Car bomb attack kills 11 people in Istanbul
Car bomb attack kills 11 people in Istanbul
ISTANBUL (AP) — A car bomb hit a police vehicle in Istanbul during the morning rush hour Tuesday, killing 11 people, including seven police officers, and wounding 36, the fourth bombing to hit the city this year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Turkey has seen a recent increase in violence linked to Kurdish rebels or the Islamic State, which has found recruits and established cells in the country.
Turkey’s state-operated news agency, the Anadolu Agency, said police detained four people in connection with the attack.
The private Dogan news agency said the four suspects hired the car used in the bombing attack.
Speaking at the scene of the blast in Beyazit district, Istanbul Gov. Vasip Sahin said a bomb placed inside a car detonated as a police vehicle passed by.
Sahin declined to comment about who might be behind the attack and authorities imposed a news blackout preventing media from reporting details about the probe in Turkey, citing concerns about security and police and forensic efforts to investigate the attack.
Such bans primarily affect the diffusion of graphic images on local television channels. Turkish citizens can access information from other sources via the internet or satellite dishes.
The United States condemned the attack as “horrific.” White House spokesman Mark Stroh said the U.S. stands with Turkey as both countries confront challenges in the region.
Excluded groups say they should be part of UN AIDS meeting
NEW YORK (AP) — Gay, transgender and other groups blocked from participating in a high-level U.N. meeting about AIDS represent the populations most affected by the disease and should take center stage at the event, advocates said Tuesday.
Nearly two dozen civil society organizations from five continents that provide services for LGBT communities, intravenous drug users and others were denied access to the three-day General Assembly meeting that starts today at the request of Russia, Cameroon, Tanzania and 51 Muslim countries.
Under U.N. rules, any of the 193 member countries can veto the participation of any non-governmental organization without providing a reason.
Those excluded decided to have their own event outside the U.N., hosted by the Ford Foundation.
Defendant in SC church shootings faces November trial
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The federal death penalty trial of a white man charged with shooting and killing nine black parishioners during a Bible study at their Charleston church will be in November, a judge announced Tuesday.
Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel set Nov. 7 to begin selecting jurors for the federal trial of Dylann Roof, 22, who faces numerous counts, including hate crimes, in the June 17 shootings at Emanuel AME Church.
That’s about two months before Roof’s state death-penalty trial. Roof faces nine counts of murder in state court in a trial set to begin in January.
Confident Assad vows to ‘liberate’ every inch of Syria
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — President Bashar Assad vowed Tuesday his troops would “liberate” every inch of Syria, just like they recaptured the ancient town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group, in a speech that reflected his renewed confidence as the military pressed on toward Raqqa, the extremists’ self-styled capital.
His remarks in parliament came as his opponents, backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, are struggling for survival and his troops have almost encircled rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.
Saying the military situation was much better than it was months ago, Assad told the lawmakers that Aleppo will be “the graveyard where the hopes and dreams of the butcher Erdogan will be buried.”
The reference was to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the staunchest supporters of the rebels fighting to topple Assad. Erdogan has allowed safe passage from his country for fighters and weapons over the border into Syria.
Assad also described Erdogan as a “thug” and a “fascist” in the speech, which was frequently interrupted by applause.
Prosecutor backs off Detroit man’s 4 murder convictions
DETROIT (AP) — A judge Tuesday threw out the murder convictions of a young Detroit man who pleaded guilty to killing four people at age 14, a remarkable turnaround in a case that has been in doubt for years after a professional hit man stepped forward and took responsibility for the slayings at a drug den.
Judge Brian Sullivan acted at the request of the Wayne County prosecutor’s office and lawyers for Davontae Sanford. Prosecutor Kym Worthy had long resisted efforts to revisit the convictions until law schools at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University and other pro bono lawyers got involved in 2015.
Sanford, now 23, is in a prison in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but he’ll now be released on bond, probably by Wednesday, and all charges will be dropped after the judge learns more about the conclusions by state police in an investigation that was requested last year by Worthy.
“No one can give Davontae Sanford and his family back the nine years he has spent in jail for a crime he did not commit, but the court’s decision corrects a grave injustice,” said Heidi Naasko, an attorney for Sanford.
David Moran, director of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school, said Sanford’s time in prison reflected a “complete breakdown” in the criminal justice system.