Presenter, Male #1
Rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi's long silence on the persecution of Rohingya Muslims and Kachin Christians in Myanmar is raising sharp criticism against her in human rights and media circles, both locally and internationally. Suu Kyi only commented once on the conditions of the two minorities, when she said it is necessary to know the root of the problem first, when asked about the oppression the Rohingyas are subjected to in the state of Arakan.

Reporter, Male #2
If you ask, who is the worst person in Myanmar? Some will answer that it is the head of the ruling military regime. However, rights activists will say it is Aung San Suu Kyi, although she is a champion of democracy, who sacrificed her family life to build a state of law and despite being the daughter of General Aung San, the hero of liberation. The reason is her cold stance towards the injustices against the Rohingyas and Kachins. For example, the website Dictator Watch says:

Guest, Female #1
She is the worst person in Myanmar. She does not consider the acts against the Rohingya Muslims and the Kachin Christians as human rights violations.

Reporter, Male #2
Another criticism comes from an official at the Human Rights Watch organization.

Guest, Male #3
Aung San Suu Kyi wasted an opportunity to say something kind about a non-controversial issue that requires a completely clear stance.

Reporter, Male #2
After being held under a long compulsory house arrest, she was released at the end of 2010, won a seat in parliament, then received the Nobel Peace Prize. Activists and journalists now find themselves shocked regarding her long silence on the mass violations in her country despite the limited reforms supervised by the military authority.

Reporter, Male #2
Rights organizations are waging mordant attacks on Suu Kyi's silence on the suffering of tens of thousands of displaced members of the Christian minority, the Kachins, in the state of Shan in Myanmar. As for the Rohingyas, she has carefully avoided commenting about their torture. She wants to know the root of the problem, which amazes rights activists who assumed that this figure would defend human rights regardless of the origin of those being persecuted.

Reporter, Male #2
It is true that she has spoken about the importance of protecting minorities. However, her critics note that she only means persecuted Buddhist minorities, like the Karen and Shan. Aung San Suu Kyi is now described as a politician with cold calculations, as the country is approaching elections in 2015. The criticism directed at Aung San Suu Kyi comes from human rights and media organizations that have long admired her struggle for basic freedoms in Myanmar that lasted years. But this was before she placed herself in the cage of double standards.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders says its workers have been threatened and stopped from reaching violence-hit areas in Myanmar. The group says thousands are left without medical care in the western Rakhine State as a result, adding that many of the victims are extremely vulnerable.

Iran's currency, the rial, is gaining strength after a steep slide in its value against the US dollar over the past few weeks. The US dollar has plunged to its lowest level since September, when the Iranian rial dropped in value. Now, the rial is holding at its rebound level. The news has convinced money changers that the currency is on the path to recovery. On Monday, one US dollar was traded for 29 thousand rials, much lower than its value of about 35 thousand rials almost ten days ago.

Presenter, Male #1
Two people of Asian decent were killed and a third was wounded in terrorist acts that targeted civilians in the Bahraini capital al-Manama. This comes days after the government announced a ban on all forms of public gatherings and opposition mobilizations for the sake of public safety.

Reporter, Female #1
Days after the Bahraini government announced a ban on all forms of public gatherings and opposition mobilizations for the sake of public safety, a rare attack occurred, mainly targeting civilians. Five bombs exploded, killing two people and injuring another.

Reporter, Female #1
The Bahraini Interior Ministry announced that the two people that were killed are Asian street cleaners. One of them was instantly killed after kicking an explosive package, setting it off. The other person died at the hospital he was taken to after another bomb exploded near a theater. The ministry added that the bombs were locally produced, and that the bombing occurred in the Qudaibiya and Adliya districts of Manama, describing these bombing as terrorist acts.

Guest, Female #2
He is a foreign worker who works in Adliya. He was a street cleaner with the municipality. He wakes up every day at 4 am, and every day he passes by the same place. He noticed a suspicious package with a timer. He lifted the package and it exploded.

Reporter, Female #1
The Bahraini authorities had earlier announced that a number of people were injured by home-made bombs. However, the form of today's attacks were considered unprecedented. Bahrain is witnessing sporadic protests led by Shiite government opponents. Shiite villages continuously witness confrontations between protesters and security forces.

Presenter, Male #1
A victory by candidate Barack Obama or his Republican contender Mitt Romney won't change anything in Washington's policies toward the Middle East, since the foundations of America's foreign policy are untouchable. Our colleague Mada Taha reports on the views of the Arab community that is disappointed that the hopes it has long wished for failed to materialize.

