Libyans vote for constitution body amid bombs, tensions
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Explosions rocked five polling stations in eastern Libya on Thursday as voters began electing a body to draft a new constitution, another step in the OPEC producer’s rocky transition since Muammar Gaddafi fell in 2011.
Italy votes to phase out public financing of political parties
ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s parliament passed a law on Thursday that will phase out state financing of political parties, in response to public anger over its high cost and the tendency for it to breed waste and corruption.
Ex-Murdoch editor Brooks launches hacking defense, acquitted on one charge
LONDON (Reuters) – Rebekah Brooks’s meteoric rise to wield vast power from the pinnacle of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper empire should not be held against her when jurors decide whether she is guilty of phone-hacking, her lawyer told a London cour…
Two killed in Lebanon as Palestinian named as suicide bomber
TRIPOLI/BEIRUT, Lebanon (Reuters) – Two people were killed in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Thursday including a military commander from the Alawite minority shot dead on his way to work, security sources said, the latest spasm of violence linked to …
Activists who backed Mursi’s fall turn against military
CAIRO (Reuters) – Their campaign against Islamist President Mohamed Mursi helped the army topple Egypt’s first freely elected leader, but some leaders of the Tamarud movement have broken away, saying the military threatens democracy.
Support for Scottish independence rises after London warns on pound
LONDON (Reuters) – Support for Scottish independence has risen after Britain’s three main political parties warned the Scots they would not be able to keep the pound if they left the United Kingdom, the first opinion poll following those comments showe…
Four die during Saudi police raid to arrest wanted people
DUBAI (Reuters) – Two Saudi security officers and two people they were trying to detain were killed in a gunfight on Thursday in the eastern town of al-Awamiya, the government said, an area where minority Shi’ite Muslims have staged regular anti-govern…
Coach blast knocks back Egypt’s tourism recovery
FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) – The bombing of a coach carrying Korean holidaymakers in the Sinai peninsula on Sunday has dealt Egyptian tourism a hammer blow, just as it was attempting a fragile recovery from three years of political upheaval.
Nigeria suspends anti-graft central bank governor
LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan suspended Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi on Thursday, removing an increasingly outspoken critic of the government’s record on tackling rampant corruption in Africa’s leading energy producer.
Spain sets economy above human rights says pioneering judge
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s most famous human rights investigator Baltasar Garzon has accused his country of seeking to curb judges’ powers to pursue rights abusers around the world in order to avoid diplomatic tension and damage to trade ties.
