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A privately-owned political daily hit Syrian newsstands on Sunday, hailing its arrival as a first in this tightly-controlled country for decades.
The editor of Al-Watan ('the homeland' in Arabic) said it was "neither an opposition paper nor a state-controlled daily.
"We do not belong to any movement, we do not express the points of view of any party," Waddah Abed Rabbo wrote in an editorial, adding that it was the first private political daily to appear in Syria for more than 40 years.
The front page covered a visit to the paper's offices by Information Minister Mohsen Bilal and Economy Minister Amer Lotfi, as well as news from Iraq, Lebanon and on sports.
A cartoon in the first edition shows Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora seated on the knees of US President George W. Bush and asking Syria and Iran "not to interfere in Lebanon's affairs".
Abed Rabbo also owns the economic daily Al-Iqtissadiya ('the economic') launched in 2001, while a privately-owned weekly, Abiad wa Asswad ("white and black'), has been on sale since 2002.
But an independent satirical paper, Addomari, which came out in 2001, was closed down by the authorities two years later after publishing articles critical of the domestic situation.
rm/hc/cjo
Syria-media
AFP 051427 GMT 11 06
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