Presenter, Male #1
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that his country is considering military intervention in Mali due to the latest developments on the ground. Fabius added that France may resort to the use of force in Mali because France is the main enemy of al-Qaeda in the Arab Maghreb region.

Presenter, Male #1
In another development, the Tawhid and Jihad Group in the northern Malian city of Gao said they inflicted what they referred to as "a bitter defeat" against the Tuaregs' National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, the MNLA, and expelled its fighters from the city. For its part, the MNLA said it voluntarily withdrew from they city in order to spare the lives of its residents, but they vowed to return soon.

Reporter, Male #2
Armed Jihadist groups are in full control of the major cities in northern Mali following the expulsion of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. Al-Taher Bin Aisha, who oversees security at one of the gates of the city of Gao, said that his group was forced to fight the MNLA in order to provide security to its residents.

Guest, Male #3 (Al-Taher Bin A'isha, Armed Jihadist Fighter)
We are not here because of Azawad, or others. We entered this area to restore calm and security, and protect the people's lives and their property. We are not involved in anything else.

Reporter, Male #2
The slogans in support of the Malian state have returned to the streets and homes of Gao despite the capturing of the city by the Tawhid and Jihad Group. Abdullah al-Taaweri said that he, like the rest of the citizens, supported the expulsion of the MNLA from the city. He also called for the expulsion of the remaining armed movements from Gao so the city can be reclaimed as part of the Republic of Mali.

Reporter, Male #2
Cautious calm is dominating the city, which is considered the largest territory in northern Mali. Fighting for the control of Gao broke out between the Tawhid and Jihad Group that is calling for the implementation of Islamic laws, and the MNLA that is calling for their independent state of Azawad.

Reporter, Male #2
The MNLA has lost control of its positions in this city of Gao, where it proclaimed its regional independence. While opponents of the MNLA believe that the movement has suffered a fatal blow, its supporters say it was merely a setback in its bid for the declaration of the state of Azawad. Fadel Abed al-Razaq, Al Jazeera, Gao.

Tensions are high in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, where prominent cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was arrested on Saturday in a violent raid and is still in custody. It is estimated that over 40,000 people turned out for the latest mass demonstration to call for his release, a large number given that all protests and political gatherings are prohibited in the kingdom.

A Nigerian fuel tanker fire claims over 100 lives in the country's oil-producing Niger Delta after crashing on the road in the southeastern state of Rivers. Witnesses say the tank suddenly caught fire as people were trying to scoop up the spilled fuel.

At least one Palestinian was killed by an Israeli drone strike east of Gaza City. Israeli tank shelling wounded several others in the same location; one of them is reported to be in critical condition.

Israel is deploying a missile system along the Egyptian border amid rising tensions between Cairo and Tel Aviv. The US-funded Iron Dome system will be set up near Eilat. An Israeli official said parts of the missile system have already been deployed in the region.

The Iron Dome missile defense system has been deployed in the greater Eilat area as part of extensive IDF efforts to test the system in various regions around the country. The Eilat region has come under missile attack from the Sinai in recent years, including three weeks ago, when the remnants of a Grad rocket were found just north of the city. The system's deployment was coordinated with local communities and the Eilat municipality in order to prevent public panic.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that he had no intention of returning to politics after rumors swirled when he was cleared of major corruption charges earlier in the week. The separate Holyland trials may continue well past the elections, which are scheduled for October 2013.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon and MK Yohanan Plessner resumed their discussions in a search for a breakthrough on a Tal Law replacement which would set a new policy for drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the IDF. The talks follow a blow-up at a meeting the day before. Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz are also expected to meet again in an attempt to work out differences on the issue, recognizing that an impasse may lead to Kadima leaving Netanyahu's coalition government.

Presenter, Female #1
The International Olympic Committee announced that Saudi women athletes will be participating for the first time ever in the London Olympic Games. The committee said the Saudi delegation to the London 2012 Olympics will include female judo athlete Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim and runner Sarah Attar, who will be competing in the 800-meter race. The two athletes are participating following an invitation by the International Committee that conducted extensive negotiations with the Saudi Olympic Committee. And with that, the London Olympic Games will make history by being the first European game to include the participation of female athletes from all countries.

