There is fresh tension on the ceasefire line in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Syria says its troops have destroyed an Israeli vehicle which crossed into its territory.

Tel Aviv has denied the report, saying a vehicle was hit by gunfire on its side of the ceasefire line. Israel also says that it returned fire after the incident.

To put this into context, Juan Cole at Informed Comment writes:

“The Increasingly desperate Baath regime in Syria appears to be seeking skirmishes with Israel as a way of shoring up its nationalist credentials. If the regime were under fire from Israel, that would put the rebels in the position of acting as allies of Tel Aviv and so discrediting them.”

Not only is Iran one of the few remaining countries that have the death penalty, their method is a throw-back to another time. Hanging.

From Payvand:

In an interview with Rooz, Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson for the Iran Human Rights Organization, a group that tracks and documents executions and death sentences in Iran predicted that executions would rise in Iran until about two weeks prior to the presidential election day, currently set for June 14.

These individuals, whose names have been formally announced, were all executed on charges related to drug offences. Most executions in Iran are announced to be related to drug issues.

Read the rest of the article here.

From BBC:

A Saudi woman has made history by reaching the summit of the world’s highest mountain.

Raha Moharrak, 25, not only became the first Saudi woman to attempt the climb but also the youngest Arab to make it to the top of Everest.

She is part of a four-person expedition that also includes the first Qatari man and the first Palestinian man attempting to reach the summit.

They are trying to raise $1m (£660,000) for education projects in Nepal.

Originally from Jeddah, Ms Moharrak is a university graduate currently based in Dubai.

Coming from Saudi Arabia – a conservative Muslim country where women’s rights are very restricted – she had to break a lot of barriers to achieve her goal, her climb team said.

A biography on the expedition website said convincing Ms Moharrak’s family to agree to her climb “was as great a challenge as the mountain itself”, though they fully support her now.

“I really don’t care about being the first,” she is quoted as saying. “So long as it inspires someone else to be second.”

A Saudi preacher is among 14 Muslim scholars from across the globe who will visit the former Nazi Auschwitz death camp in southern Poland next week as part of a Holocaust awareness and anti-genocide program, organizers said yesterday.
“This is an opportunity for imams who are influential in their communities to look at the Holocaust first hand and to go to Auschwitz, to see what that kind of hatred led to,” Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told AFP yesterday.

“It’s to make sure that civilization doesn’t fail again.”

Read the rest of the story here.

The ancient monasteries and statues in Mes Aynak are under threat from a Chinese company which plans to develop the area in order to tap into the world’s second largest copper deposit.

Many fear the $3bn mining contract, Afghanistan’s biggest commercial deal, will lead to the destruction of thousands-of-years old heritage sites.

Al Jazeera’s Jennifer Glasse reports from Mes Aynak.

Source: Al Jazeera

Alexander writes:

Clearly, and rightly, the Israel/Palestine conflict is the source of much anger, hostility, destruction, violence — and it provokes many people to speak out. With much emotion, too.

So, my involvement with OneVoice, along with my support for FIDF has been a source of emotional response, to say the least. Since Twitter is a poor forum for intelligent discussion and since most of the people spewing at me are not interested in intelligent discussion, I will offer only this one response and then I really don’t intend to respond to individual praise or assault in this venue.

There is only one possible outcome of this conflict that won’t be completely tragic – two states for two people. Israel is not going away, regardless of what you feel about it’s legitimacy, it’s values, it’s people. And Palestine is not going away, regardless of what you feel about it’s legitimacy, values or people. You can scream and yell and fight until time itself ends, but they will both be there in the end. Or worse, unthinkably – neither will be there.

So, logically and humanely – there must be two states, independent and free, secure, with good resources, capable of sustaining it’s people and upon which a real future can be built.

Read the rest of the article at Twitlong.

Read about it here, here,  and for the perspective from the boy’s father, here.

Read the article here.

Boko Haram primarily operates in the Northern part of Nigeria. Nigeria is evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. Most of the Muslims are in the North and most of the Christians are in the South.