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Syria's state-run media says UN chief encourages militant attacks
• BEIRUT (AP) -- A Syrian government newspaper says U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is encouraging militant attacks by focusing his criticism on the government.
• Saturday's editorial in the state-run Tishrin daily comes a day after Ban said Syrian President Bashar Assad's continued crackdown on protests has reached an "intolerable stage."
• Tishrin says Ban has avoided talks about rebel violence in favor of "outrageous" attacks on the Syrian government.
• The Syrian capital was hit by four explosions Friday that left at least 11 people dead and dozens wounded.
• Assad's government blamed the blasts on "terrorists," the term the government uses to describe opposition forces that it says are carrying out a foreign conspiracy.
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Muslims revive pilgrimage route via Jerusalem after decades of shying away, defying ban
• JERUSALEM (AP) -- After decades of shying away from an ancient pilgrimage route, Muslims are visiting Jerusalem to pray at Islam's third-holiest site, the revered Al-Aqsa mosque.
• In doing so, they find themselves caught in a disagreement between some leading Muslim clerics, who oppose such pilgrimages, and Palestinian leaders who encourage them as evidence of the city's Muslim credentials.
• Palestinians say the only Arab visitors have been officials from Arab countries that have peace treaties with Israel. Recent trips here by a top Egyptian cleric and a Jordanian prince sparked angry backlashes in their home countries.
• The vast majority of the pilgrims are from non-Arab countries like South Africa, Malaysia and India, where the stigma of visiting Israeli-controlled areas isn't as powerful.
• "Jerusalem is a beautiful place," said Ali Akbar, 51, a Shiite Muslim who was visiting recently with a group of 40 pilgrims from Mumbai, India. "All Muslims should try to come to Jerusalem and pray and seek the blessings of Allah, the almighty," Akbar said.
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