramallah. The Palestinian Authority hopes to receive another wave of martyrs in a few weeks.

Guest, Male #4 (Hussein al-Sheikh, Palestinian Authority Minister of Civil Affairs)
The second phase will be more complicated because it requires medical and technical procedures. At the beginning of the 1967 occupation, Israel committed immoral acts in the way it was burying martyrs of the Palestinian revolution. It was a mass random burial, and Israel did not mark the bodies by name, or by any other means.

Reporter, Female #2
The other remains belong to martyrs who carried out operations inside Israel during al-Aqsa Intifada, or the Second Intifada. This is the first such deal of this magnitude between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Though it came very late, the martyrs get to reclaim their identity today. They have fallen for the sake of their nation, and they are finally being honored, publicly and officially.

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UAE strips seven dissidents of their citizenship [Al-Alam, Iran]

Presenter, Female #1
After many postponed hearings, a United Arab Emirates court issued its final decision today, withdrawing the citizenship of seven activists. Another Emirati court is looking into the case of blogger Ahmed Abdel Khaleq, who is expected to be exiled to the Comoros Islands.

Reporter, Male #1
In its latest report on human rights in the United Arab Emirates, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information warned the Emirati government of the consequences of its ongoing violations of human rights, and the international treaties the Emirates is bound by. These treaties mandate governments respect freedom of speech and expression, and freedom of political participation. They also prohibit forced deportations and the stripping of one's citizenship outside of a legal framework.

Reporter, Male #1
The report focused on the deportation of blogger and human rights activist, Ahmed Abdel Khaleq, to the Comoros Islands after being detained for several days. The network considered the incident evidence that not only is the Emirates moving forward with its repressive policy, and the suppression of freedoms, but it is also devising new ways to abuse dissidents and activists, since detaining and imprisoning them is no longer sufficient for the Emirates.

Reporter, Male #1
The Arab Network said that arresting Abdel Khaleq again indicates the Emirati government continues to ignore the problems of stateless persons, and continues to abuse them rather than formulate a solution for their problems. The network's report said Abdel Khaleq is one of five activists who were arrested for several months in April of 2011. They were accused of insulting the rulers of the Emirates, and were sentenced to two years in prison. They were later released through a presidential pardon.

Reporter, Male #1
The network confirmed that Abdel Khaleq has a good reputation because of his wide-ranging activities in defense of the rights of the stateless and overall human rights in the Emirates, especially the right of self-expression and political participation. In this framework, media and legal reports indicated that in 2009, the Emirates paid 200 million dollars to the Comoros Islands to issue Comorian citizenship to residents of the Emirates who do not have one, or to the stateless. Their numbers range between 10 thousand and 100 thousand. Reports indicate this segment of the population is subject to persecution, abuse, and is deprived of citizenship rights. It is a chronic problem in the Emirates and several countries of the Persian Gulf.

Reporter, Male #1
The ruling regimes pour their anger on that segment of their population, rather than granting them full citizenship rights, and improving their situation. And amid the disagreements between members of the ruling family in the Emirates, Prince Hashel Bin Zayed al-Mubarak al-Kubaisi, vowed to take legal action against Abu Dhabi's crown prince and his family, Ajman's ruler and his wife, and all those who collaborated with them. He will take legal action through international courts, rights organizations, and the International Criminal Court to retrieve his money and properties.

Reporter, Male #1
Hashel threatened to diffuse the truth through publishing houses around the world and on his two satellite channels, which he is establishing in the United States and Europe, if they do not give him his rights back.

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Ehud Barak: Iranian threat 'a sword on the neck' of Israel [Press TV, Iran]

The Israeli minister of military affairs, Ehud Barak, says the so-called Iranian threat is a 'sword on the neck of Israel,' in one of his strongest statements against Iran, adding that Israel is in the same position it was in during the 1967 Six-Day War. But it seems that Tel Aviv is far from certain about a possible military option against Iran, and neither Israelis nor the rest of the world seem to favor the Israeli military option.

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Syrian troops shell Houla days after massacre as UN chief warns of civil war [BBC Arabic, UK]

Presenter, Male #1
In Syria, 14 people were killed today, including nine who died in the shelling of the city of al-Qasir in Homs Province. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, rockets fell on the city of al-Houla as well. The Local Coordination Committees said Syrian regime forces attempted to take over al-Qasir and its surrounding villages. The Syrian National Council called on the international observers' delegation to quickly head to al-Houla to end the shelling, and protect the remaining civilians that are there after a wave of people fled the region.

Reporter, Male #2
International pressure has not succeeded in ending the violence and the military operations, nor has it healed the region of al-Houla, which witnessed a massacre last week that was condemned by the world. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Coordination Committees, and a number of activists reported the shelling was resumed Thursday morning on al-Houla of Homs Province, and that a boy died this morning in Til Taw after being shot by a sniper. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said people are fleeing the areas getting shelled in fear of a new massacre, and heading toward other towns in the region of al-Houla. On the other hand, the Syrian authorities released 500 detainees, saying they have no blood on their hands.

Guest, Female #1 (Syrian TV)
Specialized institutions released 500 people who were involved in the events that Syria has been witnessing, since their hands were not stained with blood.

Reporter, Male #2
In the latest news of defections, a group of defectors formed the armored brigade of Khan Shaykhun. They also burned a tank and captured a soldier, who later saluted the Free Army.

Reporter, Male #2
In Damascus and Aleppo, as well as in a large number of areas, people are on strike, and shops are closed. On the other hand, there are attempts to urge or violently force people to open their shops.

Reporter, Male #2
These young women did not hesitate to gather, rally, and protest to express their support.

