The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has welcomed a controversial order to rerun the recent Istanbul election after complaints of corruption as the “best step” for the country. “We see this decision as the best step that will strengthen our will to solve problems within the framework of democracy and law,” Erdoğan told a meeting of his AKP party in parliament.

His comments came a day after the top election body cancelled the 31 Marchvote that handed the opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu a narrow lead over Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development party (AKP). The AKP has refused to accept defeat, citing “irregularities and corruption” in the vote. Erdoğan on Tuesday spoke of “organised crime” and “serious corruption” during the vote.

“The documents we have presented are quite solid and based on concrete evidence which cannot be disputed,” he said. “We sincerely believe there was organised corruption and irregularities.” He said if his government did not bring to account the “thieves” who stole the “national will” at the ballot box, “our people will demand an explanation from us”.(theguardian)…[+]

Between 2013 and 2018, a total of 22 women were arrested for having sexual intercourse with boys under 16 years old. At the same time, 129 boys under the age of 16 were the victims of sexual assault for the same period. In fact, according to data from the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF’s) Statistics and Information Management Unit, between 2013 and 2018 a total of 53 females were arrested for sexual assault, of which 33 were arrested for the offence of sexual intercourse with a victim under the age of 16.

Also, up to March 9 this year, one female has been arrested for having sexual intercourse with a male under 16 years old. The Jamaica Observer spoke with several adult men who recounted their first time having sex, most of whom did not consider their encounters as sexual abuse. According to one 30-year-old who is now the father of two children, he had sex for the first time at 12 years old with his aunt, who was babysitting him. “I didn’t know what was going on. It was just like, ‘Oh, anybody ever touched you there before?’ I said, ‘No’. She said: ‘Do you want me to?’. I said, ‘I don’t know’, and she did.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]

Passengers and crew on board a jet that was forced to make an emergency landing at a Moscow airport say it was struck by lightning moments before it crashed. Reports of the strike came as survivors told how they escaped the Aeroflot jet which burst into flames on landing at Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday.

Forty-one of the 78 people on board were killed in the accident. Investigators probing the cause of the crash have made no official comment on the claims it was hit by lightning. Modern aircraft are built to withstand lightning strikes, and Russia’s national carrier has said only that the plane returned to the airport for “technical reasons”.

However passengers said the plane, which was heading for the northern Russian city of Murmansk, was struck just after take-off. Some of the five crew members also said lightning appeared to be responsible for a loss of communication with air traffic control.(BBC)…[+]

PURI, India– Hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless after a cyclone packing winds of about 200 km per hour slammed into eastern India, ripping out tin roofs and destroying power and telecom lines, officials said on Sunday. At least 33 people were killed after cyclone Fani struck the state of Odisha on Friday but a million people emerged unscathed after they moved into storm shelter ahead of landfall.

The death toll could have been much greater if not for the massive evacuation in the days before the storm made landfall, officials said. The seaside temple town of Puri, which lay directly in the path of Fani, suffered extensive damage as winds gusting up to 200 kph (124 mph) tore off tin roofs, snapped power lines, and uprooted trees on Friday. “The cyclone has killed 21 people in Puri and about 300 people are injured,” Brajabandhu Dash, medical officer at Puri, told Reuters. Earlier, 12 deaths were reported from other parts of the state.(Reuters)…[+]

Consumers will pay more for gasoline, but less for kerosene and liquified petroleum products, from midnight Sunday, May 5.  The price of diesel will remain unchanged.

Gasoline will retail for BDS $3.88 per litre, up from $3.82 per litre, an increase of 0.06 cents.  The price of kerosene will decrease by 0.01 cent, moving from $1.42 per litre to $1.41 per litre. Similarly, there will be a decrease in the price of liquefied petroleum gas.  The 100lb cylinder will retail for $149.60, down from $163.07, a reduction of $13.47.  The 25lb cylinder will now be sold at $42.50, a decrease of $3.37.  The cost of the 22lb cylinder will drop from $40.53 to $37.56, a reduction of $2.97, and the 20lb cylinder will retail at $34.15, down from $36.84, a decrease of $2.69. These price adjustments are in keeping with government’s policy of allowing retail prices to be reflective of those on the international market.(Barbados Nation)…[+]

The persecution of Christians in parts of the world is at near “genocide” levels, according to a report ordered by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The review, led by the Bishop of Truro the Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen, estimated that one in three people suffer from religious persecution. Christians were the most persecuted religious group, it found. Mr Hunt said he felt that “political correctness” had played a part in the issue not being confronted.

