Turkey shoots down Syrian plane it says violated air space
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish armed forces shot down a Syrian plane on Sunday that Ankara said had crossed into its air space in an area where Syrian rebels have been battling President Bashar al-Assad’s forces for control of a border crossing.
Assad cousin killed in Latakia clash with Syria rebels
BEIRUT (Reuters) – A cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was killed on Sunday in battles with Islamist rebels near the border with Turkey, activists and state media said.
Gunmen kill six in attack on Kenyan church
MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) – Gunmen shouting in a foreign language killed six worshippers in a church near the coastal city of Mombasa on Sunday, an attack of the kind that Islamist militants have been carrying out in retaliation for Kenya’s intervention…
Czech Communist hardliner jailed for abuse of power dies in Prague
PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech Communist hardliner Miroslav Stepan, one of the few top Communist leaders convicted for abuse of power after the Soviet-backed regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed in 1989, died on Sunday aged 68, local media reported.
Fake U.S. ship spotted in Gulf is a movie set, Iranian media say
DUBAI (Reuters) – A replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier spotted near the coast of Iran is nothing more sinister than a movie set, Iranian media said on Sunday.
Turkish PM Erdogan says rivals will be crushed
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, rallying hundreds of thousands of cheering supporters in Istanbul, said on Sunday that political enemies accusing him of corruption would be crushed by their own immorality.
Campaigning starts in Algeria election likely to re-elect Bouteflika
ALGIERS (Reuters) – Campaigning for Algeria’s election opened on Sunday with the man expected to win, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, starting his race not with a speech or a mass rally, but with a letter.
Venezuela prosecutor sees police ‘excesses’ in protest crackdown
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s top state prosecutor on Sunday said security forces had committed “excesses” in breaking up nearly two months of opposition protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro that have left at least 34 dead.
One dead in Beirut gunfight between Assad supporters and opponents
BEIRUT (Reuters) – One person was killed and 10 people were wounded in clashes in south Beirut on Sunday between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, security sources said.
Hamas rally in Gaza takes aim at Egypt, Israel and Abbas
GAZA (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied in Gaza on Sunday to show support for their Islamist Hamas government, which has long been at loggerheads with Israel but is now shunned by Egypt as well.
