Foreign News
Court adjourns Verdict in ‘insult’ Case against Istanbul Mayor
An Istanbul court on Wednesday adjourned verdict in a case against Istanbul’s opposition party Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu over alleged insult on state officials in a 2019 speech.
The hearing was adjourned until Nov. 11, İmamoğlu’s lawyer Kemal Polat told dpa.
Polat said the court accepted the defence’s request to invite a witness and to examine a DVD that contains the speech in question that İmamoğlu made.
Prosecutors were seeking up to four years in prison or a political ban for İmamoğlu for allegedly calling members of the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) “fools’’ during a November 2019 speech.
This is according to an indictment seen by dpa.
The case was “unfortunately ongoing but the court should drop it as soon as possible,’’ İmamoğlu said on Wednesday in Istanbul, in remarks carried by his office.
If the court imposed a political ban or prison sentence of one year or more, İmamoğlu would have to step down, lawyer Polat said.
The mayor would stay in office until any such decision was final following an appeals process, he added.
İmamoğlu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), narrowly won the March 2019 mayoral election against his rival from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling party.
He won in a re-run in June 2019 by a larger margin, after the YSK annulled the original result from March.
Considered a potential challenger to Erdoğan’s 20-year rule in the elections set for 2023, İmamoğlu was an outspoken critic of the president’s policies, particularly concerning the economy and urban planning. (NAN)
Foreign News
Russian Army Fires Ballistic Missiles at Kiev from Crimean Peninsula
The Russian Army has hit the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with ballistic missiles, injuring four people and damaging an uninhabited three-storey building, according to officials.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that two of the injured people were in a central neighbourhood and had been taken to hospital.
Rocket debris also fell in two other neighbourhoods.
According to the Ukrainian air force, two ballistic missiles were fired at the city of millions, from the Russian-controlled Crimea Peninsula.
Both were shot down.Half a dozen explosions from anti-aircraft missiles had previously been heard in the city centre.
The air raid warning was only triggered a few seconds beforehand, it said.
Ukraine has been facing Russian invasion for over two years.
Since then, the Ukrainian air defence system has been massively reinforced with Western systems. (dpa/NAN)
Foreign News
Cambodia Arrests 2 Foreigners for Smuggling 2.27 kg Narcotics
Cambodian customs police at the Phnom Penh International Airport said they have arrested two South Korean nationals for an attempt to smuggle 2.27 kg narcotics to South Korea.
The duo, a man and woman, were caught Sunday night while they checked in for a ZA215 flight bound for Seoul.
The General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia said in a news release on Monday.
In their body searches, our customs officials found many packs of drugs wrapped around their waists, the news release said.
“As a result, some 1.29 kg of crystal methamphetamine and 0.98 kg of ketamine were seized from the two suspects’ possession.’’
The Southeast Asian country has no death sentence for a drug trafficker.
Under its law, someone found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grammes of illicit drugs could be jailed for life.
According to the country’s Anti-Drug Department (ADP), Cambodia nabbed 3,899 drug-related suspects, including 106 foreigners, in 1,659 cases from Jan. 1 to March 3, 2024.
According to the report they confiscated a total of 2.79 tonnes of narcotics.
Most of the seized drugs were ketamine, crystal methamphetamine, methamphetamine tablets, heroin, ecstasy, and cocaine. (Xinhua/NAN)
Foreign News
February Ends with Extreme Heat – WMO
The UN weather agency, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), says February saw more extreme heat and unusually high temperatures in both hemispheres.
Summarising the state of the climate, it said the month ended with extreme heat in the southern hemisphere where it is summer, while high temperatures atypical of the northern hemisphere winter prevailed.
Parts of North and South America, northwest and southeast Africa, southeast and far eastern Asia, western Australia and Europe all saw record-breaking temperatures, either on a daily basis or for all of February.
“The anomalous heat is consistent with the persisting warming observed since June 2023, with seven consecutive new global monthly temperature records, including January 2024,” Alvaro Silva, a climatologist working with the WMO, said in a statement.
Global sea surface temperatures were record high. While the El Niño weather pattern “has stoked temperatures in some parts of the world, human induced climate change is the long-term major contributing factor,” he added.
Conversely, a large part of northwestern Canada, central Asia – and from southern central Siberia to southeastern China – witnessed exceptional cold during the last week of the month.
The meteorological winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere finished officially at the end of February.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) raised increasing concern on Friday that more refugees would cross into Chad from Darfur in the coming weeks amid a worrying lack of food and other essentials.
Almost a year since the start of the civil war between rival militaries in Sudan, neighbouring Chad urgently needs more humanitarian aid and significant development investment, the agency reported, especially in its eastern areas which are hosting the refugee influx.
This investment will allow the country to continue its generous open-door stance towards refugees.
“Chadian officials are concerned that many more hungry Sudanese families will come in the next weeks,” said Kelly Clements, UNHCR’s Deputy High Commissioner, who is in the country to review the relief operation.
“The country is committed to keeping its borders open, despite the fragility of this region.
“But, doing so will put even more strain on Chad, which has so graciously been hosting refugees from Sudan’s war – now raging almost a year – and other refugees still here from earlier emergencies.” (NAN)