ISLAMABAD

Americans join march protesting drone strikes

Thousands of Pakistanis joined by a group of U.S. anti-war activists headed toward Pakistan’s militant-riddled tribal belt Saturday to protest U.S. drone strikes – even as a Pakistani Taliban faction warned that suicide bombers would stop the demonstration.

The motorcade march was led by Imran Khan, an ex-cricket star-turned-populist politician who heads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Militants have dismissed Khan as a tool of the West despite his condemnations of the drone strikes, which have killed many Islamist insurgent leaders.

Pakistanis in small towns and villages along the roughly 250-mile route warmly welcomed the 150-plus vehicle convoy. Footage broadcast on Pakistani TV showed people showering rose petals on the motorcade. But by late Saturday, it appeared increasingly less likely the protesters would reach their ultimate destination, the South Waziristan tribal area, where they hoped to stage a major rally.

JERUSALEM

Israeli jets shoot down drone of unknown origin

Israel scrambled fighter jets to intercept a drone Saturday that crossed deep into Israeli airspace from the Mediterranean Sea, shooting the aircraft down over the country’s southern desert, the military said.

The incident marked the first time in at least six years that a hostile aircraft has penetrated Israel’s airspace, and Israeli officials said they were taking the incident seriously, raising the possibility of retaliatory action.

It was not immediately clear who launched the drone, but suspicion quickly fell on the Lebanese Islamic militant group Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed group is known to have sent drones into Israeli airspace on several previous occasions.

BEIRUT

Assad minister promises rebels will be ‘crushed’

Syria’s military will “crush” armed rebels, President Bashar Assad’s defense minister warned Saturday, as the regime shelled rebel positions in two cities and near the Lebanese border in a widening offensive.

Neighboring Turkey, meanwhile, set new rules of engagement after three shells from Syria hit Turkish territory Saturday. Turkey retaliated with artillery, as it has for the past four days, and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said this would now be the standard response.

Davutoglu insisted that “we haven’t taken a step toward war,” but Turkey’s threat to fire back for each errant Syrian shell was bound to keep border tensions high. Turkey is one of Assad’s harshest critics and a key supporter of Syria’s opposition.

The latest Syria-Turkey crisis erupted earlier this week, after a Syrian shell killed five civilians in a Turkish border town.

LONDON

Health secretary: 12 weeks should be limit for abortions

Britain’s new health secretary has said he favors reducing the limit for women to have abortions from 24 weeks of pregnancy to 12, reigniting a divisive political debate and sparking criticism from women’s rights activists Saturday.

Jeremy Hunt, who took up the job just a few weeks ago, said that after studying unspecified evidence he believed that 12 weeks was “the right point.” In an interview with the Times newspaper published Saturday, he said: “It is just my view about that incredibly difficult question about the moment that we should deem life to start.”

– From news service reports