News archive of February 2016

No religious minority group in Turkey should have to look abroad to educate its religious clerics, Directorate General of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) head Mehmet Görmez said on Feb. 28, expressing lukewarm support for the reopening of the Halki Seminary.

Syria's fragile cease-fire entered a second day yesterday with battlezones still largely quiet for the first time in five years, despite sporadic incidents including several air strikes.

One eight-year-old was repeatedly sold and raped, while another girl set herself on fire to make herself less attractive to her jihadist captors. These are only two of the more than 1,400 horror stories German doctor Jan ?lhan K?z?lhan has heard first-hand from Yazidi women and girls once enslaved by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists in Iraq.

In Iraq, the death toll from devastating back-to-back market bombings carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group the previous day in eastern Baghdad climbed to 73 on Feb. 29, officials said.

Several of the critically wounded died overnight while 112 people remain in hospital, two police officials said.

Bombings claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group killed at least 24 people in a Shiite area of Baghdad on Feb. 28, the deadliest attacks to hit the Iraqi capital this year.

The Specialized Criminal Court has released six tax officers from the northern Bulgarian city of Veliko Tarnovo on bail after they were detained on charges of administrative abuse and bribery.

The sums paid range between BGN 20 000 (EUR 10 000) for a former head of the Veliko Tarnovo branch of the National Revenue Agency (NRA) and five to fifteen thousand for each of the rest.

Chinese authorities on Feb. 28 shut down the social media accounts of a tycoon nicknamed "The Cannon" after he criticised the ruling Communist Party's tightening grip on the media.

A British stag party ended abruptly when a Ryanair pilot diverted a flight to Berlin, where German police temporarily took into custody six young men and levelled misdemeanour charges.

Elton John gave a surprise West Hollywood concert to several thousand fans ahead of the Oscars, with Lady Gaga as guest performer.

Turkey's opposition parties have expressed their fury over remarks made by President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, who said he had "no respect" for a recent Constitutional Court decision on two arrested journalists, while the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has stood by the statement.