The region: Abducted Lebanese pilgrim freed

Hussein Ali Omar, one of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria, was in Turkey on Saturday after being released, according to a representative for Turkey's foreign minister. "We are trying to get him to his country," the representative said. "We think our efforts may have helped." The Free Syrian Army has denied an allegation it was involved in the May abductions. The other 10 pilgrims are still being held. The development follows the kidnapping in Damascus of a Lebanese man, Hassan Salim Meqdad, by Syrian rebels who accused him of being a Hezbollah member. In response, Meqdad's brother, Hatem Meqdad, told Lebanon's state news agency that his family kidnapped 26 Syrians living in Lebanon. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, meanwhile, rejected claims that his country was shipping weapons to Syrian rebels in their quest to oust al-Assad, the Anadolu news agency reported. "These are the arguments which authoritarian regimes had always used to conceal their internal problems," Davutoglu told the NTV news channel, according to Anadolu. Davutoglu added, "No regime fighting its own people can survive long. (The al-Assad regime) has months, and maybe even weeks -- not years."