Qatar rift is pivotal test for disunited Gulf families
RIYADH/KUWAIT (Reuters) – A breach between Qatar and some of its Gulf Arab neighbors is a pivotal test for a three-decade-old union of monarchies formed to stand united when threatened by common enemies.
Abbas cuts salaries of Fatah rival’s security men
GAZA (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Abbas has halted salary payments to scores of security men loyal to a rival Palestinian politician, deepening disarray within their U.S.-backed Fatah faction, officials said on Thursday.
Niger extradites Gaddafi’s son Saadi to Libya
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saadi, his special forces commander who fled abroad during Libya’s 2011 revolution, was imprisoned in Tripoli on Thursday after Niger agreed to send him back from house arrest there.
Iraqi minister’s son misses flight, forces plane back: airline
BEIRUT (Reuters) – A passenger plane flying from Lebanon to Iraq on Thursday turned back after the Iraqi transport minister’s son missed the flight and phoned Baghdad to stop the aircraft from landing, Middle East Airlines (MEA) said.
Fire breaks out at Bangladesh garments factory, no casualties
DHAKA (Reuters) – A fire broke out at garment factory in the Bangladeshi capital on Thursday but no one was in the building at the time and there were no casualties, a police official said.
South Africa graft watchdog to release Zuma report March 19
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s main anti-corruption watchdog said on Thursday it would release its report into a $21 million state-funded security upgrade to President Jacob Zuma’s private home on March 19, less than two months before a genera…
China apprehending boats weekly in disputed South China Sea
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese patrols enforcing disputed new fishing rules in the South China Sea are apprehending foreign boats on a weekly basis, Communist Party officials said on Thursday.
Germany offers fund to defuse Greek war reparation claims
ATHENS (Reuters) – German President Joachim Gauck dismissed Greek demands for compensation for Nazi-era crimes during a symbolic visit to Greece on Thursday, and instead offered to set up a new fund to remind Germans of their past.
Top Turkish court backs ex-army chief’s bid for release
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s constitutional court ruled on Thursday in favor of former military chief Ilker Basbug’s appeal against his detention on a life sentence for plotting against the government, saying his right to freedom had been violated.
Qatar ‘will not bow to pressure to alter foreign policy’
DOHA (Reuters) – Qatar will not bow to demands from three Gulf states to alter its foreign policy, sources close to its government said, suggesting Doha is unlikely to abandon support for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Syrian Islamists.
