The killing of a mother by her ex-husband in front of her child has sent shockwaves across Turkey. Emine Bulut, 38, was stabbed to death in a cafe on 18 August in Kirikkale. Video posted to social media shows the mother screaming and holding her neck as her 10-year-old daughter begs her not to die.

According to “We Will Stop Femicide”, a women’s rights platform, 245 women have been killed in Turkey in the first seven months of 2019. The mother brought her daughter to the cafe to meet her ex-husband Fedai Veran where he attacked her.

Testifying in court, Varan said: “After she insulted me while talking about the custody of our child, I stabbed her with the knife I brought along.” He then got into a taxi and fled the scene. Ms Bulut later died in hospital. In the video footage from the cafe, the mother can be heard screaming “I don’t want to die” as her daughter begs her to live.

Buliut’s name and her last words are being used on social media to help reignite a debate about women’s rights in the country. The mayor of Istanbul wrote on his Twitter: “We lost Emine Bulut because of male violence. We stand by women and children in the fight against violence and we will continue to.”

A message from the Besiktas football team said: “We are not silent against this savage. We wish the killings of women to come to an end and the perpetrators will be tried with the most severe penalties. We won’t get used to it, we won’t shut up.”(BBC)…[+]

Pastor Christopher Parriera has been placed on $75,000 bail charged with sex crimes against a man who worshiped at his church. Parriera reappeared before the Chaguanas Court today on the nine charges which include eight acts of buggery.

The offences allegedly occurred in Chaguanas between April and June of this year in a counselling room at the Help Foundation and Transition Centre in Valencia.

Charges were laid by corporal Lezama. Bail was granted by magistrate Wendy Dougdeen-Bally with the conditions that Parriera has no contact or communication with the alleged, stay 100 metres away from him, report to the Chaguanas police station and surrender his passport. Parriera is to be allowed to collect his personal items from the alleged victim. The matter is next to be called on September 19.(Trinidad Express)…[+]

COLOMBO- Sri Lanka Navy held commissioning ceremony at the Colombo port on Thursday for China-gifted frigate “P625”, renamed “Parakramabahu”.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Piyal De Silva, Ambassador of China to Sri Lanka Cheng Xueyuan, Defense Attache of the Chinese Embassy Senior Colonel Xu Jianwei and Sri Lanka senior military officers and government officials attended the ceremony.

President Sirisena handed over the commissioning warrant to the captain of the frigate and later went around the vessel showing keen interest in its equipment. He thanked the Chinese government for donating a capital ship with advance sensors and weaponry to the Sri Lanka Navy. Named after a great Sri Lankan King Parakramabahu, the frigate is 112 meters long and 12.4 meters wide, has a full displacement of 2,300 tons and can carry 110 officers and sailors.

The new vessel will be  attached to the Eastern Naval Command of Sri Lanka Navy based in Trincomalee, in eastern Sri Lanka. The ship will be utilized as an offshore patrol vessel for patrol and surveillance missions in the deep seas around the island, providing the maritime security and assistance to search and rescue operations.

The frigate was handed over to Sri Lanka Navy at Shanghai in June and arrived in Colombo on July 8.(Xinhua)…[+]

At least four people died and more than 100 were injured in lightning strikes during a thunderstorm in Poland, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says. The worst bolt fell on a group of hikers at the summit of Giewont, a popular peak in the Tatra range in the south of the country.

A fifth person was killed in neighbouring Slovakia. At least one of the victims was said to be a child. The storm is said to have descended suddenly after a sunny morning. “Nobody expected such a sudden storm to break out and from our human point of view it was something which was impossible to predict,” Mr Morawiecki said an emergency meeting in the region. There were reports of casualties in different parts of the mountain range. At least four rescue helicopters were sent to the area.

The worst incident occurred on Thursday at the top of the 1,894m (6,214ft) Giewont mountain, where a metal cross is sited. A lightning bolt is thought to have struck the 15m structure at a time when a large number of hikers were at the summit, and the current then travelled along a metal railing.

“We heard that after (the) lightning struck, people fell. The current then continued along the chains securing the ascent, striking everyone along the way. It looked bad,” Polish mountain rescue service chief Jan Krzysztof told the country’s PAP news agency.(BBC)…[+]

WASHINGTON– U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday he was considering scaling back an effort that could have cut billions of dollars in foreign aid and would decide on the proposal – which faces strong opposition in Congress – within days.

Trump administration officials have said they are reviewing State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development spending with an eye to using a budget process known as “rescission” to slash up to $4.3 billion in spending that had already been approved by the Senate and House of Representatives.

