LONDON: British Airways suspended flights to Cairo for seven days starting Saturday as a precaution to allow for an assessment of security there, the airline said in a statement.
“We constantly review our security arrangements at all our airports around the world, and have suspended flights to Cairo for seven days as a precaution to allow for further assessment,” the statement said.

LONDON: The Iranian coast guard forced an Algerian tanker to head into Iranian waters on Friday before a confrontation ended, the Algerian state oil and gas company Sonatrach said. 
Algeria’s state-run news agency APS, quoting Sonatrach, said Saturday the empty tanker “MESDAR” was forced into Iranian waters Friday night as it moved through the Strait of Hormuz.
An emergency hotline between Algeria’s energy and foreign ministries was quickly put into place and the incident concluded an hour and 15 minutes later. APS quoted Sonatrach as saying that “no human or material incident was registered.”
It said that the tanker was heading to Tanura in Saudi Arabia to onload oil for the Chinese company UNIPEC when it was forced into Iranian territorial waters.

ERBIL: Iraqi Kurdish authorities announced Saturday they had arrested two suspects involved in the murder of three people, including a Turkish diplomat, in the regional capital Erbil this week.
The autonomous region’s security council first said its counterterrorism unit had arrested “the main perpetrator” Mazloum Dag, a 27-year-old from Turkey’s Diyarbakir region.
The council had put out a wanted notice for Dag a day earlier in connection to Wednesday’s killing of Turkish Vice Consul Osman Kose and two Iraqi nationals.
It later announced it had also arrested Mohammad Biskesiz, identifying him as “one of the accomplices of Mazloum Dag”.
It did not specify Biskesiz’s nationality or whether he was apprehended with Dag or separately.
Turkey’s Anadolu state news agency said Dag is the brother of Dersim Dag, a member of Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party, the People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
The HDP, the country’s second largest opposition group, is regularly accused by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of links to Turkey’s outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The HDP “strongly” condemned the Erbil attack, calling it an “absolutely unacceptable provocation attempt”.
It also slammed the accusation that one of its deputies was “designated as a target because of his brother”, without mentioning any names.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Ankara on Thursday launched a “comprehensive air operation” against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Qandil mountain area.
Since May, Turkey has been conducting a ground offensive and bombing campaign against Qandil to root out the PKK, considered a “terror organisation” by Ankara for its three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
Other air strikes Thursday night targeted “PKK bases and members” in the Makhmur area south of Iraq’s northern city of Mosul, wounding two in a displacement camp, local sources told AFP.
The attack on Wednesday saw at least one gunman with two pistols fire on a group of diplomats in a restaurant in Erbil.
Kose and one Iraqi died Wednesday, while the second Iraqi succumbed to his wounds overnight.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia sent a crew member of an Iranian ship to Oman on Saturday.
The sailor had previously been evacuated from the ship off the Yemeni port of Hodeidah for medical reasons.
After receiving necessary medical treamtent in Jazan, the Iranian citizen was sent to Oman after Saudi Arabia received an Iranian request through the Swiss embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Press Agency reported.
Saudi Arabia said in June it had evacuated a crew member for medical reasons from a “suspect” Iranian ship — “Safiz” — northwest of Hodeidah after Riyadh received a request for help from Tehran.

BEIRUT: Retired Lebanese soldiers on Friday came close to clashing with the country’s army when weeks of protests over planned benefit cuts reached boiling point in the capital Beirut.
Dressed in military uniforms, large numbers of veterans attempted to force their way through barricades set up to stop demonstrators reaching the city’s parliament building where a final vote on a controversial draft austerity budget was taking place.
A military source told Arab News that the Lebanese army leadership had decided to block access to Najma Square, in Beirut’s Central District, where Parliament members were sitting.
But former soldiers, joined by the parents of army martyrs and activists from the Sabaa and Communist parties, surrounded the building in nearby streets before attempting to push through barbed wire, concrete and metal barriers erected by the Lebanese army and the Internal Security Forces.
The protesters, waving Lebanese and army flags, got as far as the entrance to Maarad Street, on which Parliament is located, putting them in direct confrontation with the Lebanese troops.
Ten brigades of reinforcements were drafted in to help push back the veterans before protest leaders eased tensions by calling for a retreat to a nearby square to avoid any further clashes.
The meeting to vote on the 2019 draft budget came after a marathon three days of discussions. Before entering the parliamentary session, Lebanese Minister of Defense Elias Bou Saab said that “misleading the retired soldiers” would be “harmful to the image and demands of the protesters” and called on them to carry out “peaceful demonstrations.” He added that there had been mixed and confused messages regarding benefit cuts.
However, retired Brig. Gen. Georges Nader had vowed that protesters would not back off until the vote on their benefits was dropped.
Discussing the protests in Parliament, Samy Gemayel, president of the Phalange party, objected to the reduction in the army budget, to which Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said: “This has been concluded on the bases of an understanding with the army and the military establishment.”
MP Paula Yacoubian said that “retired soldiers are trying to storm Parliament,” to which Berri said: “Those who want to storm Parliament have not yet been born.”
The row had centered on a controversial article concerning amendments to the country’s income tax act, and Lebanese Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil insisted on defending it. He said: “It does not cost the retired soldiers, for instance, more than 3,000 Lebanese pounds ($2) per month. This amount rises to 400,000 pounds for brigadiers.” He added: “Which country in the world gives a retiree 85 percent of his salary?”
After a meeting between the minister and Nader in Parliament, the retired brigadier general went out to reassure the veterans that cuts from their salaries in respect of medicine and income tax would be reduced. Less intense protests continued for more than three hours before Parliament approved the relevant article in the budget.
Meanwhile, Berri had started the Parliament session by reading a resignation submitted by Hezbollah MP Nawaf Musawi.