Presenter, Female #1
Today, we take you back to the American presidential election of 2008. If appropriate to do so, we would have called them the American global elections. The Democratic candidate at the time, and today's president, Barack Obama, was the first candidate to gain people's love and support internationally, before receiving it domestically. In the Arab world, people followed the American election and bet on Obama.

Presenter, Female #1
Some were fed up of the Republican rule that lasted eight years under the leadership of George Bush the son, who waged bloody wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Some were affected by the media's confusing promotion of the American presidential candidate as Barack Hussein Obama, the catch here being his name "Hussein".

Presenter, Female #1
As for others, they rode the wheel of change and supported him believing the time had come for the first American president of African-Muslim origins, with the hope that this change would reflect positively on the Arab world. Obama won, and carried on the rhetoric and promises for a new beginning in the US' relationship with the Arab world. He withdrew American forces from Iraq, and will withdraw them from Afghanistan by 2014. However, what was dubbed the "Arab Spring" represented the biggest challenge for Obama and was seen as a test for the extent that American policies had changed.

Reporter, Male #2
Conflicting and unclear: these are the attributes President Obama's administration was accused of in its dealing with what is known as the Arab Spring revolutions. In the view of many observers of American foreign policy, the White House didn't have a single position in the face of those revolutions.

Reporter, Male #2
Washington's reluctance to support the Tunisian people's demand to change their government was clear from the beginning. But when the rule of its former ally, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, was toppled early by the cries of Tunisians, it was forced to change its position, a position Washington wanted to avoid repeating in the Egyptian case, so it demanded Hosni Mubarak's government to listen to the people's voice. It then repeated its request loudly, asking Mubarak to step down without delay. The biggest change in Obama's stance was notable in the revolution against Muammar al-Gaddafi's regime, the leader Washington itself described as an important ally just a few weeks before the revolution. It then joined the NATO alliance in the military operations that overthrew his government.

Reporter, Male #2
Obama's stance on the three previous revolutions was, in the eyes of many, spurred by two main factors. The first was that those events represented democratic uprisings, and Washington must adopt the general idea of the Arab Spring. Second, that its opposition to it could lead to the emergence of governments hostile to Washington and its interests. However, these two factors seemed justified to a certain extent in the face of the two situations, the Yemeni and Syrian, with growing fears of Islamists taking power in Arab Spring countries, such as Tunisia and Egypt, as the US took into consideration the impact that change would have on the interests of the West and its Israeli ally in the region. For that reason, the American position toward these two revolutions was delayed, especially in Syria, where the crisis has been raging for over 20 months.

Presenter, Female #1
Mass explosions and suicide attacks were reported in Syria. In Doha, the opposition's second day of meetings offset the failures of the first day.

Reporter, Female #2
It was a bloody day in Syria, during which losses on both sides, the regime and the opposition, were recorded. But it was the innocent civilians that bore the biggest loss, and specifically those that were in the crowded Arous al-Jabal Square, in the Mezzeh neighborhood of Damascus. Over 11 people were killed and dozens were injured in an explosion that official news outlets attributed to an explosive canister placed on site by terrorists. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion was the result of a car bomb.

Reporter, Female #2
In a major escalation of the campaign carried out by regime forces, Syrian planes and artillery shelled opposition strongholds south of Damascus causing the killing of at least 10 fighters. The neighborhoods of al-Hajar al-Aswad and al-Tadamon, in the surroundings of al-Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, witnessed violent clashes that caused a large exodus of residents. In contrast, a suicide attack with a car bomb resulted in the killing of at least 50 people who were Syrian security members, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Reporter, Female #2
In a number of Aleppo's neighborhoods, clashes continued as the anti-regime Tarek Bin Ziyad Brigade confronted war planes in al-Athareb area, according to a video posted on opposition websites. On the diplomatic front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi in Cairo. Lavrov endorsed Morsi's initiative to resume the meetings of the four Middle Eastern powers to attempt to solve the Syrian crisis after Saudi Arabia missed the group's last two meetings.

Guest, Male #1 (Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia)
The five members at the Security Council are committed to pushing the Syrian government and opposition fighters to accept a ceasefire and initiate peaceful negotiations.

Reporter, Female #2
After meeting with the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and the chairman of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, Lavorov said the Russian side is trying to convince the fighting Syrian sides to stop the violence and to return to the negotiating table to agree on a transitional government. However, the tripartite meeting didn't end with fruitful results.

Reporter, Female #2
From Cairo to al-Doha, the opposition's meetings were productive on the second day. Opposition parties agreed to include new coalitions to the council or commission, that will be declared on Thursday with the attendance of world figures and leaders, to which Doha has started sending invitations for. According to statements by the meetings' attendees, 13 new coalitions joined the initiative, and the council will include nearly 33 percent of the revolutionary movement. In Damascus, and from within the conference for humanitarian aid agencies, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Meqdad denounced all these meetings.