Reporter, Male #2
Politically, US State Secretary Hillary Clinton sharply criticized Russia over its rejection of any UN intervention in Syria. She warned that Russia's policies may lead to a civil war in the country. For his part, the head of the opposition Syrian National Council Burhan Ghalioun rejected Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov's accusation that he is inciting civil war. Ghalioun called on Moscow to cooperate with the international community. In a conference in Istanbul, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "the massacres of the sort seen last weekend could plunge Syria into a catastrophic civil war."

Guest, Male #4 (Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General)
The UN did not deploy in Syria just to bear witness to the slaughter of innocents. We are not there to play the role of passive observer to unspeakable atrocities.

Reporter, Male #2
The pressure and search for an exit from the Syrian crisis is ongoing. As for al-Houla, it continues to mourn its dead. On Thursday, it held a funeral for two of its dead amid angry chants. Essam Abdullah, BBC.

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Azeri security thwarts Eurovision bomb plot [IBA, Israel]

Details emerged that security officials in Azerbaijan managed to thwart a major terror plot over the weekend in the capital Baku against the Eurovision song contest. Forty suspects have been arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on the concert hall where Eurovision was taking place, and of planning to have car bombs attack the luxury hotels where the contestants, including the Israeli delegation, were staying. Azeri security forces have stopped a number of attacks in recent months, and officials are pointing a finger at neighboring Iran.

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Netanyahu: 'Illegal migrants have no place in Israel' [IBA, Israel]

"Illegal migrants have no place in Israel," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an annual conference at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies. He added that the deportation of the illegal migrant community will not happen in a stroke, but promised that Israel can and will expel them, starting with the completion of a border fence in the south, and continuing with an expulsion process that will begin with the Southern Sudanese and progressing to other groups.

Meanwhile, former Foreign Ministry advisor Robbie Sabel said that when dealing with the illegal migrant issue, Israel must not lose sight of international law, which stipulates that people cannot be deported to a country where there is a real danger of their persecution.

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Verdict of Mubarak's trial to be announced on Saturday [Nile TV, Egypt]

Presenter, Female #1
The pursuit of corrupt officials and those who stole the country's wealth, as well as retribution for the martyrs' blood, were and remain the Egyptian people's most important demands since the January revolution. For this reason, everyone is eagerly waiting for this Saturday, the day to unveil the verdict in the "trial of the century," the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak and his two sons, in addition to his interior minister and senior aides. The following report takes us back to the night of February 11, 2011, the night when Mubarak stepped down, and the subsequent proceedings of his trial.

Reporter, Female #2
The people's will brought him down. It was the mere beginning of his journey from the regime's rule to the judiciary's rule. Aboard this helicopter, Hosni Mubarak and his family left the presidential palace on February 11, 2011, and headed to Sharm al-Sheikh as a final destination. That was Mubarak's wish.

Reporter, Female #2
However, the square wanted to punish Mubarak and his henchmen for the destruction and theft they were involved in, but most importantly, for the bloodshed they caused. As soon as the dust settled in the square on the Friday of Victory, the crowds returned on the following Fridays to call for retribution. This prompted Mubarak to appear on April 20, 2011, on al-Arabiya channel to deny all the embezzlement accusations he and his family faced. The Egyptian attorney-general quickly responded to this statement by announcing Mubarak and his two sons will be interrogated.

Reporter, Female #2
As the probe began, Mubarak faced a health crisis, which caused his transfer to Sharm al-Sheikh Hospital. He remained there until the attorney-general issued a decision on April 13th to imprison Mubarak for 15 days during the investigation. After the medical reports blocked a motion to move him to Tora Prison, Mubarak was transferred to the International Medical Center and was remanded in custody. On May 24th, 2011, the attorney-general decided to refer Mubarak, his two sons, and fugitive businessman Hussein al-Salim to the criminal court, on charges of profiteering, exploiting and abusing power, and killing revolutionaries. On August 3rd, Egyptians were in awe in the face of a scene that astonished the world.

Guest, Male #1
Muhammad Hosni al-Sayed Mubarak.

Guest, Male #2
Sir, I am present.

Guest, Male #1
You heard the accusations the public prosecution has charged you with. How do you respond?

Guest, Male #2
I completely deny all of these accusations.

Reporter, Female #2
Mubarak absolutely denied all the charges he faced in the first session that was presided over by Judge Ahmed Rifaat at the Police Academy. The session was aired live on television. The judge then decided to combine the trial of the killing of protestors that Mubarak is accused of, to al-Adly's case, and end the televised broadcast of the proceedings. The trial of the century continued, with some sessions unraveling the evidence, and others listening to the testimonies of the witnesses. Presiding judge Rifaat called on Field Marshal Tantawy, Lieutenant General Sami Anan, General Omar Suleiman, and Generals Mansour Essawy and Mahmoud Wagdy to testify in secret sessions.

Reporter, Female #2
On their scheduled sessions, Suleiman, Essawy and Wagdy gave their testimonies, while the session to hear Field Marshal Tantawy and Lieutenant General Anan was postponed for security reasons. On September 24, Field Marshal Tantawy gave his testimony. That session was followed by calls for a change of court judges, which led the trial to be suspended. After a legal marathon, the court of appeals issued a decision on December 7th, rejecting the calls to change court judges.

Reporter, Female #2
The sessions were resumed on December 28; the court heard the Defense Attorney's argument starting on January 3rd for 3 days, and ended by calling for applying the maximum penalty on the defendants. On January 9 and 10, civil plaintiffs' lawyers also demanded the harshest penalty. That was followed by the defense's arguments for an entire month. And after much commotion and the submission of testimonies, everyone is quietly waiting for a fair verdict.