Gunmen abduct two Turkish Airlines staff in Beirut
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Gunmen abducted two Turkish Airlines pilots in Beirut on Friday, forcing them from an airport bus in the early hours of the morning and prompting Turkey to urge its citizens to leave Lebanon.
Comedy of errors engulfs Israel’s top economic team
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was starting a meeting with his team of Middle East peace negotiators last week when Leo Leiderman, his second choice to lead the Bank of Israel, called.
Kremlin says no deal reached with Saudi on changing Syria stance
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has not made an agreement with Saudi Arabia to scale back support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in exchange for economic incentives including an arms deal, the Kremlin said on Friday.
Military plane bursts into flames at Mogadishu airport
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – An Ethiopian military aircraft carrying ammunition crash-landed at Mogadishu’s international airport on Friday, bursting into flames and killing four of the six crew members.
Benin president dismisses entire government
COTONOU (Reuters) – Benin President Boni Yayi sacked his entire government on Friday “to breathe a new dynamic” into the 26-member cabinet, a statement from his office said.
Turkish president urges restraint in Egyptian crisis
CAIRO (Reuters) – Turkish President Abdullah Gul appealed to Egypt’s army-installed government on Friday to return the country swiftly to democratic rule and allow all parties to take part in the political process.
Italian government in new row over housing tax
ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s economy minister has warned against scrapping an unpopular housing tax, stirring a new row in the shaky left-right coalition over the levy which Silvio Berlusconi’s center right wants abolished.
Thailand arrests suspected leader of human trafficking gang
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai authorities have captured the suspected leader of a human trafficking gang, who confessed to selling some migrants from Myanmar into slavery on Thai fishing boats and possibly murdering as many as seven, a Thai official said on…
Gunmen in Pakistan kill nine in attack at mosque on Muslim holiday
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Violence marred the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Fitr in Pakistan on Friday with gunmen killing nine people in the city of Quetta while a guard in the capital Islamabad shot dead a would-be suicide bomber forcing his way into …
Analysis: Peru’s protesters shake up politics, challenge Humala
LIMA (Reuters) – The biggest political protests in Peru’s capital in more than a decade have pressured President Ollanta Humala to clean up government and share the benefits of the country’s decade-long economic boom.
