Akintunde Oluwatobiloba

Nearly 100 mayors from the pro-Kurdish HDP party have been removed from office and replaced by government trustees.  Ankara, Turkey - As local election day looms on Sunday, voting for mayors and municipal councils has an added significance for one corner of Turkey. The Kurdish-majority southeast has seen nearly a hundred mayors removed from office in recent years and replaced with government-appointed trustees known as "kayyum". While this move has widely been decried as an affront to democracy, some local residents have said the trustees have brought improved services and greater security to the region. The disbarred mayors all belonged to the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and were forced out after peace talks between the government and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) broke down in July 2015. Ankara claimed they were funnelling public resources to the group, which is deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey and the West. Hundreds of HDP...

President Bouteflika's decision not to seek another term has failed to calm protesters who want overthrow of old system. Thousands of protesters gathered in central Algiers on Friday, piling pressure on President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika to resign days after the country's powerful military called for his removal. The army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah, had on Tuesday asked the constitutional council to rule whether the ailing 82-year-old president is fit for office. Bouteflika, facing the biggest crisis of his 20-year-old rule, has failed to placate Algerians by reversing a decision to seek a fifth term. "Streets pressure will continue until the system goes," said student Mohamed Djemai, 25. Protesters, who have been staging demonstrations since February 22, say they want to overthrow an entire political system and replace it with a new generation of leaders capable of modernising the oil-dependent state and giving hope to a...

Some in Kharkiv see Ukrainian government as "illegitimate" and will not vote in Sunday's presidential elections. Kharkiv, Ukraine –  There has long been a sense of separation in Ukraine, with the east closer to Russia and the west having more affinity with Europe.  In Kharkiv, that split deepened five years ago. As  Kiev celebrated the ouster of the country's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich in 2014, a large portion of people in Kharkiv – just 30km from the Russian border – felt threatened. Pro-European demonstrations born in 2013 on Kiev's Independence Square - known as the Maidan protests – were copied in the country's second largest city, but the croweds were never more than about 300 people. In contrast, a sprawling pro-Russian protest camp occupied the central square in 2014 with Russian flags on display. "Many Kharkiv residents took it [the ouster of Yanukovich] as a coup because more than 60 percent of the popul...

Turkish foreign minister says Ankara will go ahead with the purchase of the missile system despite US sanctions threat. Turkey's government on Friday rejected US pressure over its deal to buy Russian missiles, saying Ankara was already in talks over delivery of the S-400 defence system. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has riled Turkey's NATO allies, especially the United States, by purchasing the Russian arms system and by drawing closer to Russia's President Vladimir Putin. US officials have warned Turkey could face possible sanctions and a block on its participation in the US-made F-35 fighter jet programme because of the Russian deal. "We have signed a deal with Russia, and this deal is valid. Now we are discussing the delivery process," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference with his Russian counterpart in the Turkish city of Antalya. "We have an agreement with Russia and we are bound by it," he said...

In a world first, US doctors have transplanted a kidney from one HIV-positive patient to another. The operation took place at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland, with both patients said to be doing well. "This is the first time someone living with HIV has been allowed to donate a kidney, ever, in the world," Dr Dorry Segev said in a release. It was previously thought that HIV carried too great a risk factor for kidney disease in the donor. But new types of anti-retroviral drugs used to treat the disease are seen as safe for the kidney. Dr Christine Durand, associate professor of medicine and oncology at Johns Hopkins, said that the operation "challenges ... the public to see HIV differently", while also advancing medicine. The patients were "incredibly grateful for this gift and now we just monitor for the long term outcomes," Dr Durand said. The operation was performed on Monday. Donor Nina Martinez, 35, from Atlanta, told reporters s...

At his first rally since the Mueller report was submitted, Donald Trump railed against his political opponents and reiterated his claim that the report was a "total exoneration". The report found no evidence of Russian collusion but did not exonerate Mr Trump of obstruction of justice. In a typically free-form, 90-minute speech, Mr Trump used crude language to deride the investigation. He was speaking at a rally in Grand Rapids in the state of Michigan. "After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead. The collusion delusion is over," the president told a cheering crowd of thousands. Former FBI director Robert Mueller was appointed to head an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election almost two years ago. His team have charged 34 people - including six former Trump aides and a dozen Russians - as well as three companies. None of those charges directly related to the allegations...

