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☆ Fear among Turkey's LGBT community after hostile election campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Burcu Karakas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The discrimination faced by the LGBT community has convinced the couple to plan to leave Turkey, he said. "Turkey has never been the perfect country for the LGBT community but now people feel insecure," Seren said. Matthew Warchus, the British director of "Pride", said he felt solidarity with Turkey's LGBT community. My message to those opposed to it being viewed is simply 'There is nothing to fear except fear itself'". Yilmaz, the LGBT rights advocate, said they had never been targeted like this before.

Persons: Cuneyt Yilmaz, Senkaya, Erdogan, Tayyip Erdogan, pollsters, Bekir, Rumeysa Kadak, Mahmut Seren, Seren, cordoning, Cuneyt, Yilmaz, Matthew Warchus, Davut Gul, Melih, Burcu Karakas, Jonathan Spicer, Alison Williams Organizations: Reuters, REUTERS, AK, Aesthetics Culture Art Research Foundation, Istanbul Pride, Twitter, UniKuir, New Welfare Party, European Union, Yilmaz, Thomson Locations: Istanbul, Turkey, ISTANBUL, Britain, British, Izmir, European

☆ Ahead of Modi visit, journalists' group urges US to press India on media crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday called on the U.S. government to urge India to end a media crackdown and release six detained journalists. A statement from CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg ahead of a state visit to Washington next week by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there had been an increasing crackdown on India’s media since he came to power in 2014. "Journalists critical of the government and the BJP party have been jailed, harassed, and surveilled in retaliation for their work," Ginsberg said. It highlighted harassment of domestic and foreign media, including through raids and retaliatory income tax investigations launched into critical news outlets. The CPJ also cited a media crackdown in Kashmir, including the use of preventative detention, terrorism and criminal cases, travel bans and raids.

Persons: Jodie Ginsberg, Narendra Modi, Ginsberg, – Aasif Sultan, Gautam Navlakha, Sajad Gul, Fahad Shah, Rupesh Kumar Singh, Irfan Mehraj –, Modi, CPJ, David Brunnstrom, Alistair Bell Organizations: Protect Journalists, Indian, BJP, U.S . State Department, Thomson Locations: India, Washington, United States, Delhi, Mumbai, Indian, Jammu, Kashmir

☆ Pakistan's Imran Khan formally named in 'abetting' lawyer's drive-by murder
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

QUETTA, Pakistan, June 7 (Reuters) - Pakistani police on Wednesday formally named former prime minister Imran Khan in connection with the murder by unknown gunmen of a lawyer seeking sedition proceedings against him. Khan, who has not been charged in connection with the lawyer's murder, has dismissed all the cases against him as concocted by his opponents. Provincial government spokesman Babar Khan said Khan could face formal charges if and when the murder case goes to trial. It was not immediately clear how the link between unknown gunmen and Khan was made. Khan has accused the military and its intelligence agency of openly trying to destroy his party, saying he has "no doubt" he will be tried in a military court and thrown into jail.

Persons: Imran Khan, Khan, Rauf Hasan, Babar Khan, Abdur Razaq, Razaq, Razaq's, Siraj Ahmad, Asif Shahzad, Nick Macfie Organizations: Wednesday, Police, Reuters, Thomson Locations: QUETTA, Pakistan

☆ What Turkey’s new cabinet says about where the country is headed
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Gul Tuysuz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The cabinet appointments hint at a return to orthodox economic policy while holding course on foreign policy as the president heads into his third decade in power. Erdogan’s unorthodox economic policies over the past few years have led to a cost-of-living crisis and a plummeting Turkish lira. Shadow diplomatThe new foreign minister is a well-known figure to Turks and international players who have negotiated with Turkey of late. Hakan Fidan, who had served as head of Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) since 2010, has been in every room and every discussion that has been pivotal to Turkish foreign policy over the last few years. He’s been ever-present but rarely heard – a shadow diplomat in Erdogan’s foreign policy arsenal who has charted rough waters in Syria, Libya and beyond.

