Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

A new poll shows that US President Barack Obama's approval rating has dropped to a record low of 46 percent over controversial domestic policies.

The survey conducted by the Gallup indicates Obama's popularity among Democratic supporters has been affected by doubts about his domestic policy.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Moscow next week for a Middle East quartet meeting and sideline negotiations about Iran.

The quartet, which includes the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, will meet on March 19 to address a self-proclaimed goal of reviving peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says Tehran seeks to establish and fortify unity among Palestinians against Israel.

Mehmanparast on Saturday dismissed remarks by acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas who claimed that Iran was impeding reconciliation talks between his Fatah group and the Hamas resistance movement.

Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement has condemned the new Israeli plan to build 1,600 new Jewish homes in the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.

The movement warned that the project seeks demographic changes in the occupied territories.

Brazil has highlighted Iran's role in the region, reiterating that Tehran must be part of a solution to any conflict in the Middle East.

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said in an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz that "new ideas" from all key players in the Middle East are needed to resolve issues in the sensitive region including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

US President Barack Obama has convened his war cabinet with top military and intelligence officials to get an update on the US-led occupation of Afghanistan.

Obama was briefed on the latest situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan by his top aides during the Friday session in the so-called 'Situation Room' of the White House.

Egyptian police have arrested several members of the country's main opposition group, al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper website reports.

About 50 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, returning from Friday Prayers, staged rallies in five major Egyptian cities to protest the decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex Muslim holy sites to the Jewish heritage.

Tehran lays out its foreign policy objectives for the new Iranian year, citing the nuclear issue, atomic disarmament and broader diplomatic ties as major priorities.

"Global disarmament will definitely be on the agenda for the country's diplomatic body this coming year [which begins on March 21]," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told ILNA on Friday.

A member of the Iraqiya List, a secular alliance of former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, says the bloc may break up after the release of legislative election results.

Jamal al-Battikh told US-funded Radio Sawa that a number of the bloc members may leave the alliance after they win seats on the council of representatives.

Human Rights organizations have demanded that Washington drop military charges against a Guantanamo Bay detainee captured by the Americans at the age of 15.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Human Rights Watch, and Juvenile Law Center organizations have issued a joint letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, urging the release of Omar Khadr, a Canadian national arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 for allegedly throwing a grenade at a US army officer.