Norway has agreed to return thousands of artefacts taken from Chile's Easter Island by renowned Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl in 1956. The agreement was signed by his son on behalf of Oslo's Kon-Tiki museum and Chile's culture ministry in Santiago. The artefacts include carved pieces and human bones from the Pacific island. In 1947, Heyerdahl became famous for skippering a tiny balsawood raft, the Kon-Tiki, on a 6,000km (3,728 miles) journey from Peru to Polynesia. His expedition proved, he said, that ancient cultures could have sailed to, and populated, the South Pacific. Later DNA tests suggested that the islands were settled by migrant populations from South East Asia. Heyerdahl subsequently made a number of voyages around the world, including his expeditions to Easter Island (or Rapa Nui) in 1955-56 and again in 1986-88. Heyerdahl conducted the first co-ordinated excavations on the abandoned island whose many carved heads stand guard over th...

  Five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld says he will continue playing for the rest of 2019, a day after announcing his immediate retirement. The 51-year-old Dutchman had originally planned to quit after the next PDC World Championship in December. His early elimination from the Premier League prompted him to say on Thursday he was bringing forward his retirement. "I realise that I should not speak out like that when I feel such raw emotion," said Van Barneveld on Friday. "I want to end my career at Alexandra Palace during one final World Championship." Van Barneveld, who has slipped to 30th in the Professional Darts Corporation's Order of Merit, said he has experienced a "rollercoaster of emotions" in recent months following the break-up of his marriage. He won only one of his nine Premier League matches and, in a double-header in Rotterdam, lost 7-1 on consecutive nights to Daryl Gurney and world number one Michael van Gerwe...

Boxing chiefs in California have suspended Bulgarian heavyweight Kubrat Pulev's licence after he "forcibly" kissed a female reporter on the lips during an interview. Footage emerged of Pulev embracing Vegas Sports Daily's Jennifer Ravalo when asked about fighting Tyson Fury. Pulev, 37, claimed the pair were friends, but Ravalo said she had only met the boxer a day earlier. Ravalo's lawyer Gloria Allred said his actions were "unwelcome and unlawful". The heavyweight has been ordered to appear in front of the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC), who said they "take this incident seriously". Csac added: "Before he will be licensed to fight in California again, boxer Kubrat Pulev must appear in front of the commission and demonstrate that he will conform to this principle of respect." The incident happened after Pulev defeated Romania's Bogdan Dinu in Costa Mesa, California on Saturday. Ravalo said that wh...

Both members of the Liverpool band Her's and their tour manager have been killed in a crash in the US. Stephen Fitzpatrick, 24, and Audun Laading, 25, and tour manager Trevor Engelbrektson, died while travelling to a gig in California on Wednesday, their record label Heist or Hit said. The label described them as "one of the UK's most loved up and coming bands". The duo had recently released their debut album and had been featured by BBC Introducing. Heist Or Hit said they were killed "in a road accident in the early hours of Wednesday whilst travelling to a show in Santa Ana, California". The former Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) students had performed in Phoenix, Arizona, on Tuesday and were driving about 350 miles to Santa Ana in California when the crash happened. Posting on their Facebook page on Monday, the band wrote: "It's almost home time for the lads, US tour has gone swimmingly so far. Got a hot sunset d...

Belgian-born film-maker Agnes Varda has died at the age of 90. Her family told the AFP news agency she died at her home on Thursday as a result of complications from cancer. Varda was one of the key figures in the French New Wave in the 1960s, making films like Cleo from 5 to 7, Le Bonheur and The Creatures. She was the first female director to be awarded an honorary Oscar in 2017, and became the oldest ever nominee for a competitive Oscar last year. Appearing at the BFI in London in 2018, she told the audience: "I wanted to invent cinema, and be happy to be a woman. I wanted to be a radical." The director first came to prominence with her 1962 film Cleo from 5 to 7, about a model's anguished two-hour wait for the results of her cancer test, and became known as the mother of the French New Wave. She continued making acclaimed films throughout her career. Vagabond from 1985, 1988's Kung-Fu Master, 1995's One Hundred and One Nights and the a...