“We’re looking at it and we’re looking at it in different ways, and we’re talking to Republicans and Democrats about it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. He said “certain things” could be cut, but others might not be. “But we are looking at it and we have some things that are on the table very much. We’ll let you know over the next probably sooner than a week,” Trump said.

Many members of Congress, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, have called on the administration to cancel, or pare back, its plans. The administration also tried to use rescissions to cut foreign aid last year, but lawmakers thwarted that plan.(Reuters)…[+]

Roman Catholic Priest, Father Urban Hudlin’s car was stolen last Saturday while he was visiting a home in Diego Martin. Hudlin, who is stationed at the Holy Cross Priory in Arima, was reportedly at the home to bless it. While praying, his vehicle was stolen. He is said to be traumatised by the experience. Father Hudlin’s possessions, including an iPad and other important documents were still inside the vehicle. The car is a blue Wingroad license plate PCL 4508. Family members say that the vehicle was recovered with the license plate already swapped.It is uncertain if Hudlin’s possessions were also recovered.(Trinidad Express)…[+]

The leader of Italy’s centre-left Democratic party (PD) has warmed to a potential alliance with its long-time rival, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), in an attempt to stave off snap elections that threaten to create western Europe’s first fully far-right government since the second world war.

Nicola Zingaretti, who was elected PD party leader in March, relented to the prospect of forming a government with M5S on condition it lasts until the end of the legislature in 2023. “A possible new government must be a turning point, lasting the term, or it is better to go to the polls,” he said after a meeting with PD members on Wednesday morning.

Zingaretti had previously said that such a move would be “a gift to the dangerous right”. His change of heart came after the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, gave his country’s political parties two days to carve out an alternative government majority after Giuseppe Conte resigned as prime minister on Tuesday, prompting a new wave of political turmoil.(theguardian)…[+]

The first people to dive down to the Titanic in nearly 15 years say some of the wreck is deteriorating rapidly. Over the course of five submersible dives, an international team of deep-sea explorers surveyed the sunken ship, which lies 3,800m down in the Atlantic. While parts of the wreck were in surprisingly good condition, other features had been lost to the sea.

The worst decay was seen on the starboard side of the officers’ quarters. Titanic historian Parks Stephenson said some of what he saw during the dive was “shocking”. “The captain’s bathtub is a favourite image among Titanic enthusiasts – and that’s now gone,” he said. “That whole deck house on that side is collapsing, taking with it the state rooms. And that deterioration is going to continue advancing.”

He said the sloping lounge roof of the bow section would probably be the next part to be lost, obscuring views of the ship’s interior. “Titanic is returning to nature,” he added. Strong ocean currents, salt corrosion and metal-eating bacteria are attacking the ship.(BBC)…[+]

A 64-year-old woman and her grand­daugh­ter, 20, were ar­rest­ed af­ter po­lice of­fi­cers found an as­sault ri­fle at her home in San­ta Cruz, Trinidad. Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, of­fi­cers of the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force re­ceived in­for­ma­tion that a house in Sun Val­ley Ex­ten­sion, Low­er San­ta Cruz was be­ing used to store weapons.

The of­fi­cers went at about 6 pm on Sun­day where they ex­e­cut­ed a search and found an AK47 as­sault ri­fle with two mag­a­zines and 68 rounds of am­mu­ni­tion. The pen­sion­er and her grand­daugh­ter were sub­se­quent­ly de­tained for ques­tion­ing. No charges were laid up to press time on Mon­day.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

One of the island’s top plastic surgeons is advocating the establishment of a specialist registry in light of a significant increase in the demand for body contour surgeries across the island. Senior plastic surgeon at the University Hospital of the West Indies Dr Guyan Arscott also wants the Government to format legislation that would facilitate this registry, something, he said, the Jamaica Medical Council has been working on for some time now.

The issue came to the fore at yesterday’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchangewhere Arscott told reporters that legislation to decide who can perform this procedure does not exist. Body contour surgery, Arscott said, includes surgery on the breast, liposuction of the stomach, back, buttocks, and thighs, among other areas.

“If we try to educate the public of what is available then they have a choice, and if I tell you that we have a training programme at the university with doctors…then the patient at least has a choice [about who operates on them],” he said.

“Not only can any other doctor go out there and inject whatever, but there are instances in this country where non-doctors and in fact even non-nurses fly into this country and inject all sorts of materials into buttocks all over the place,” Dr Arscott told editors and reporters at the Exchange held at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston.(stabroek news)…[+]