Israeli forces detain and then release US congressional candidate at West Bank harvest

Two women - a Swiss and an Austrian – have been freed after more than a year in captivity in Niger and handed over to authorities in the Libyan city of Benghazi. Austrian national Eva Gretzmacher, 76, and Swiss Claudia Abbt, 69, were kidnapped separately in the northern Nigerien city of Agadez in January and April last year. No details have been given about who was holding them or their demands, although some reports have previously linked the kidnapping to Islamic State militants. The circumstances of their release were not disclosed.

Top European diplomats will hold talks in Istanbul Friday with their counterparts from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt during a meeting initiated by Ankara, a Turkish foreign ministry source told the AFP news agency on Thursday. Foreign ministers from the so-called E3 group – Britain, France and Germany – will meet counterparts from the newly created R4 group to discuss the Palestinian issue, developments in Yemen and the Strait of Hormuz and ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war, the source said. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will host the meeting, the first to bring together the two groups.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, exiled former Tibetan leader Lobsang Sangay said any successor to the Dalai Lama appointed by China "is going to be a fake one". He also likened Beijing's ethnic unity law to "an ethnic erasure", said Tibetan concerns had been "downgraded a bit" in US-China talks and accused China of failing to warn of the deadly August floods on the Nepal-Tibet border.