Presenter, Male #1
The Libyan army redeployed its forces in the Libyan capital Tripoli following the latest violent events witnessed in the city between two armed militias. The two groups have refused to join the army or police after the fall of the previous regime. The violent events in the city are the most violent since the fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi's regime last year. They caused at least five injuries and the burning of a building belonging to the Supreme Security Committee, in addition to looting and theft.

Reporter, Female #1
Cautious calm reined in the Libyan capital Tripoli after violent confrontations between two armed factions. After an exchange of fire that lasted over 22 consecutive hours, the Libyan army redeployed its troops on Tripoli's streets to restore security to the area that witnessed the most intense wave of violence since the fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi's regime last year.

Guest, Male #2 (Ibrahim al-Katousi, Libyan Army Officer)
Our mission is to cleanse al-Zawiya Street and the intelligence agency from the remnants of the previous regime, and the elements that spread corruption and terrorized the citizens of the city of Tripoli.

Reporter, Female #1
The exchange of fire caused five injuries and damage to a hospital building located in the heart of the city. According to the residents, they rushed to take up arms to defend the city after their calls for help from the police fell on deaf ears.

Reporter, Female #1
The repeated violence struck the headquarters of what is know as the Supreme Security Committee, which was formed last year to absorb Libya's armed militias, who refused to join the Libyan police or the army after the fall of the previous regime; the building was also looted. Armed militias affiliated with the government looted and stole in the al-Zawiya area.

Reporter, Female #1
The escalating violence that has been confronting Libya recently is a big challenge for the new government trying to take control from these armed groups. Such groups gained power after starting the fight that brought down a regime whose reign lasted 42 years. Samah Hamdan, BBC.

A claim made by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on a Channel 2 report says that Israel was on the verge of launching a military strike against Iran in 2010, but refrained from doing so because of opposition from then-IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, who said that just raising an alert for war could spook Iran and touch off a war, even if no military strike was ordered, adding that the alert could not be carried out because the military did not yet have the capability for a successful strike against Iran's nuclear program. Former Mossad head Meir Dagan concurred, and suggested that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Barak were acting illegally by not bringing the issue before the Cabinet, which must approve decisions that could lead to war.

In southern Israel, IDF soldiers shot and killed a suspected Palestinian terrorist last night as he approached the Gaza border fence near Kisufim. The IDF spokesman confirmed that the shooting took place, and that the incident began when a man who walked in a riverbed west of the border failed to heed orders to leave the adjacent buffer area. Medical personnel in Gaza say that the 23-year-old Palestinian was unarmed and mentally handicapped.

Presenter, Male #1
Attacks by the occupation's soldiers and settlers against citizens and their property have risen recently in most areas of the nation, which signals extreme danger.

Reporter, Male #2
Every day, our people and the country awake to a new attack by the occupation. Palestinian cities, towns, and villages have become a range for attacks by the occupation's soldiers and settlers. In their eyes, everything has become permissible, and can be attacked. Recently, these racist attacks, which have affected the stones, the people, and even the trees, have greatly increased.

Guest, Male #3 (Wasel Abu Yousef, PLF Executive Committee Member)
The occupation's government is preparing for the upcoming elections on January 22nd. We expect that there will be an escalation of attacks, more than the ones we've been witnessing. Especially since Palestinian blood is a commodity in these elections, and every election, for the occupation. Therefore, we're looking for a strict stance from the international community to obligate this right-wing extremist government to abide by the principles of international law, human rights laws, and the Geneva convention, especially after recognizing the Palestinian state.

Reporter, Male #2
These attacks have escalated before the world's eyes without impunity, and have increased in their brutality and barbarity. They show the extent of the occupation's disrespect of laws, treaties, and international charters that guarantee the right to freedom, and the right of people to live a dignified life.

Guest, Male #4 (Ahmad Assaf, Fatah Spokesman)
We headed to the United Nations to receive member state status at the '67 borders. This means that this land is Palestinian by international approval. And this means that everything Israel has done on this land is void. Therefore, all these crimes committed by Israel, and all their endeavors and facilities here will be gone. As for these crimes, Israel will be held accountable for them, because we received membership status at the International Criminal Court. Because of that, Israel is terrified of the Palestinians heading to the United Nations.

Reporter, Male #2
International rights organizations noted that there were dozens of Israeli attacks on citizens and their property last month, especially over the last few days. As the election battle in Israel intensifies, the occupation's racist attacks continue here in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem. The attacks will not stop, and will continue if the international community does not put Israel in its place. From in front of the Beit El settlement, Haroun Omaira, Palestine TV.

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