Turkey ammunition depot blast, killed 4 soldiers
AP, Ankara
Turkey’s president says four soldiers have been killed and around 20 others injured in an explosion at an ammunition depot at a base in southeast Turkey.
The Defense Ministry had announced Friday that 25 soldiers were wounded and seven others were missing following an unexplained accident during the firing of heavy weapons ammunition. The blast occurred at a base in Hakkari province, bordering Iraq and Iran. The base is used to combat Kurdish rebels.
Saudi coalition asks to end refuelling deal with US
AFP, Dubai
The Saudi-led coalition that is bombing Yemen has asked for the “cessation of inflight refueling support” from the United States, a statement from the Saudi press agency said on Saturday.
The move follows a report in the Washington Post that the US was to end the deal, and comes amid ongoing international outcry over Saudi actions in Yemen, particularly after a string of high-profile coalition strikes that have killed scores of civilians, many of them children.
UK cop jailed for killing Indian
PTI, London:
A police officer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison by a UK court for causing death by dangerous driving. Indian-origin shopkeeper Balvinder Singh was killed in 2016, when the policeman’s car had crashed into his van.
Balvinder Singh was driving his vehicle in Wolverhampton when he was hit head-on by a car driven by Staffordshire Police officer Jason Bannister, who was off-duty at the time.
France ‘illegitimately’ holding Indian Ocean island: Russia
AFP, Moscow
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused France of ignoring UN resolutions and illegitimately holding the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte. Situated between Madagascar and Mozambique, Mayotte is the only island in the Comoros archipelago which did not split from France after an independence referendum in 1974.
Fox says UK may not get a deal with EU
Reuters, London
Britain may not be able to reach a divorce deal with the European Union because a number of contentious issues still stand in the way, trade minister Liam Fox said on Saturday.
“We are seeing a difficult end to the negotiation,” he told Sky News. Asked what would happen if Britain failed to get its way over outstanding issues such as Northern Ireland, he said.
9 die in California wildfires
AFP, Paradise
Nine people were declared dead and tens of thousands evacuated Friday as fierce wildfires raged across the western US state of California, with one rapidly spreading blaze threatening the famed resort of Malibu.
