Rights groups warn of deteriorating conditions in Israeli prisons as Palestinian hunger strike continues [Al Jazeera, Qatar]

Presenter, Female #1
Human rights and civil society organizations warned of deteriorating conditions inside Israeli prisons, as tension is running high among prisoners in Israel's Ramon Prison due to punitive measures carried out by the Prison Administration in cooperation with Israeli special forces.

Reporter, Male #1
The Palestinian Prisoners' Society confirmed that the Israeli court issued an administrative arrest warrant for detainee Samer al-Barq for an additional three months. Al-Barq continues his hunger strike for the 100th consecutive day.

Reporter, Female #2
Palestinian warnings of an explosive situation inside Israeli prisons were issued this time due to the tension in the Israeli Ramon Prison. This tension was created after 100 prisoners were transferred to another prison as collective punishment, and others were held in solitary confinement. In addition, special forces are being kept inside sections of the prison.

Reporter, Female #2
The tension is heightened by fears for the life of prisoner Samer al-Barq, who is now on his 100th day of hunger strike. In a first in decades, a statement was issued by prisoner Zahran Zedat from the Negev Prison, demanding to file a lawsuit at the Israeli High Court of Justice against intelligence officers who tortured him when he was arrested in 2004.

Guest, Male #2 (Helmi Araj, Centre for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights)
He was subjected to all forms of psychological and physical torture, and to a serious rape attempt by three soldiers, who entered his solitary cell. They were trying to blackmail him into confessing. They threatened to bring in his family and rape them, including his wife. This is not easy for a prisoner to talk about, but this is what happened.

Reporter, Female #2
Zahran Zedat confirms the lawsuit was filed to protect male and female prisoners, to protect them from the various types of abuses they endure, the latest of which is arresting again individuals released in the Egyptian-mediated prisoner swap deal between the Hamas movement and Israel months ago.

Guest, Male #3 (Abdel Rahim Maluh, Palestine Liberation Organization, Executive Committee Member)
The Egyptians must positively intervene to release the prisoners, and particularly those who were just released through the Shalit deal, and the prisoners who are on hunger strike, especially since the prisons and the Palestinian people are very tense right now.

Reporter, Female #2
The Israeli occupation forces do not even allow Palestinians to express solidarity with their prisoners. At the Ofer military prison, soldiers used rubber bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas to suppress the demonstrators and the media following protests in solidarity with the prisoners.

Reporter, Female #2
The case of the prisoners, the case that is absent from the international arena, and present on Palestinian minds, is a case that carries the dark fingerprints of the occupation's policies. An occupation that will seemingly continue to consider itself above any law.

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Ban Ki-moon arrives in Tehran despite Western attempts to isolate Iran [Al-Alam, Iran]

Presenter, Male #1
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in the Iranian capital, Tehran, to take part in the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, or NAM. Upon his arrival, Ban Ki-moon met with Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. Al-Alam channel received information that Ki-moon will meet the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Presenter, Male #1
Ki-moon will also discuss the Syrian crisis and Tehran's nuclear program with Iranian officials. The US and the Israeli entity opposed the visit and mounted pressure to block it. In a statement issued to the press, Ki-moon stressed the importance of Iran's role, both at the regional and international levels.

Guest, Male #2, (Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General)
I would like to congratulate the Iranian government for organizing this summit. It is an important opportunity for Iran to play a very crucial role as a moderate and constructive leader in the international community and to address all the challenges. Tehran has an important and sensitive role to play in the region, and particularly in regard to the situation in Syria. I will discuss the Syrian issue with the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian President, and other leaders. I look forward to holding valuable and constructive talks with Iranian officials.

Presenter, Male #1
The Non-Aligned Movement is hosting its 16th summit in Tehran amid anticipated changes to its framework. This, as the Islamic Republic of Iran received the three-year rotating presidency of the movement.

Reporter, Male #3
The Non-Aligned Movement, NAM, was born in the midst of a bipolar world system shared between the US and the former Soviet Union. The nucleus of NAM was formed at the Bandung Conference that brought together Indonesia, Egypt, and India. Then, other countries unaffiliated to the Eastern or Western camp, were added with the aim of establishing a third polar camp on the international arena to bring harmony between third world countries. However, the movement's role started to dwindle in the 1980s due to its lack of strong mechanisms for an effective participation on the international stage.

Reporter, Male #3
In the 1990s and after the Soviet Union disintegrated, the movement's declining role plummeted due to the growing US hegemony over international resolutions. It was the beginning of a new colonization period, led by American imperialism, which quickly seized on the void left by the collapse of the communist giant, and the end of the cold war. Amid rapid international developments following the expansion of US hegemony over the world, and in light of the absence of the competing red power, NAM's role continued to dwindle. However, an attempt to revive its role occurred at the Cuba summit in 2006, when member countries attempted to redefine its strategy in a bid to expand its role on the international scene.