Presenter, Female #1
These Olympic Games also set another precedent with the participation of a Kuwaiti female swimmer. And despite swimmer Faye Sultan's modest aspirations of wining an Olympic medal, she hopes that her pioneering participation will add another contribution to women's achievements in the conservative Kuwaiti society.

Reporter, Male #1
Kuwaiti women scored another accomplishment, as swimmer Faye Sultan will be the first Kuwaiti woman to participate in the Olympic Games. Faye is training here in Calella, Spain, before traveling to London to participate in the games. The 17-year-old girl, who will compete in the 100-meter freestyle race, is aware of her achievement's impact and is proud of it, despite her careful evaluation of her abilities and opportunities in the championship.

Guest, Female #2 (Faye Sultan, Kuwaiti Swimmer)
Hopefully I can improve my time, my own personal record, and not come last.

Reporter, Male #1
Faye started her swimming training relatively late when she was a 9 year-old child. She stopped swimming for some time to learn to dance, and then started seriously training again two years ago. The Kuwaiti training team believes in the swimmer's abilities.

Guest, Male #2 (Jose Baltar Leite, Kuwaiti Swimmers' Coach)
She was in the World Junior Championship in Lima, Peru, last year. She did well, and she has a promising future.

Reporter, Male #1
Faye says she will enroll in a university soon, and hopes to be able to participate in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before she retires. And while she bears the Kuwaiti flag, Faye and the other members of the Kuwaiti team are not competing under their country's banner; rather, they are participating under the Olympic flag. The International Olympic Committee suspended the Kuwaiti Olympic Committee after accusing it of making politically-motivated decisions. Resolving the dispute between the two committees will undoubtedly enhance the symbolism of Faye's participation.

Presenter, Female #1
On the Syrian domestic front, 51 people were killed so far by the gunfire of the brutal al-Assad brigades that are continuing their violent shelling of Syrian cities. And today, for the first time, mortar shells were used in Kafr Susa in Damascus. Human Rights Watch revealed that the regime's forces are using internationally-banned cluster munitions.

Reporter, Male #1
After Annan admitted his failure to solve the Syrian crisis, the Syrian opposition is calling for protesting on Friday under the banner of "The Friday to topple Annan," describing him as al-Assad and Iran's servant. And on its Facebook page, the Syrian opposition listed Annan's failures in his previous missions in Rwanda, Kosovo, and Somalia, and called for continuing the revolution until al-Assad's downfall.

Reporter, Male #1
For the first time since the revolution started, activists in the neighborhood of Kafr Susa in the center of the capital said that al-Assad's brigades are using mortar shells in the area of al-Basateen, on the outskirts of the city, to force the revolutionaries who are believed to be hiding there to come out.

Reporter, Male #1
At dawn on Thursday, violent clashes broke out in the neighborhoods of al-Qadam and al-Asali in Damascus, between the Free Syrian Army and al-Assad's brigades. And in the capital's countryside, al-Assad's brigades and shabeha raided many towns, especially Daraya, with the backing of dozens of tanks and military vehicles, and carried out an indiscriminate arrest campaign. In response, the Free Army-affiliated al-Mujahideen brigade was formed.

Guest, Male #2
I announce the formation of al-Mujahideen brigade, al-Qalamoun branch, that consists of civilians and military personnel. It includes eight brigades, and, God willing, they will be announced soon. We ask for your prayers and for victory from God. And God is the best of helpers.

Reporter, Male #1
In Homs, which is still receiving a share of al-Assad's artillery and mortar shells, activists describe the humanitarian condition there as tragic, due to the suffocating siege imposed by al-Assad's brigades. Children expressed their opinion on the violence and destruction in Homs.

Guest, Male #3
We are besieged by Bashar al-Assad; if it wasn't for the Free Army, they would have slaughtered us. I want to ask Damascus to send us food. We have no milk, no water, no bread. We are eating dry bread; I am hungry. Send us food, Damascus, and other countries. What is this? Our house was bombed; we have no more clothes.

Reporter, Male #1
And as part of the roving massacres, activists said dozens of people were killed by the gunfire of al-Assad's brigades in Idlib and Hama, with a town there subjected to violent and indiscriminate shelling. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said gunmen loyal to the regime opened fire at cars traveling between Jisr al-Shughur and Latakia, near the town of Khan al-Jouz in Latakia Province, adding that the deaths of 23 citizens were reported.

