Bananas thrown at Italy’s first black minister
ROME (Reuters) – Some of Italy’s top politicians on Saturday rallied behind the country’s first black minister, a target of racist slurs since her appointment in April, after a spectator threw bananas at her while she was making a speech.
Car bomb hits Turkish staff building in Somali capital, 3 dead: police
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – A car loaded with explosives rammed into the gates of an office housing Turkish embassy staff in the Somali capital, killing three people, witnesses and police said on Saturday, the latest in a series of blasts over the past two m…
Libyans vent anger at Islamists after activist’s shooting
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Protesters attacked offices of Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood and the headquarters of a liberal coalition on Saturday after demonstrations sparked by assassinations in the eastern city of Benghazi turned violent, witnesses said.
Israeli cabinet to weigh prisoner release before Palestinian talks
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet will consider releasing more than 100 Arab prisoners held by Israel in order to boost prospects for talks expected with the Palestinians in Washington next week, Israeli officials said o…
Death toll in twin suicide bombing in Pakistan rises to 52
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – The death toll from a pair of coordinated suicide bombs targeting Shi’ites in a volatile Pakistani town near the Afghan border rose to 52 overnight, officials said on Saturday, in one of the worst sectarian attacks in the…
Police fire tear gas to disperse protesters in Tunis
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisian police fired tear gas in front of the parliament building on Saturday, a Reuters reporter said, to disperse secular protesters demanding the dissolution of the assembly and Islamists defending the legitimacy of their rule.
Forced to flee war, many Malian refugees to miss vote
DAKAR/MANGAIZE, Niger (Reuters) – When Talhatou Hallahi Maiga heard that Malian officials had dispatched new ID cards to the desert north in preparation for Sunday’s presidential election, he slipped out of a refugee camp in neighboring Niger and went …
Hungarian PM urges ethnic kin, scattered by history, to unite
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, called on ethnic Hungarians around the world on Saturday to unite to build a strong nation, tapping into nostalgia for a country dismembered when Europe’s maps were re-drawn nearly a century …
U.N. and Syria say chemical arms talks were ‘productive’
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United Nations and Syria said on Saturday that negotiations between Damascus and the U.N. chemical weapons investigator were “productive”, but did not say if his team would be allowed to probe allegations that such weapons had be…
Egypt’s Mursi likely to go to same prison as Mubarak: minister
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, who has been accused of murder and other crimes, is likely to be transferred to the same Cairo prison where former leader Hosni Mubarak is now held, the interior minister said on Satur…