Two employees of state-owned electricity company PLN died after getting electrocuted in an underground site on Jl. Otista 3 in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, on Thursday. Jatinegara Police chief Comr. Rudy said the incident took place at 1:45 p.m. when the screams of the two workers, identified as Ato and Rizal, were heard from the excavation site. “Their colleagues heard their screams from inside the hole and immediately went to check on them. We suspect they were electrocuted,” he said as reported by tribunnews.com on Thursday. They were still breathing after being rescued by their coworkers but died on the way to the hospital. Rudy said Ato and Rizal hailed from Cirebon, West Jakarta. Their bodies were taken to Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital for an autopsy. Jatinegara Police also questioned two workers as witnesses. “We are still gathering information in the case,” he added.

Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita met with Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Friday to provide an update on negotiations with the United States government on the country’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) facility for Indonesia. Enggartiasto said the US would give Indonesia a chance to enjoy the GSP facility, namely lower duties of up to zero percent for Indonesian products, but with the requirement to make consistent regulation adjustments. “A number of regulations should change because of the World Trade Organization’s decision. We have made adjustments,” said Enggartiasto, after meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla at in Jakarta as quoted by kontan.co.id. Enggartiasto said the US had revoked GPS facilities for two countries. He said the US was seeking deregulation on livestock and horticulture products. He added that the US had also demanded that the Indonesian government tighten supervision of property right laws, particularly for American products....

Students protest Suara USU’s disbandment following publication of LGBT short story A number of North Sumatra University (USU) students staged a rally at the USU campus on Thursday to protest the rector’s decision to dismiss 18 students from the editorial board of student publication Suara USU after they published a short story about the struggle of a young woman who falls in love with another woman. Protest coordinator, Felix Kristiono Simanjuntak, said the protest was a spontaneous act by the students to support the now-defunct student press. “We criticize the one-sided revocation of the press permit for the Suara USU student publication. This is an act of persecution. We, as students and an intellectual community, object to the suppression of ideas and creativity,” Felix said in his speech. Felix said the students wanted the rectorate to reappoint the editorial board team. Head of Suara USU, Yael Stefani Sinaga, who also wrote the controversial short story...

The Golkar Party announced on Friday the dismissal of member Bowo Sidik Pangerso, who has been named a graft suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in a case pertaining to shipping projects at the country’s largest fertilizer company, PT Pupuk Indonesia Holding Company (PIHC). "We have dismissed him," the party’s secretary-general, Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus, said in a statement on Bowo, who is a member of House Commission VII overseeing energy and mineral resources. Bowo allegedly accepted Rp 8 billion from Asty Winasty, marketing manager of private transportation company PT Humpuss Transportasi Kimia, which provides sea transportation for PT Pupuk Indonesia Logistik, a subsidiary of PIHC. Pupuk Indonesia Logistik, according to the KPK, had terminated its service agreement with Humpuss Transportasi Kimia. However, the transportation company wanted Pupuk Indonesia Logistik to use its service again. Asty allegedly gave the...

Research organization Perkumpulan Prakasa has revealed that the Indonesian government has lost about US$11 million in state revenue as $142.07 billion worth of key commodities was exported illegally from 1989 to 2017. Perkumpulan Prakarsa executive director Ah Maftuchan said the state losses were based on improper reporting on exports of the six commodities -- coal, copper, crude palm oil (CPO), rubber, coffee and shrimp – during the period. He said the illicit financial flows occurred when exporters practiced under-invoicing -- paying less than due in taxes and royalties by reporting lower exports -- and over-invoicing – namely reporting larger exports with the aim to get deductions of value-added tax (VAT) and export and import taxes. “Through over-invoicing, the [exporter] will benefit from a deduction of import and export taxes as well as the deduction of VAT,” Maftuchan added in Jakarta on Thursday when revealing a report on “illicit financial flows in Indo...

Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has said that Boeing has not yet agreed to the airline’s intention to cancel the order of 49 Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes. “[Boeing officials] have to discuss the matter internally,” said Garuda Indonesia president director Ari Askhara in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Friday, as reported by Antara . However, he said Boeing understood Garuda Indonesia’s reasons for the cancelation, particularly because of the loss of passengers’ confidence in the aircraft, following the Ethiopian Airlines crash earlier this month and a similar accident involving a Lion Air aircraft last October. Therefore, Garuda and Boeing would meet again in April to discuss the possible restructuring of the contract on the Boeing 737 MAX 8, Ari said, adding that the aircraft manufacturer was expected to cooperate with Garuda to meet the airline’s fleet requirements. “We still have confidence in the Boeing brand, but not the MAX 8 product, because the people, or our customers, h...

