RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – A Hamas leader and representatives of the Fatah-dominated PLO plan separate visits to Yemen to discuss Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s initiative to reconcile the rival Palestinian groups.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey plans to invest up to $12 billion in its impoverished, mainly Kurdish southeast region as part of efforts to drain support for separatist PKK rebels, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) – Hundreds of students burnt tires and blocked roads in the eastern Pakistani city of Multan on Wednesday in protest at the reprinting in Danish newspapers of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad last month.