overpower
ed a Palestinian who'd forced his way into the building in an apparent bid for
asylum
. The Turkish foreign ministry said the man who, they say, was carrying a knife, a petrol can and a toy gun had tried to take their deputy consul hostage. The man is reported to have been injured. Wyre Davies reports from Jerusalem.
The Israeli foreign ministry which is
in touch with
Turkish authorities
initially
said the man had taken hostages, thought to be the Turkish consul general and his wife, although later reports said they'd managed to escape or had been released. The foreign ministry also named the suspected gunman as Nadim Injaz, a Palestinian from Ramallah in the West Bank, who tried to seek asylum at the British embassy in Tel Aviv in 2006, although his motives this time were unclear.
The Lebanese parliament has passed new legislation that for the first time grants Palestinian refugees living in the country the right to work legally.
Jim Muir reports from Beirut.
The law in its final form had been heavily
dilute
d to meet the concerns of Christians in particular, ever
wary of
any step that might lead to the permanent implantation of the Palestinians here. The law grants the Palestinians the right to work in the private sector. They will also be allowed to make social security payments into their own fund to cover work accidents and indemnities. But they won't be able to work in the public sector nor to practise professions which are governed by Lebanese syndicates such as doctors, lawyers, engineers and so on. Nor will they have the right to state educational or medical care.