Sarkozy allies see campaign scandal scuppering comeback
PARIS (Reuters) – Members of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s opposition UMP party are warning that he is too much of a political liability for victory in 2017 as a funding scandal over his 2012 election campaign escalates.
Israel kills Palestinian teen in escalating West Bank arrest raids
HEBRON West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli troops killed a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank on Friday and arrested 25 people, pursuing a crackdown on Islamist militants and house-to-house searches for three Israeli teenagers who went missing ei…
NATO unlikely to grant Georgia step to membership: diplomats
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO countries, wary of antagonizing Russia, are unlikely to grant former Soviet republic Georgia a formal step towards membership of the alliance at a summit in September, NATO diplomats say.
Albanian village gains peace, loses livelihood as cannabis burns
LAZARAT Albania (Reuters) – Albanian police declared victory on Friday over drug producers who for more than 15 years had run the southern village of Lazarat as a personal fief, churning out marijuana on an industrial scale untouched by the NATO member…
President Karzai says U.N. should intervene in Afghan vote count
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai said on Friday that he was in favour of the United Nations intervening in the presidential election after one of the candidates dropped out of the process over allegations of mass fraud.
Nigeria says more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls still missing
ABUJA (Reuters) – More than 200 of the Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militant group Boko Haram are still missing, an official said on Friday, more than two months after a brazen and brutal kidnapping in the northeast.
Estonia PM calls for permanent NATO presence as bulwark to Russia
BERLIN (Reuters) – Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas urged NATO on Friday to establish a permanent presence in the Baltic state in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, telling his allies to “open your eyes and stay awake”.
Poland’s justice ministry says prosecutors erred in raid on magazine
WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish prosecutors made mistakes in the way they searched the offices of the Wprost news magazine looking for leaked tapes whose publication has embarrassed the government, the Justice Ministry said on Friday.
Saudi king’s visit to Cairo shows support for Sisi
CAIRO (Reuters) – A rare visit to Egypt by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, expected in Cairo on Friday evening, underlines the strong support the aging monarch is showing for new president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Kenya attacks undermine plans for east African trade hub
LAMU Kenya (Reuters) – The latest in a string of militant attacks on Kenya’s coast has dealt a fresh blow to the economy, but the threat this time goes beyond the tourist trade to an ambitious $25.5 billion port and transport scheme next to the histori…