Persons: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mehmet Simsek, –, Nureddin Nebati, ” Simsek, Erdogan, Simsek, Mehmet Celik, Cevdet Yilmaz, Omer Bolat, ” Celik, Hakan Fidan, He’s, Fidan, Ibrahim Kalin, “, ” Fidan, ”, Suleyman Soylu, Istanbul Ali Yerlikaya, Hulusi Akar, Mevlut Cavusoglu, They’ve Organizations: Istanbul CNN —, Reuters, Daily, Trade, CNN, NATO, Turkish Intelligence Agency, MIT, Kurdistan Workers ’ Party, EU, Defense, Development Party, AK Party Locations: Istanbul, Turkish Republic, Turkish, “ Turkey, Daily Sabah, Turkey, Syria, Libya, Greece, West, Celik, Damascus, Ankara, Sweden, Yerlikaya

☆ Turkey election: Third-placed presidential candidate backs Erdogan
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Gul Tuysuz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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Istanbul, Turkey CNN —Turkey will have a runoff election on May 28 after longtime leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced into a second round with only a narrow lead over his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Neither candidate achieved the required 50% to take the presidency outright, but Kilicdaroglu now faces a tough battle to win the second round after Erdogan performed better than some opinion polls had suggested. With the final count, the electorate will turn to a second round of voting that could extend Erdogan’s 20-year grip on power, or set the stage for a change in political direction. “If our nation says second round, we gladly accept it. We will absolutely win this election in the second round.

His main opponent is CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who represents an election coalition of six opposition parties. For the first time, Turkey’s factious opposition has coalesced around a single candidate. When a vicious earthquake on February 6 laid waste to large parts of southeast Turkey, Erdogan’s battled political aftershocks. More than 1.8 million voters living abroad already cast their votes on April 17, Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reported Wednesday, citing the country’s deputy foreign minister. The Supreme Election Council (YSK) chief Ahmet Yener said last month that at least 1 million voters in quake-stricken zones are expected not to vote this year amid displacement.

☆ 'We can't afford anything': Turkey's cost-of-living crisis threatens Erdogan's re-election
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Ali Kucukgocmen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

But a cost-of-living crisis sparked by Erdogan's unorthodox economic programme over the past 1-1/2 years has eroded his popularity, posing the biggest electoral challenge to his 20-year hold on power. The parliamentary race remains on a razor edge, with the opposition seen potentially clinching a narrow majority. Food prices surged 54% year-on-year in April, with headline inflation dropping to 43.7% after peaking in October at 85.5%, the highest under Erdogan's rule. It began to surge after a currency crisis in late 2021, sparked by a series of interest rate cuts, in line with Erdogan's unorthodox views. But many AKP voters still believe only Erdogan can fix the economy, or blame other factors for its current state.

☆ Turkey kills ISIS leader in Syria operation, says Erdogan Turkish National Intelligence Organization kills ISIS leader in Syria - President Erdogan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Gul Tuysuz Hande Atay Alam Jessie Yeung | Gul Tuysuz | Hande Atay Alam | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed on Sunday that the country’s intelligence forces had killed the leader of ISIS in Syria as he vowed to continue the country’s fight against terrorism. In a broadcast, Erdogan said Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization had been tracking a man known as Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini Al-Qurshi “for a long time.”“This person was neutralized in the operation carried out by MIT (Turkish National Intelligence Organization) yesterday in Syria,” he said. Little was known about Al-Qurshi, but at the time of his appointment, ISIS described him as an “old fighter.”Erdogan’s announcement came after a recent absence from the public eye due to illness. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters during an election rally in Ankara, Turkey on April 30, 2023. Cagla Gurdogan/ReutersMedia reports had speculated that his health was deteriorating just two weeks before a crucial election.

☆ Four killed in blast targeting police vehicle in Pakistan's Quetta
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

QUETTA, Pakistan, April 10 (Reuters) - Four people were killed and fifteen injured in a bombing targeting a police vehicle in a marketplace in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Monday, a hospital official said. "The injured numbers reached fifteen, and four dead,” Wasim Baig, a spokesperson for the Quetta hospital, told Reuters. He said initial reports showed an improvised explosive device was planted in a motorcycle parked behind the vehicle. Two police officers who were sitting in the vehicle were among the dead, SSP operations Zohaib Mohsin Baloch said. Reporting by Gul Yousafzai in Quetta, Gibran Peshimam; Writing by Sakshi Dayal and Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Toby Chopra and Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Pakistan army says 'terrorists' from Iran side kill four soldiers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

