Yemen asks U.S. for drones to fight al Qaeda
SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen has asked the United States to supply it with drones, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said on Thursday, to help it fight an al Qaeda threat that recently forced Western countries to temporarily close diplomatic missions in Sana…
Greek PM meets billionaire Saudi prince to discuss investments
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras met Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal on Thursday to discuss investment opportunities, government officials said, as Athens pushes for foreign investment for its depressed economy.
British phone hacking trial delayed until end of October
LONDON (Reuters) – The trial of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, former editors of British tabloids owned by Rupert Murdoch who face charges relating to phone hacking and illegal payments to public officials, was delayed on Thursday until the end of Oc…
Tunisian Islamists accept union plan to resolve crisis
TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s governing Islamists edged closer to negotiations with secular opponents on Thursday by agreeing in principle to a plan for a transition toward new elections proposed by the powerful trade unions.
Kazakh tycoon sought by Russia, Ukraine to stay in French jail
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) – Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of embezzling up to $6 billion from his former bank, was denied release on bail from a French jail on Thursday while he awaits a decision on whether he will be extradited.
Egypt’s Mubarak flown from prison to hospital: sources
CAIRO (Reuters) – Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was flown from prison to a nearby hospital on Thursday, officials said, after judicial authorities ordered his release from jail.
PM pledges to spare crisis-hit Greeks from home foreclosures
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras pledged on Thursday banks would not seize the homes of borrowers unable to pay their mortgages, seeking to soothe fears that plans to lift a ban on repossessions will make thousands homeless.
Mugabe, 89, sworn in for five more years as Zimbabwe’s president
HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Africa’s oldest leader at 89, was sworn in on Thursday for a new five-year term in the face of criticism from opponents and the West that his re-election in a July vote was not credible.
Feature: Web-based apps pose tricky problem for Saudi monitors
DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia is seeking to tighten control over web-based applications that offer a freedom to communicate that is impossible for most Saudis in the real world, and may even seek to ban such apps altogether.
Election ads put Merkel in focus while rivals hide their man
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats will focus their TV advertising campaign on Chancellor Angela Merkel while the opposition Social Democrats put ordinary people in their ads and all but ignore their struggling candidate, Pee…




