Full News- Wed, May, 06, 2015 - 22:00 GMT

1. Saudi military forces continue their deadly attacks on Yemen. The northern provinces of Sa’ada and Hajjah have been targeted more than 100 times by Saudi warplanes and artillery fire in the past 24 hours.

2. Yemeni tribal forces continue firing mortars inside the Saudi territory for a second consecutive day. The latest attacks have left at least five people dead and nearly a dozen injured in the border city of Najran.

3. Iran's Judiciary Chief says Saudi officials must be prosecuted for the ongoing war against Yemen. Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani says under the statutes of the International Criminal Court, the Saudi aggression against Yemenis amounts to war crime and crime against humanity. 

4. A Saudi airplane has reportedly landed at an Israeli airport. According to Israeli media, the plane landed at Ben Gurion Airport in the city of Lod. Some reports say that the landing was caused by technical reasons.

5. Iraq's Turkmen and Christians have slammed the US decision to treat Iraqi Kurds and Sunnis as independent people. Iraqi Turkmen and Christians have stressed that such a move would be the first step toward dividing Iraq, which they say, could jeopardize Iraq’s future. 

6.  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has slammed his Turkish counterpart for his role in more than four years of insurgency in the Arab country.  Addressing a huge crowd on Syria's Martyrs Day in the capital Damascus, Assad called Recep Tayyip Erdogan a butcher and compared him with tyrant Ottoman rulers. He said Erdogan is committing crimes as the Ottomans who executed a large group of nationalists for defending the Syrian people from oppression in the early 20th century.

7. Lebanese forces have once again clashed with terrorists trying to infiltrate into the country through Syrian borders. The Lebanese army, along with Hezbollah fighters, has managed to fend off terrorist attacks and inflict losses on the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front militants in Qalamoun region.

8. Burundi’s president confirms he will run for a third term in June’s election. Pierre Nkurun-ziza has made the decision despite days of protests and violence across the African country over his bid. The main opposition leader has called for postponement of the vote, saying the credibility of the electoral process is already in doubt. Meanwhile, police have arrested an opposition leader after he attended a meeting of foreign ministers from the East African Community, who were seeking a solution to the unrest. The United Nations refugee chief has expressed extreme concern about the political crisis, which has been going on in Burundi for over a week. According to a U-N report, over 35-thousand refugees have fled the country ahead of election.

9. The Central African Republic says it will take legal action against French troops involved in alleged child sex abuse at a refugee camp. Justice Minister Aristide Sokambi says soldiers accused of raping children in exchange for food will be pursued. The minister said his country should have been involved in UN and French probes into the allegations. Several children allege that over a dozen French soldiers sexually abused some of them in exchange for food. The soldiers were sent to the CAR as part of a peacekeeping mission. France was alerted by the UN about the allegations in July 2014.

10. The Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution has criticized Washington for maintaining hostile rhetoric against Iran over its nuclear energy program. Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Tehran will not budge to pressure and stands ready to defend itself against aggressors. The comments come after US Secretary of State John Kerry and top military commander General Martin Dempsey said military options are still on the table in dealing with Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei says Iran will not hold nuclear talks under threat. The leader says Iranian diplomats can continue talks while heeding the redlines, and not yielding to humiliation and threat.

11. The deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has warned the US that Tehran has prepared itself for widespread and long-running wars with American military forces. General Hussein Salami said Iran welcomes any military confrontation with the US, because it has strengthened its military might to win any war against the US. He stressed that any aggression against Iran will mobilize the Muslim world against the US and that the enemy is well aware of this. Salami was reacting to recent military threats by some US officials against Iran. Washington insists that the military option is still on the table for Tehran over its nuclear program. Iran has dismissed all military threats against the nation as psychological warfare.

12. Manama has been urged to order an independent investigation into last month's unrest at the notorious Jaw Prison. Human Rights Watch says Bahraini security forces or other officials found to have used excessive force to quench the protest at the jail should be held accountable. The rights group also called on Bahraini authorities to immediately allow independent medical access to the prison. The New York-based rights group also quoted some recently-released inmates as saying security forces fired teargas into the jail buildings and systematically beat the prisoners as they cleared cells during the protest. According to rights groups, the inmates were protesting the security's use of excessive force and poor prison conditions. The prison is Bahrain’s central detention facility where the regime keeps hundreds of people only for participation in peaceful protests.

13. A leading figure of the Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad has gone on a hunger strike in an Israeli jail. Khader Adnan has declared an open-ended hunger strike in protest against his continued imprisonment by Israel. Our correspondent Mona Kandil has more from the occupied West Bank.

14. Greece’s international creditors have rejected accusations over their internal difference on a bailout deal with Athens. The European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have released a joint statement, saying they share the same goal in securing a deal with Greece. The statement also says the institutions continue to work together with Athens to reach a deal before a looming deadline on May eleven. Earlier, Greek officials said an internal rift among troika members is blocking a compromise deal. The Greek government is trying to reach an agreement with its creditors to avoid bankruptcy. The country is under pressure to come up with more reforms in order to receive more money.

15. Britain will head for the polls within hours to vote in a crucial election that will determine the country’s leadership for the next four years. Candidates travelled across the country on the last day of campaigning for what many already anticipate to be a very tight race. The vote has been described as the most unpredictable election in Britain’s modern history. Polls put the Conservatives and Labour neck-and-neck and neither looks likely to win a majority in Parliament. Smaller parties are shoring up support, knowing they could hold the balance of power. Ballots will be cast in around 50-thousand polling stations around the country. Initial results for the 650 seats of parliament will be announced Thursday night. Final final results are not expected until Friday afternoon.

16.  With just hours left to Britain’s 2015 general elections, the fate of black Britons with mental health problems has taken the spotlight. The death of several black men with mental health problems in police custody has increased the importance of the issue in the upcoming elections. So, representatives from the three major parties gathered in west London to be quizzed on their views on the care vulnerable people in the mental health system receive.

17. German chancellor Angela Merkel's government has come under fresh attack from the opposition over an espionage scandal. The opposition has accused the government of not doing enough to stop its foreign intelligence service from spying on European politicians. According to media reports, the German intelligence service, BND helped the US National Security Agency spy on targets such as the Airbus Group, the French presidency and the European Commission. Merkel has so far dodged the criticism on the issue and the accusation that her interior minister Thomas de Maiziere misled parliament over the BND affair. Maiziere testifying before a parliamentary panel denied any wrongdoing while he oversaw intelligence matters. Merkel herself has pledged to face questioning by lawmakers if asked for.

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