Reporter, Male #1
And in a notable development, Human Rights Watch announced that it believes that al-Assad's brigades are using Soviet-produced cluster bombs in a mountainous region of Hama that is rebelling against the regime.

Reporter, Male #1
The organization noted that two videos posted online confirm the presence of cluster munition remnants and Soviet-produced submunitions, apparently found in Jabal Shahshabu, a mountainous area in northwestern Hama.

Presenter, Female #1
Nine members of the Pakistani police were killed and three others were injured in an armed attack that targeted security forces in the city of Lahore in eastern Pakistan. The head of the city's police said masked gunmen stormed a home and opened fire at the people inside.

Reporter, Female #2
Here, in this building, resided the victims of this attack. They came from northeastern Pakistan, near the Afghan border, to the city of Lahore for a police training course. But as dawn broke, their careers ended here after gunmen stormed the building and opened fire at the people inside. They left a number of trainees dead, and injured others.

Guest Male #1
Masked gunmen on three motorcycles stormed the building and opened fire. The victims were trainees at the Punjab Prison Academy. Most of them are from Khyber Province near the Afghan border.

Reporter, Female #2
When the attackers fled, they left this scene behind: dead bodies lying on the ground, and tears shed by those who lost a loved one, or a friend.

Guest, Male #2
When I opened the door, I saw two motorcycles. One was stopped here, and the other one was stopped over there. I saw five or six people opening fire as soon as they entered the building; this lasted for more than 12 minutes.

Reporter, Female #2
This attack, which the Pakistani Taliban movement claimed responsibility for, is the second to target security forces in less than a week. Seven people were killed in a similar attack on a military camp near the capital Islamabad.

Reporter, Female #2
These attacks come in the wake of demonstrations against the Pakistani government's decision to reopen NATO supply routes to Afghanistan through Pakistan. The routes had been closed for seven months after an American air raid killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November 2011.

Presenter, Male #1
In Hebron, the ancient Khirbet Beit Mirsim is being marginalized as the occupation seeks to displace its residents.

Reporter, Male #2
Since 1967, Hajj Waleed Amr from Khirbet Beit Mirsim, part of the city of Dura in southern Hebron, has been feeling wrenching pain every day he walks near the rubble of his ancestral home that was destroyed by the occupation that is still preventing the reconstruction of the house.

Guest Male #3
The Israelis demolished 76 homes, and they only allowed us to build 72 rooms, not homes. So some buildings only have three or four rooms. We have 11 rooms; they only built this house after 1967.

Reporter, Male #2
Amr is one of the 35 families whose homes were demolished by the occupation with the aim of expelling them and seizing their historical and archaeological land. Some were forced to leave, and others insisted staying on the land of their fathers and grandfathers, risking the fate of their families for the sake of their land.

Guest, Female #1
We were forced out of our homes. The Israelis made us leave. The Israelis forced us to leave. I will not forget our home, or our water wells.

Reporter, Male #1
Part of the apartheid wall was erected on the land of Khirbet Beit Mirsim, engulfing large areas of the village, with disregard to the forgotten ruins full of Arab monuments and history. In addition, the occupation continues to attempt to erase the history of the ruins, and force the citizens to leave.

Guest, Male #3
The village of Beit Mirsim is a Palestinian, Arab, Canaanite village that was destroyed, and its residents displaced. It holds many Palestinian monuments, but sadly a lot of our children don't know about this village, and not even the Ministry of Antiquities is expressing any interest in the village.

Reporter, Male #2
This scene confirms the historical narrative that recounts that Khirbet Beit Mirsim is an archeological site with dilapidated walls and ground cavern foundations paved with mosaics, the remains of a church that was turned into the site of prophet Handal, and remnants from the Byzantine era, which were initially built by the Canaanite Arabs, naming the village Dubair, meaning holy.

Reporter, Male #2
Khirbet, or ruins, of Beit Mirsim is full of monuments, but is forgotten by Palestinian citizens, as the occupation seeks to Judiaze and steal the village, erasing its Arab and historical features. Sari el-Lawut, Palestine TV, Beit Mirsim, south Hebron.

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