The interim report said the main impact of “genocidal acts against Christians is exodus” and that Christianity faced being “wiped out” from parts of the Middle East.

It warned the religion “is at risk of disappearing” in some parts of the world, pointing to figures which claimed Christians in Palestine represent less than 1.5% of the population, while in Iraq they had fallen from 1.5 million before 2003 to less than 120,000. “Evidence shows not only the geographic spread of anti-Christian persecution, but also its increasing severity,” the Bishop wrote.(BBC)…[+]

WASHINGTON – Democrats intensified their pressure on President Donald Trump’s administration yesteday as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Attorney General William Barr of committing a crime by lying to lawmakers and a key committee chairman threatened to hold Barr in contempt of Congress.

Even as Democratic lawmakers accused the Trump administration of a growing attack on U.S. democracy and the authority of Congress, the White House showed no sign of backing down. White House legal counsel Emmet Flood said in a defiant letter that Trump had the right to tell advisers not to testify to congressional panels on the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry.

The dueling statements marked a sharp escalation in the conflict between the White House and Democrats who control the House of Representatives. With Trump seeking re-election next year, Democrats are weighing whether to try to remove the Republican president from office using the impeachment process while pressing forward with demands for information on his taxes, businesses and other topics.

Shortly after Barr refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, Pelosi accused him of lying to lawmakers about interactions with Mueller after the special counsel ended a 22-month investigation into Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election to boost Trump’s candidacy. “That’s a crime,” Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, told reporters, referring to Barr’s congressional testimony.(Reuters)…[+]

One day af­ter cel­e­brat­ing his 70th birth­day, John “Jok­er” Mills, 70, a for­mer Amo­co oil work­er and his com­mon-law wife of 40 years, Eu­lyn John, 61, were found mur­dered in their home yes­ter­day. The cou­ple was found in the bed­room of their Cocrico Av­enue, Buc­coo home around 11.30 am by a nephew who had vis­it­ed to check on them.

Po­lice said Eu­lyn was found with her hands and feet bound with tie straps and gagged with a cloth and duct tape. John was found with a tie strap drawn tight­ly around his neck and his hands and feet bound with tie straps. He was re­port­ed­ly stabbed sev­er­al times about his chest, head, face and body, his throat was slit and the back of his head was bashed in. Po­lice be­lieve rob­bery may have been the mo­tive for the killing, but sources said there were no signs of forced en­try to the house.

Rel­a­tives and neigh­bours de­scribed the cou­ple as very qui­et and lov­ing peo­ple and could not un­der­stand who would want to per­pe­trate such a bru­tal act on them.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

French officials say medical staff narrowly averted “a catastrophe” after May Day demonstrators reportedly stormed a Paris hospital and attempted to force their way into an intensive care unit.

About 50 protesters – some wearing gilets jaunes (yellow vests) and others with masks – entered the hospital after the admission of a riot police officer who was hit in the face by a paving stone towards the end of a traditional union-led 1 May march. Staff at the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital said they stopped a group of protesters entering the emergency ward, but other intruders smashed computers and damaged equipment.

Police are holding 30 people in custody in connection with events at the hospital. Afterwards, a number of protesters claimed on social media that marchers only entered the hospital to escape riot police charges, water cannon and clouds of teargas.(theguardian)…[+]

A 21-year-old student killed in a shooting at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte saved some of his classmates’ lives by tackling the gunman and attempting to disarm him, the city’s top law enforcement official said yesterday.

Environmental studies student Riley Howell of Waynesville, North Carolina, one of two campus students shot to death on Tuesday evening, played a key role in ending the attack by a former student, said Kerr Putney, chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. “But for his work, the assailant may not have been disarmed,” Putney told a news conference.

“He’s an athletically built young man, and he took the fight to the assailant. Unfortunately he had to give his life to do so,” said Putney, himself a UNC Charlotte alumnus. “He took the assailant off his feet.” The other student killed in the shooting was Ellis Parlier, 19, officials said. Four students left wounded in the attack were identified as Drew Pescaro, 19; Sean DeHart, 20; Emily Houpt, 23; and Rami Alramadhan, 20.(Reuters)…[+]