QUETTA, Pakistan, April 1 (Reuters) - Pakistan's army said on Saturday that attackers from Iran killed four of its border patrol soldiers. "A group of terrorists operating from Iranian side attacked a routine border patrol of Pakistani security forces operating along Pakistan-Iran Border," the army said in a statement. The incident took place in Kech district in southwestern Baluchistan province, which shares a long lawless border with Afghanistan and Iran. The army said Pakistani authorities were making contact with Iran to seek ways of preventing such incidents in future. The Baluch groups operate on both side of the border.

Life has become solitary confinement.” Some women went into hiding, fearing retribution after the Taliban seized power. When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, women were among the most profoundly affected. A Wrenching Change Afifa, 47, wishes more Afghan men would fight for women’s rights KABUL, Afghanistan — Walk around the capital, Kabul, and it often feels as if women have been airbrushed out of the city. When the Taliban seized power, girls’ schools remained open in a kind of limbo — neither officially sanctioned nor forbidden — for months. Zubaida, 20, teaches high school girls in secret “Regimes come and go all the time in Afghanistan.

☆ Former Pakistan woman hockey player killed in Italian shipwreck
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 2 (Reuters) - Former Pakistan women's hockey player Shahida Raza was among at least 67 people killed on the weekend in a migrant shipwreck off the coast of Italy, officials in her home province said. Those on board were mostly from Afghanistan but also from Pakistan, Syria, the Palestinian Territories, Iran and Somalia, Italian authorities said. "Pakistani authorities have informed Raza's family that the Pakistani national team hockey player perished in the boating accident off the coast of Italy," Qadir Ali Nayel, a legislator from Balochistan province, told Reuters late on Wednesday. The chief minister of Balochistan expressed grief over Raza's death saying in a statement she had brought honour to the province and the country. Reporting by Gul Yousafzai in Quetta, Pakistan; Writing by Manasi Pathak; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/2] Rescuers and medics carry 8-year-old boy Arda Gul from the debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Elbistan, Kahramanmaras province, Turkey February 7, 2023. "His mother and sister are still under the rubble," a neighbour, Mustafa Bahcivan, said. He said he had returned to sift through rubble in the hope of finding intact phones that he might be able to sell. Up the street, four members of a family climbed another mound of rubble, trying to salvage belongings. A telecommunications engineer who had toured damage in the area said Elbistan was particularly hard hit.

☆ Amazon to donate supplies to Turkey’s earthquake victims
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —Amazon (AMZN) has announced that it will help victims of the Turkey earthquake by donating food, medicine and equipment from its Istanbul warehouse. Amazon, which has almost 2,000 employees in Turkey, said it was preparing to donate relief items, including blankets, tents, food, baby food and medicines. “This immediate delivery is just the beginning of Amazon’s response,” Abe Diaz, head of Amazon’s disaster relief program, said in the statement. Another company that could help Turkey is Elon Musk’s SpaceX. On Monday, Musk responded to a tweet about SpaceX’s Starlink internet service, which said: “Hey @elonmusk a massive earthquake hit Turkey and neighboring countries.

☆ Suicide bomber kills 28, wounds 150 at mosque in NW Pakistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Security personnel cordon off the site of a mosque blast inside the police headquarters in Peshawar on January 30, 2023. Police between 300 to 350 worshipers were inside the mosque when the bomber detonated his explosives. A survivor, 38-year-old police officer Meena Gul, said he was inside the mosque when the bomb went off. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan also condemned the bombing, calling it a "terrorist suicide attack" in a Twitter posting. Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks since November when the Pakistani Taliban ended their cease-fire with government forces.

☆ One dead as fresh clashes erupt between Afghan, Pakistani border forces
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Abdul Khaliq AchakzaiQUETTA, Pakistan, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Clashes erupted once again between the border forces of Afghanistan and Pakistan near the key Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing on Thursday, resulting in one death and over a dozen injuries, Pakistani officials said. Thursday's fighting started when Pakistani forces repairing a portion of the border fence damaged during Sunday's clashes came under attack from the Afghan side of the frontier, a provincial official Balochistan, Zahid Saleem, told Reuters. Both sides blamed each other for instigating Sunday's clashes. Afghanistan's ministry of defence, run by the Taliban administration, said in a post on Twitter that Pakistani forces had opened fire first, and called for a resolution of the issue through negotiations. The police spokesman of the Afghan province of Kandahar did not reply to a Reuters request for comment on the casualties.

