TRIPOLI/MADRID - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi vowed to attack "homes, offices and families" in Europe in revenge for NATO airstrikes but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said he should quit instead of issuing threats.
- - - -
BEIRUT - President Bashar al-Assad sacked the governor of Hama province on Saturday, a day after tens of thousands of protesters massed in the provincial capital to demand the Syrian leader step down.
- - - -
CARACAS - Anxious Venezuelans debated on Saturday how long President Hugo Chavez could take to recover after a cancer operation, despite government assurances the socialist leader will be fit to run for re-election next year.
- - - -
MANAMA - Talks between Bahrain's opposition and pro-government groups began on Saturday, aimed at healing deep rifts opened when the state's Sunni rulers crushed protests led by the majority Shi'ites earlier this year.
- - - -
RABAT - Morocco's "Arab Spring" protesters said they were undeterred despite a landslide victory for King Mohammed in a referendum on constitutional changes they say do nothing to ease his autocratic grip on power.
- - - -
ADEN/SANAA - A powerful tribal leader in southern Yemen has called for talks between the army and suspected Islamist militants who have seized control of a provincial capital as a political crisis in Yemen drags on.
- - - -
RAMALLAH - President Mahmoud Abbas urged Hamas on Saturday to relent in a dispute over the formation of unity government for the Palestinians, saying their bid to become a U.N. member state in September was at stake.
- - - -
AMMAN - Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit announced a cabinet reshuffle on Saturday following resignations of three ministers over a corruption scandal and draft laws that place curbs on press freedoms, officials said.
- - - -
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama pressed his case on Saturday for achieving deficit reduction, in part by ending tax breaks and singling out hedge fund managers, oil companies and billionaires to take the hit.
- - - -
MOSCOW - Russia's power group InterRAO has resumed electricity supplies to Belarus on Saturday, the company's spokesman said, ending nearly four days of power cuts over unpaid bills.
- - - -
ABUJA - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan reappointed 12 ministers from the outgoing government to their old jobs on Saturday following general elections in April, including oil minister Deziani Alison-Madueke.
- - - -
BANGKOK - Political campaigning in Thailand drew to a close on Saturday, taking a day to cool off before an election which could exacerbate the country's six-year-old political crisis just as easily as end it.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