Whether election polls are a good predictor of election results is up for debate. Not all pollsters are created equal: Some are more credible than others. However, since  reformasi  political surveys have become such an integral part of our electoral democracy that even those who claim to no longer trust the pollsters are still taking them seriously. That is why, with the April 17 presidential election approaching, public attention has been on the results of the latest election surveys. Is President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo still leading against Prabowo Subianto, his only rival in the race? Or is he losing ground in some regions? If the election were held today, the incumbent would win by a double-digit margin against Prabowo, according to the latest political survey by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released on Thursday. The think tank polled 1,960 respondents between March 15 and 22 and found that the Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin tick...

Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is offering 50 percent discounts on airfares from March 31 to April 13 to celebrate the 21 st anniversary of the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry. “Lowering the airfares is Garuda Indonesia’s consistent commitment to making its 5-star service affordable for all Indonesian people,” Garuda Indonesia commerce director Pikri Ilham Kurniansyah said in a statement on Thursday. He said the discount was available for purchases through the Garuda Online Travel Festival, online travel agents, mobile apps, Linkaja and the official website of the airline: garuda-indonesia.com . The offer was part of the airline’s support for the country’s economy, particularly for the tourist industry, small and medium enterprises and the national logistics sector, Pikri said. Previously, the Transportation Ministry announced that it would soon issue a regulation on airfares in a bid to lower prices, as the government maintains airlines have not significantly cu...

Boeing is facing international criticism — but could it face criminal charges? After two deadly plane crashes within six months, aircraft manufacturer Boeing is facing international investigations on its safety regulations — and the question of whether it did enough to prevent lives from being lost. The investigations come following a Lion Air plane crash, which left 189 dead last October, and an Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10 that killed 157, including 18 Canadians. Here’s a look at what consequences the world’s largest plane manufacturer could face. Criminal charges? The FBI has joined a criminal probe into Boeing, looking into how the 737 MAX 8 jets were deemed safe. One focus of investigations into Boeing are the company’s relations with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Earlier this week, reports emerged that the FAA delegated government-required safety inspections to Boeing employees themselves. And the resulting safety report from Boeing, a...

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 that was on its way to California to be grounded had to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff at Orlando International Airport on Tuesday. Southwest 8701, which was occupied by a pair of pilots and no passengers, took off from Orlando, Fla., just before 3 p.m. local time, a spokesperson for the airline told Global News. However, pilots reported a “performance issue” with one of the engines shortly after takeoff and returned to Orlando, where they made a safe emergency landing. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the engine complaint was not related to the software problem blamed for two recent fatal crashes involving the Boeing 737 MAX 8, the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10 and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia on Oct. 29, 2018. Both crashes occurred after the planes suffered malfunctions soon after takeoff, with the 737 MAX 8’s anti-stall software one of the key areas of focus for investigations. ...

Southern city of Shiraz suffers extensive damage as government urges people to cancel trips amid forecast of more rains. Tehran, Iran - Flash flooding in southern and parts of western Iran has left at least 19 people dead and more than 100 injured as the government urged people to cancel trips and warned of more rains, according to Fars news agency. The Ministry of Interior  advised Iranians on Monday evening to cancel any trips and take the warnings seriously with the Disaster Management Organisation sending nationwide text messages to warn people about taking routes that are prone to flooding, including those in mountains and river banks. The disaster comes during Iranian New Year, Nowruz, holidays when many Iranians travel in the country. "There were only two sets of 15-minute heavy rainfalls that caused the flood to spread through the city," a resident of Shiraz, the worst-affected city, "The number of casualties would have been less, had...

Callum Hudson-Odoi's full England debut brought joy to Gareth Southgate - and hopefully a measure of embarrassment to Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri. Southgate has shown more faith in 18-year-old Hudson-Odoi in 10 days than Sarri has shown all season at Stamford Bridge, an instant elevation from England's Under-21 squad followed by a debut as a substitute against the Czech Republic at Wembley on Friday then a first start in Montenegro. The teenager's career is being played out back to front because of Sarri's reluctance to incorporate the gifted attacker into his tactical framework at Chelsea. And on the evidence of his performance on the pitch in the 5-1 win in Montenegro and his strong, mature, measured response after the game when questioned about the disgraceful racist abuse suffered by England's players, he is an all-round class act and will be for years to come. He is getting his chance, the show of faith in his talent, from England. This i...