☆ Six Pakistanis, one Afghan soldier killed in cross-border clash
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

QUETTA, Pakistan, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Six Pakistani civilians and one Afghan soldier were killed on Sunday in cross border shelling and gunfire, according to officials on both sides of the frontier. Six civilians were killed and another 17 wounded on the Pakistani side by the Afghan fire, leading Pakistani troops to retaliate, the Pakistan military said in a statement. Afghan security sources said the clash started after Pakistani forces demanded Afghan forces stop building a new checkpost on their side of the border. Kandahar police spokesman Hafiz Saber said one Afghan soldier was killed and 10 other people, including three civilians, were injured. The busy Afghan border crossing at Chaman, used for trade and transit, was closed for some hours before reopening, officials on both sides said.

☆ Oil tankers are getting stuck in the Black Sea. That could become a problem
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

A further nine tankers were waiting to cross southbound from the Sea of Marmara through the Dardanelles strait into the Mediterranean. The snag is linked to a Western price cap on Russian oil that came into effect on Monday. Countries including Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan use the Turkish straits to get their oil to world oil markets. The traffic jam in the Turkish straits arose following the imposition this week of the price cap on Russian oil. Turkish officials say this position is “unacceptable” and on Thursday reiterated demands for letters from insurers.

☆ Pakistan suicide blast targeting police kills 3, wounds 28
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

QUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A suicide bomb blast in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta targeted a police patrol on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding 28, police said. "A bomb blast that targeted a police patrol wounded more than 30 people, including 15 police," a police official, Abdul Haq, told Reuters. The patrol had been guarding a polio vaccination team at the time of the suicide blast, he added. Islamist militants in Pakistan often target polio vaccination teams, in the belief that the immunisation effort is a Western tool to spy on them. Quetta is the capital of Pakistan's province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran, where both Islamist and separatist insurgents operate.

☆ Pakistan reopens Afghan crossing shut after border hostilities
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Saeed Ali Achakzai/File PhotoQUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Pakistan has reopened a major Afghan border crossing that was shut for trade and transit after security forces clashed last week, officials from both sides said on Monday. As the crossing opened on Monday, three people were wounded in another clash reported on a northwestern border with Afghanistan, an Afghan official said. A Pakistani security official said the fresh exchange of fire killed one member of border personnel and wounded nine other people. "We are going to meet senior Pakistani officials to find an amicable solution," he said. The Pakistan military did not respond to a request for comment, but a Pakistan security official said there has been regular border management coordination with Afghan authorities, adding that details of Afghan investigations into last week's hostilities will be shared with Pakistan in due course.

[1/5] A police officer stands guard near a passenger van, cordoned after a blast at the entrance of the Confucius Institute University of Karachi, Pakistan, April 26, 2022. Even though months have passed since the attack, Pakistani authorities remain deeply worried. Shortly afterwards, schoolteacher Shari Hayat Baloch, 30, is filmed walking in a park with her young son and daughter and later addressing the camera in combat fatigues. The Chinese officials supported Pakistan's counter-terrorism forces in areas such as CCTV footage enhancement and data retrieval from cell phones, the ministry said. On the day of the Karachi attack, Habitan, a dentist, tweeted that he was "beaming with pride" at what his wife had done.

☆ Malta is the only EU country that still sells 'golden passports.' Here's what the controversial immigration schemes are and why the EU wants to ban them.
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-26 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Russia-Ukraine war triggered a crackdown on "golden passport" schemes across Europe. Malta is the only EU country with a golden passport program and is under pressure to shut it down. In recent years, countries including Bulgaria and Cyprus have shut down their golden passport programs following accusations of corruption and pressure from the European Union. The European parliament estimates that Russian nationals account for about half of approved golden passport applications in the EU. "The concern is that unsavory and possibly criminal individuals will secure EU passports, which then entitles them to mobility and settlement rights."

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