State-run Kuwait Airways will spend 850 million dinars ($2.98 billion) on 25 new Airbus jets and aims to lease a further 13 to upgrade its ageing fleet, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Sunday. Daily Al-Watan cited sources close to the decision-makers as saying that the airline would start receiving the new aircraft from Airbus, owned by aerospace and defense group EADS, from 2019. Kuwait Airways plans to buy 10 wide-bodied A350-900 jets and 15 of the slimmer A320neo, the newspaper said, adding that the deal would include support services. The airline also aims to lease 13 of the A330 and A320 models for six years, the paper said, without giving details of the leasing cost. "The sources made clear that the deal, which will be signed with Airbus very soon, is one contract that will include both the leased and purchased planes," the newspaper said. Kuwait Airways and Airbus were not immediately available for comment. Rival Boeing also made a bid, but the Airbus offer was deemed more attractive, Al-Watan said. More»

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati reiterated on Saturday his call for the international community to provide Lebanon with the promised assistance to confront the influx of Syrian refugees. Despite the promises and pledges made at the Kuwait donor meeting in January to provide Arab and international aid, "the Lebanese government has so far received limited support at a time when the number of the displaced is rising," Miqati said, according to a statement released by his media office. He said the government is incapable of meeting the demands of the refugees, urging the international community to prioritize the issue at a proposed international peace conference on Syria. "This issue is a top priority for the Lebanese government given its political, social, medical and security repercussions on Lebanon," said Miqati. UN figures show that there are now nearly 453,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon. More»

A senior Iranian oil industry official says the country’s gas production capacity will increase by 100 million cubic meters per day by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2014). “According to plans, the country’s gas production capacity will increase by 100 million cubic meters per day by the end of the year, a large part of which will be produced in South Pars [Gas & Oil Field] phases such as [phases] 12, 15 and 16,” Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qalebani said on Saturday. “South Pars will attract a total of USD 30 billion of investment in foreign currency and rials,” the Iranian official added. “Domestic producers play a major part in manufacturing and providing equipment for the petroleum industry; and today more than 70 percent of the required goods and equipment of many sectors are provided by Iranian manufacturers,” Qalebani said. More»

Syrian rebels have freed four Filipino U.N. peacekeepers who they had captured on the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last week, the Philippines' foreign minister said on Sunday. Al Jazeera English television, monitored in Dubai, quoted sources as saying the four had been transferred to Israel. Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario confirmed to Reuters in Manila that the four had been released. The ministry will issue a statement later in the day, he said. The rebel Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade had said they were holding the peacekeepers for their own safety after clashes in the area had put them in danger. There was no immediate word from the rebel group itself on Sunday. The four had been detained as they were patrolling close to an area where 21 Filipino observers were held for three days in March by the same group. An Israeli official in Jerusalem said: "From what I understand, they were returned to the U.N. position they were abducted from." More»

Twin car bombs killed 43 people and wounded many more in a Turkish town near the Syrian border on Saturday and the government said it suspected Syrian involvement. The bombing increased fears that Syria's civil war was dragging in neighboring states despite renewed diplomatic moves towards ending two years of fighting in which more than 70,000 people have been killed. The bombs ripped into crowded streets near Reyhanli's shopping district in the early afternoon, scattering concrete blocks and smashing cars in the town in Turkey's southern Hatay province, home to thousands of Syrian refugees. Restaurants and cafes were destroyed and body parts were strewn across the streets. The damage went at least three blocks deep from the site of the blasts. More»

More than 10,000 Israelis marched here late Saturday to protest a budget proposal submitted by Finance Minister Yair Lapid earlier this week. Meanwhile, similar protests of smaller scales were also held in other cities including Jerusalem, Haifa and Ashdod. The planned 2013-2014 budget, which is due for cabinet debate on Monday, is expected to raise workers' income tax by 1.5 percent while increasing Value-Added Tax (VAT) from 17 percent to 18 percent. Lapid has said the measures are needed to boost the country's economy while cutting its deficit of 11 billion U.S. dollars. But enraged protesters said the measures would heavily influence Israeli middle and lower classes. Carrying banners that read "Take from the tycoons, not us," demonstrators in Tel Aviv accused Lapid of betraying the middle-class Israelis who voted him into power. More»

Iran has withdrawn its ambassador in Cyprus to protest the country's decision to extradite an Iranian to the United States for prosecution, officials said Friday. The Cyprus Foreign Ministry said Iran objected to last month's extradition of Iranian Saeid Mohabat to the U.S. to face charges of breaching United Nations sanctions against Iran, and that Iran responded by recalling its ambassador on Wednesday "for consultations" in Tehran. Cyprus acted after one of its courts ruled there was enough evidence to indicate that Mohabat may have "committed serious offenses" and that authorities were therefore obligated to satisfy a U.S. extradition request under international law, the ministry said in a statement. Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Andreas Mavroyiannis told The Associated Press that Iran was displeased with the extradition but that Mohabat had received due process under the law. Government spokesman Christos Stylianides said Cyprus was "absolutely bound" to its international obligations. However, he expressed hope the issue won't harm his country's ties with Iran. More»

The UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has hailed a US-Russia commitment to work together to end the conflict in the country. He said it was "the first hopeful news" on Syria for a long time, but cautioned that it was "only a first step". On Tuesday, the US and Russia agreed to convene an international conference to find a political solution on Syria. US Secretary of State John Kerry said they would encourage both Damascus and the opposition to negotiate. The deal came after Mr Kerry's talks in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. 'Wake-up call' "This is the first hopeful news concerning that unhappy country in a very long time," Mr Brahimi said in a statement on Wednesday. "The statements made in Moscow constitute a very significant first step forward. It is nevertheless only a first step." More»

The United Nations established on Wednesday an office in Syria's central city of Homs, the first of its kind outside the capital Damascus with the aim of securing the flow of humanitarian help across Syria, the UN media and communication analyst told Xinhua Wednesday. In a phone call with Xinhua, Khaled al-Masri said the fresh step was carried out in coordination with the Syrian government and other international NGOs. He said the step also mirrored the UN's commitment to staying in Syria and to delivering humanitarian aids to all those in need across the country. The office in Homs is the first one to be established outside Damascus, al-Masri said, adding that other headquarters would be set up in other provinces within the next few months. He said the office was inaugurated Wednesday by a delegation of the UN that also met with the governor of Homs, Munir al-Ahmad, and discussed best ways to deliver relief aid to affected people. The office inauguration came also at a time the Syrian troops have advanced in the central town of al-Qussair near Homs on Wednesday and "fully" restored security to its southern outskirts and two towns at its northern rim, according to the state-run SANA news agency. More»

A top Iranian general said any arms Israel targeted in Syria did not come from the Islamic republic, in remarks published on the Revolutionary Guards website on Monday. Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri "denied Western and Israeli media reports that an Iranian weapons depot has been targeted in Syria," the website reported. "The Syrian government does not need Iran's military aid, and these sorts of reports are propaganda and psychological war," added the deputy chief of the armed forces. A senior Israeli source said the Jewish state carried out an air strike near Damascus before dawn on Sunday, targeting Iranian missiles destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah in the second such raid on Syria in three days. More»