  Prosecutors have dropped all charges against US actor Jussie Smollett for allegedly staging a racist and homophobic attack, his lawyers say. The Empire actor attended a court hearing in Chicago on Tuesday, where a judge reportedly dismissed the case. Mr Smollett told police he was attacked by two men in the Illinois city on 29 January. His attorneys maintained on Tuesday that the actor was attacked by two unknown individuals. Smollett attorneys Tina Glandian and Patricia Brown Holmes said in a statement that their client's record "has been wiped clean." "He was a victim who was villified and made to appear as a perpetrator as a result of false and inappropriate remarks made to the public causing an inappropriate rush to judgement," the lawyers said. "Jussie and many others were hurt by these unfair and unwarranted actions. The entire situation is a reminder that there should never be an attempt to prove a case in the court of public...

Algeria army urges removal of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.   Algeria's army chief of staff has demanded President Abdelaziz Bouteflika be declared unfit to rule after weeks of protests against him.  "We must find a way out of this crisis immediately, within the constitutional framework," Lt Gen Ahmed Gaed Salah said in a speech on television. The president has already agreed not to stand for a fifth term in upcoming elections, which have been delayed. But demonstrators accuse him of a ploy to prolong his 20-year rule. alks have been set up to negotiate Algeria's political future, which will be led by veteran UN diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi. Protests began over a month ago when the 82-year-old president said he planned to stand for another term in office. But people continued to march even after he agreed not to stand, instead demanding immediate change. Lt Gen Gaed Salah has previously said the military and the people had a united vision of the ...

Airbus secures multi-billion dollar jet order from China.   Airbus has secured an order from China for 300 jets, in a deal estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars. An agreement to purchase A320 and A350 XWB aircraft was signed during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Paris. The order is part of a package of deals signed during Mr Xi's visit to Europe. It comes as rival Boeing has grounded all of its 737 Max jets after two fatal crashes. Airbus said in a statement it signed an agreement with China Aviation Supplies Holding Company covering the purchase by Chinese airlines of Airbus aircraft including 290 A320 planes, and ten A350 XWB jets. The deal is worth an estimated 30bn euros ($34bn; £26bn), according to reports. "We are honoured to support the growth of China's civil aviation with our leading aircraft families - single-aisle and wide-bodies," Airbus Commercial Aircraft President Guillaume Faury said in a statement. Mr Faury is...

The European Parliament has backed a proposal to stop the obligatory one-hour clock change which extends daylight hours in summer EU-wide. o The proposal would give each member state a choice from 2021: either to keep the current summer time system or scrap the twice-yearly clock changes. Ministers will also have a say on this. Under an EU directive, all 28 states currently switch to summer time on the last Sunday of March and back to winter time on the last Sunday of October. The European Commission - in charge of drafting EU legislation - made the proposal last year, after a public consultation which showed 84% of respondents wanting to scrap the biannual clock changes. There were 4.6 million replies in that consultation, 70% of which were from Germans. But MEPs and the Commission stress that states must co-ordinate their choices, to minimise the risk of economic disruption from a patchwork of different time systems. What are the pros and cons of summer time? ...

The options for Brexit "are narrowing", Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said, after MPs voted to seize control of the parliamentary timetable.  The PM was dealt a fresh blow as the government was defeated by 27 votes on Monday, on a plan designed to find out the kind of deal MPs would support. Thirty Conservative MPs rebelled, including three ministers. Mr Hancock said the government would listen to MPs but "can't pre-commit to following whatever they vote for". Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the Eurosceptic group of Tory MPs the European Research Group (ERG), is among the group of pro-Brexit MPs who the prime minister has been trying to persuade to back her deal. On his ConservativeHome podcast, he said: "I have always thought that no deal is better than Mrs May's deal, but Mrs May's deal is better than not leaving at all." Ministerial resignations On Monday night, MPs voted in favour of Conservative backbencher Sir Oliv...