Reporter, Male #3
After this humble attempt by Havana, it was Egypt's turn to preside over the movement in 2009. Egypt launched another attempt to promote the movement's objectives, evoking memories of the establishment of NAM at the Bandung Conference. However, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak failed to take the movement toward its goal for independence and to revive its role on the international arena. All he did was gather the largest possible number of NAM's leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh without adopting effective and transparent mechanisms to help reactivate the movement's role on the world's decision-making stage.

Reporter, Male #3
Now, Tehran's turn has finally come. Tehran, the capital of the revolution and the pioneer of Islamic awakening in the region, will launch a new beginning based on the influential and independent Iranian resolution aimed at countering the world's arrogant powers. Observers expect the Tehran summit to lead to a wide-scale restructuring operation aimed at charting a new roadmap for the movement and establishing effective mechanisms at the various political, economic, social, and cultural levels.

Reporter, Male #3
The objective is to counter US dominance over UN resolutions and its plans aimed at imposing embargos and sanctions on NAM's member states, as well as to counter conspiracies targeting certain countries with the aim of luring them into the White House's trap.

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Pakistan demands immediate end to US drone strikes [Press TV, Iran]

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar is one of the many world leaders attending the 16th Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran. In an interview with Press TV, she lashed out at the United States for its assassination drone strikes in Pakistan. Pakistan's position is that the strikes are counterproductive, unlawful, illegal, and that the US must cease drone operations immediately and use different ways and means to achieve the same objectives.

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Iraq's Kurdistan Region government in talks to reopen Baghdad office [Press TV, Iran]

Iraq's Kurdistan regional government is seeking to reopen its representation office in Baghdad. It is currently holding negotiations with the central administration over the issue. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shut down the office earlier in August reportedly due to a lack of reason for having it. However, the move was described by critics as political punishment against the region.

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Bashar al-Assad: Military needs 'more time' to win battle [Press TV, Iran]

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says more time is needed to end the foreign-backed insurgency in his country. Assad also says that a buffer zone, which the West has been talking about imposing on Syria, is unrealistic, saying that the idea is being championed by hostile countries and Syria's enemies. He added that the situation in his country is improving and progressing, and that his comments are coming from the presidential palace in the capital, after speculation regarding his whereabouts.

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Forty-two killed across Syria as Russia calls for investigation into Daraya massacre [BBC Arabic, UK]

Presenter, Male #1
In Syria, Local Coordination Committees reported that 42 people were killed in clashes across Syria. Twenty of them were killed in Damascus, most notably in Kafr Batna, al-Boweida, and other areas in the countryside of Damascus, in addition to the al-Khalidiya neighborhood of Homs. Moscow called for conducting an unbiased investigation into the acts violence in the town of Daraya near Damascus that it described as barbaric. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said violent clashes are ongoing between regime forces and Free Syrian Army fighters near the Taftanaz military airport in Idlib Province, as explosions were heard. The Observatory indicated that the death toll from the Jaramana bombing in Damascus rose to 27.

Reporter, Male #2
Military operations did not prevent the Syrians from protesting and expressing their opinion about the regime, and to demand freedom and change.

Reporter, Male #2
As for the outcome of the ongoing military operations for the past year and a half, it is visible in the destruction of Syrian cities and towns. As such, these scenes show a town that was devastated, and no longer has any habitable houses. One of the residents even had to resort to burying his mother by himself after the town was deserted, with the exception of a few residents, who lashed out at the international community.

Guest, Male #3
The French president spoke yesterday, but what did he say? He said nothing. And Turkey says nonsense; our refugees are at the border, and they won't let them in.

Guest, Male #4
We have a million refugees.

Reporter, Male #2
This did not prevent military operations and clashes from continuing in several areas in Syria. The Free Syrian Army announced that it waged an attack on Taftanaz military airport in the countryside of Idlib, saying it destroyed five helicopters in the attack. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that clashes are occurring between regime forces and opposition fighters in the suburbs of the neighborhoods of al-Qaboun and Jobar in Damascus.

Reporter, Male #2
The Observatory also said the town of Zamalka is being subjected to violent shelling by regime forces that used helicopters to shell the town of Saqba and its surroundings in the countryside of Damascus. Heavy security deployment was reported in Masaken al-Barza, according to the Syrian Observatory, that confirmed that the city of Zabadani was also shelled.

Reporter, Male #2
In the neighborhood of al-Tadamon, it was reported that demonstrations were held to condemn the regime's massacres, according to activists. The Syrian Revolution's General Commission said the cities and town of al-Ghouta al-Sharqiya were shelled with warplanes.

Reporter, Male #2
The official Syrian media outlet SANA indicated that a group of those it described as mercenary terrorists detained citizens in Zamalka, including men and women.

Reporter, Male #2
The Coordination Committees reported that the neighborhoods of al-Khalidiya and Jouret al-Shayyah, in addition to the neighborhood of Homs' Old City are being heavily shelled by regime forces.

Guest, Male #4 (Hadi al-Abdallah, Spokesman for the Syrian Revolution General Commission)
What is happening in Homs in particular is an operation to free the checkpoints, so that the Free Syrian Army is able to move freely. Then, there may be an attack on significant sites.

