Iran detains four journalists, three of them Iranian-American, says CPJ
ANKARA (Reuters) – (This story corrects name of UAE-based newspaper in para 2 to the National (not the Nation))
Georgia says seized heroin belongs to Taliban
TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia’s interior minister said on Friday that $400 million of heroin seized earlier this month, in the country’s biggest ever drugs haul, belonged to the Taliban and was headed for Europe.
Forensic team unable to say how South Korea ferry businessman died
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s forensic agency said on Friday it was impossible to determine the cause of death of a businessman linked to a ferry that sank killing 304 people in April because there was too much tissue damage to his badly decomposed b…
Turkey’s Erdogan trumpets high-speed rail link as election looms
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated a $4 billion high-speed train link between Istanbul and Ankara on Friday, the latest in a series of “mega projects” he hopes will help him win a presidential election in a few weeks…
Rival to UK PM Cameron in 2015 vote says can win despite poor image
LONDON (Reuters) – The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour party said on Friday he could win a national election next May, despite his perceived image problem, by focusing on big policy ideas rather than photo opportunities.
Indonesia’s Prabowo challenges election result at Constitutional Court
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s losing candidate in this month’s presidential election challenged the official result in the Constitutional Court on Friday.
Turkish court keeps police in custody on spying allegations
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A Turkish court ordered that eight police officers be kept in custody on Friday pending a possible trial over accusations that they spied on Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his inner circle, media reports said.
Wary Pakistan puts military in charge of capital’s security
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan is putting the military in charge of security in the capital, Islamabad, in case Pakistani Taliban militants try to launch attacks in response to an army offensive against them, the government said on Friday.
Two killed by car bomb blamed on separatists in southern Thailand
BANGKOK (Reuters) – A car bomb killed at least two people and injured 36 outside a hotel in southern Thailand on Friday, police said, the latest deadly attack in an area plagued by separatist violence for the past decade.
Australia to ship Tamil asylum seekers to its mainland
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia will transfer 157 Tamil asylum seekers it has been holding at sea for nearly a month to a mainland detention center, the immigration minister said on Friday, in an apparent setback for the government’s policies.
