News archive of April 2017

A decision to freeze the assets of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the head of an Afghan Islamist organization, has been lifted in Turkey, following lifting sanctions against him by the United Nations.

The decision was published in the Official Gazette on April 30.

A man arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist act on Thursday, carrying knives near Prime Minister Theresa May’s office, was on a ship raided by Israeli soldiers in 2010, sources familiar with the investigation have told Reuters.

Turkey banned television dating shows with a new state of emergency decree published in the Official Gazette on April 29. 

Ankara declared a state of emergency after the July 15, 2016 military coup attempt, widely believed to have been orchestrated by the movement of the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, and has been issuing decrees ever since.

Turkey has blocked access to online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the country's telecommunications watchdog said on April 29, citing a law allowing it to ban access to websites deemed obscene or a threat to national security.

Ankara is gravely concerned by photos of U.S. soldiers attending the funerals of Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militants, who it says are linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in the wake of Turkish air strikes on the two groups, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said. 

Turkey may hit outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and People's Protection Units' (YPG) targets in Syria "at any moment," President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, slamming the patrolling of the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) coalition on the Turkey-Syria border on April 30.

The National Security Agency announced Friday it would end its controversial practice of sweeping up any email or text message an American exchanges with someone overseas that makes reference to a real target of NSA surveillance.

Some 3,974 public officials were dismissed with two new state of emergency decrees published in the Official Gazette on April 29. 

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has just flown closer to Saturn than ever before – and returned some incredible photos in the process.

An Iranian-origin British owner of a production company and his Kuwaiti business partner were shot dead in Istanbul late on April 29 by masked individuals who opened fire on their vehicle.

The incident occurred at 20:15 p.m. in Istanbul's Maslak Square.