Reporter, Male #2
Also in Idlib, the Observatory clarified that regime forces stormed the city of Ariha, and carried out raids and an arrest campaign. The city of Saraqib is also subjected to shelling by regime forces. In the city of Aleppo, the Observatory reported violent clashes in the neighborhood of al-Amriya, saying many neighborhoods are being shelled by regime forces. The Observatory also announced that two Republican Guard soldiers were captured.

Guest, Male #5
They are from the Republican Guard, specialized in cracking down on demonstrations.

Reporter, Male #2
Meanwhile, clashes continued in Deir az-Zour, as Misraba was shaken by dozens of explosions, the result of shells launched from the barrack between Misraba, Harasta, and Douma. Essam Abdallah, BBC.

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Low turnout at Knesset's special summer session on economy [IBA, Israel]

The declining economic situation and rising layoffs in Israel brought the Knesset Plenum into a special session today, amid reports that the government is considering tinkering with the planned unpopular price hikes, part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's austerity measures. Only about 25 Knesset members, mostly from the opposition Kadima party who called for it, showed up to the special session.

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Attacks against French Jews on the rise since Toulouse killings in March [IBA, Israel]

Anti-Semitic attacks against French Jews have increased by 40 percent in France since March this year, when an al-Qaeda inspired attacker went on a killing spree that ended with the murder of three Jewish children and a rabbi in Toulouse in the south of France. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, met with French Interior Minister Manuel Valls to discuss the rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes being reported by his organization.

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France opens murder inquiry into Yasser Arafat's death [Dubai TV, UAE]

Presenter, Male #1
The investigation into the death of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was officially opened in France. A court in Nanterre announced the investigation was launched following the deposition of a civil suit by the leader's widow, Suha Arafat, who suspects he died from polonium poisoning. The move was based on a report by a Swiss lab that said high levels of the radio active element polonium was found on Arafat's clothes. This is the same substance that caused the death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

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Libyan government 'will not risk entering losing battle with armed extremists' [Dubai TV, UAE]

Presenter, Male #1
Libyan Interior Minister Fawzi Abdelali said, "The Libyan authorities will not risk entering a losing battle with armed extremists." He was commenting on the destruction of a number of sacred Sufi shrines by hardline Islamists a few days ago. He did not hold any group responsible, but Abdelali said that these groups own a large cache of weapons, and assured that disarmament in Libya is complicated and a major issue that requires a national plan.

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Foreign Minister Lieberman invites Egyptian President Morsi to visit Israel [Dubai TV, UAE]

Presenter, Male #1
Israel, through its Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, invited Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to visit Israel soon. The Israeli minister Lieberman expressed hope that Morsi will confirm his words of reassurance with action. The Egyptian president said he would adopt a balanced foreign policy, confirming that the peace treaty with Israel is safe.

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Egyptian rights organizations outline demands for new constitution [Nile TV, Egypt]

Presenter, Male #1
In the framework of the social debate on the new constitution, a number of rights advocates, and constitutional law experts discussed what they viewed as problems in some articles of the draft constitution, including those related to judicial independence, and the system of governance. This discussion took place at a conference titled "Egypt's New Democratic Constitution: Issues and Problems," which was held by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.

Reporter, Male #2
It is responsible for not only organizing the life of all 85 million Egyptians, but also that of millions from the future generations. It is responsible for children, women, and youths, and doctors, workers, media workers, and everyone. It is the constitution. So it is not only lines written on paper, but it is the new Egypt's way of life.

Reporter, Male #2
Some of the second constituent assembly's work to draft the constitution was discussed by rights advocates during their conference that tackled the issues and problems of the new constitution.

Guest, Male #3 (Hafez Abu Saada, Secretary-General of EOHR)
Article 2 is problematic, so we need to reach a middle ground. We agree that the text that was derived from the former constitution should remain the same, that Islamic law is the main source of legislation. We do not want to add or change anything to this part. We do not want to change the principles of the provisions.

Guest, Male #4 (Mohamed Faeq, Deputy for National Council for Human Rights)
The second problem is the constitutional court, and the attempt to weaken it or the attempt to change its general functioning. The constitutional court is something we really value.

Reporter, Male #2
In addition to defining Egypt's identity in Article 2 and confirming the independence of the judiciary in another article, they demanded that the system of governance be intertwined, and not to allow the president or the parliament to have excessive power. They also called for having all their human rights, similar to Tunisia and South Africa. As for party representatives, they expressed their rejection to the formation of the current constituent committee.

Guest, Male #5 (Aref Al-Desouky, Vice President of al-Ghad Party)
From the beginning, there were disputes over this constituent committee. It represents an illegitimate formation, because it contains the same flaws in the formation that was previously cancelled by the administrative court.

Reporter, Male #2
Between the role of the constituent committee and the views of the rights organizations and the political parties, drafting the constitution remains a precise matter that must be weighed very carefully to guarantee stability and the rights of all spectrums of the society. Mohamed Gamal, Nile TV.