Gaza militants fired dozens of shells into Israel, reportedly wounding at least two people, while Palestinians said five had been hurt in Israeli air strikes.

The armed wing of the radical Hamas movement governing the Palestinian territory said it had mounted the attack, three days after an Israeli air strike killed two of its members in the Gaza Strip.

Israel said 49 mortar bombs fell on or around Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip in the biggest violation yet of an informal truce militants declared in January.

Army radio said only minor damage was caused but an Israeli military spokesman said two civilians were lightly wounded when three projectiles fell on Pithat Shalom in the Negev desert.

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Senegal has cut diplomatic ties with Iran, accusing Tehran of supplying weapons to separatist rebels in its southern Casamance region, the foreign ministry said.

“Senegal has decided to break off diplomatic relations with the Republic of Iran,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement linked the Iranian weapons with an attack on Sunday in Casamance, the latest in a string of such attacks by rebels engaged in one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts, which resulted in the deaths of three Senegalese troops.

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A massive rally arranged by the Yemeni opposition in Taiz governorate demanded on Tuesday President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

The opposition parties, JMP, launched its rallies and protests to denounce what they called the government failed polices , its intentions to amend the constitution and reneging on previous agreements reached with them.

In a speech delivered before thousands of participants , head of JMP in Taiz, Abdul-Aziz al-Rumaima called Saleh’s government to leave , pointing out that it exploits its public money to its own interests and ignores Yemeni suffers.

The News:
http://www.alsahwa-y … 5/2011/1/25/6621.htm

The Iraq Kurdistan Region’s security agency, or asayesh, seized a large arms cache belonging to the Ansar al-Islam group in the outskirts of Arbil province and arrested a member of the group, according to a statement by the agency.

“The asayesh anti-terrorism department seized a cache containing weapons belonging to terrorists of the Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam) group and arrested one of its members,” read the statement received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

The explosives had been brought from outside the Iraq Kurdistan Region and were carried gradually into Arbil, it added.

The News:
http://en.aswatalira … ticle_page&id=140545

Yemen has released hundreds of Houthi rebel prisoners as part of a ceasefire in its long-running conflict with the northern Shia group.

Rebels and government officials said more than 400 Houthi detainees were released on Thursday as part of a truce mediated by the Gulf nation of Qatar.

Of those, 270 were set free in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and the rest in the northern city of Saada, the centre of the Houthi rebel movement, a security official said.

In return, officials said the rebels were expected to “surrender weaponry seized during the armed conflict” with the government.

In a statement on Thursday, the rebels said they had returned 10 military vehicles to authorities and had so far received 428 freed prisoners.

The News:
http://english.aljaz … 230183224974178.html