CAIRO

Clashes in Tahrir Square leave at least four dead

Egyptian riot police fired volleys of tear gas and locked down Cairo’s Tahrir Square Friday as clashes broke out in a rare push by Islamist supporters of the ousted president to take control of the iconic square, leaving at least four dead.

With lines of armored vehicles and barbed wire, troops sealed off the square and diverted traffic after the Muslim Brotherhood, the group of ousted president Mohammed Morsi, called on its supporters to march there.

Thousands of Morsi’s supporters followed suit from different parts in the city, chanting “El-Sissi is the enemy of God” and “Down with the murderer!”

Those were references to Defense Minister Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, who forced Morsi from power on July 3 after millions took to the streets demanding the Islamist leader step down.

FLORENCE, Italy

Mobster says in Knox trial: My brother murdered Brit

A mobster has testified in Amanda Knox’s third trial in Italy, saying the U.S. student didn’t kill her British roommate and that it was his brother who did it.

Luciano Aviello’s testimony Friday at an appeals court marks the latest flip-flop by the convicted Mafioso.

Aviello testified previously that his brother killed Meredith Kercher in 2007, but later recanted. Neither the defense nor the prosecution view Aviello’s testimony as reliable, but Italy’s highest court said it should be revisited at the new appeals trial.

Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito were convicted in the murder, and then acquitted on appeal in 2011. Knox, who went home a free woman after her acquittal, hasn’t returned to Italy for her third trial.

ROME

Panel votes to remove Berlusconi from Senate

A Senate committee has recommended that Silvio Berlusconi lose his Senate seat due to his tax fraud conviction.

The committee’s vote on Friday was the focus of Italy’s latest political crisis. But the threat was removed when Premier Enrico Letta survived a confidence this week provoked by Berlusconi’s moves to topple the government.

The full Senate now must vote on whether to remove Berlusconi by Oct. 14.

ROME

Portrait in Swiss bank vault thought to one of da Vinci’s

A portrait of a woman believed to have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered in the vault of a Swiss bank, according to a report in the Italian media. But doubt exists over the piece’s authenticity and additional research still needs to be completed.

The piece was discovered amid a collection of hundreds of items belonging to an Italian family, according to a report in Italy’s Corrierre Della Serra.

The portrait is believed to be a finished version of a sketch by the artist that is now at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The sketch is believed to have been created between 1499 and 1500, according to the Louvre.

Experts told the newspaper that carbon dating places the painting’s creation between 1460 and 1650.