JENIN (Ma’an) -- Israel's army arrested a Hamas leader Saturday in the occupied West Bank, prisoners advocates said.

Khaled Al-Haj, 45, was passing through a military checkpoint at the entrance of Araba when he was arrested, the Ahrar prisoners center said. Al-Haj served as a spokesman for Hamas, and he was recently released from prison. Soldiers had apparently installed the checkpoint to catch Al-Haj, specifically, the center said in a statement. Another person whose identity was not known was also taken to an unknown location, the prisoners group said. Al-Haj is considered a prominent party official. He served as the movement's spokesman in Jenin and represented Hamas in the factional coordinating committee that eventually led to a unity deal last week. He has spent years in Israeli custody, including three without charge under Israel's "administrative detention" policy. It allows Israel to jail Palestinians for six-month periods which can be extended.

In first public appearance since leaving post as Mossad chief, Meir Dagan warns of regional war if Iran is attacked; says fall of Assad regime would benefit Israel.

Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan referred to the possibility a future Israeli Air Force attack on Iranian nuclear facilities as "the stupidest thing I have ever heard" during a conference held at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Friday. Dagan said that Iran has a clandestine nuclear infrastructure which functions alongside its legitimate, civil infrastructure. It is the legitimate infrastructure, he said, that is under international supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Any strike on this legitimate infrastructure would be "patently illegal under international law," according to Dagan.

A deadly mutiny between an insurgent inmate and police officers at a Baghdad interior ministry jail complex has claimed lives of eight policemen and 10 detainees.

The mutiny began when Hodayfa al-Batawi, the mastermind of Baghdad's deadly church siege in October 2010, snatched an officer's gun in the middle of an interrogation and killed his interrogator, AFP reported on Sunday. He then released a group of fellow inmates, who made their way to the office of head of counter-terrorism for Baghdad's central Karrada district Moayed al-Saleh and shot him dead. They later discovered a cache of weapons and grenades.

Among the eight policemen killed in Sunday's incident was a lieutenant colonel and two first lieutenants, a senior counter-terrorism official said on condition of anonymity. "This cell, which was dismantled in November, was accused of a large number of terrorist operations -- not just the one against the church," the official said. According to the official, six other people were wounded in the fighting at the interior ministry detention facility, but he did not elaborate more on the matter. The security reinforcements, however, killed the group of five when the insurgents stormed out of the prison in order to escape.

Washington Post: 17 killed in clashes at Iraq security HQ when al-Qaida detainees overpower guards

Beirut, Lebanon: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement that security forces have killed at least 800 civilians since protests erupted in Syria, Reuters reported on Saturday.

The organization also said that it has the names of the 800 people, adding that 220 of them were killed in attacks by the Syrian army in Daraa. This is substantially higher than the number reported by the Syrian revolution 2011 the Facebook group which has emerged as the organizing force behind the demonstrations. It reported yesterday that 683 protesters have been killed so far by the Syrian security forces since the unrest started. The protests started on March 15 in the southern Syrian town of Daraa and had since spread to most of the Syrian cities.

Greece is not the only country in Europe with problems with credit and debt.

NYT: Greek Leader Irked by Speculation on Debt
MotherJones: Neither Ireland nor Greece will ever be able to make good on their debts