News in Brief
Commandos killed in suicide bomb attack
A suicide car bomber set off an explosion yesterday that blew up a bus transporting off-duty soldiers in Turkey’s central province of Kayseri, killing 13 troops and wounding 56 other people, authorities said.
The blast comes just a week after a car bomb attack claimed by Kurdish militants killed 44 people, mainly riot police, and wounded more than 150 others near a football stadium in Istanbul.
Interior minister Suleyman Soylu said the identity of the Kayseri bomber was known and that seven people had been taken into custody in connection with the attack, with police searching for five others.
Prime minister Binali Yildirim said the suicide attacker ambushed a commando brigade on weekend leave in the city of Kayseri. The Turkish army said 48 troops were among the wounded in the “treacherous attack”.
Subway on eve of opening after 45 years
New Yorkers have become accustomed to waiting for the subway. But for nearly 45 years?
That’s how long it has been since construction began on a much-needed line beneath the east side of Manhattan. And if history is any guide, it’s anybody’s guess whether the New Year’s Eve deadline to open it will actually be met.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has been pushing the deadline for the Second Avenue subway hard in recent days, saying it is about the faith that people have in government. “Nobody believes it’s going to be done on time, nobody,” the Democratic governor said in a radio interview. But he added: “If we can get it done on time ... if we can open that thing up at the beginning of the year, maybe people will start to say once again: ‘Wow, maybe we can do something.’”
Fighter jets attack ethnic rebels’ HQ
Myanmar government forces have started launching attacks on the headquarters of the military wing of one of the country’s ethnic rebel groups, the group said yesterday.
Tang San, a battalion commander for the Kachin Independence Army, said government forces had been using “fighter jets and heavy weapons continuously” to target the headquarters in north-eastern Mynamar since early on Friday.
Ethnic rebel groups in the north east have been waging attacks on government forces since last month. They have said that the attacks are in response to military pressure, but that they are still interested in peace talks to try to end decades of fighting between the government and ethnic minority groups.
Emin ‘to quit London’ after planning row
Tracey Emin is reportedly looking to move out of London after losing a planning battle to redevelop her East End property.
The Turner Prize-nominated artist withdrew a planning appeal last week after Tower Hamlets Council rejected her application to demolish a listed building in Spitalfields earlier this year, the Guardian reported.
In its place, she had hoped to erect a new five-storey house with a private artist’s studio space, but faced opposition from conservation groups.
The newspaper quoted her as saying: “Why would you want to be somewhere you’re not wanted? What I’m going to do now is move out of London.
“There’s places now in Britain that are desperate for artists – Margate’s thriving, Folkestone, Hastings, all that Kent coast. And I could have a giant studio and be really relaxed.”
Mugabe wins candidacy fight at age of 92
Zimbabwe’s ruling party has endorsed 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe as its candidate in a national election scheduled for 2018.
The Zanu-PF party announced the endorsement at an annual conference in the south-east town of Masvingo. The party’s youth wing even proposed that he should rule for life with broad powers.
In a speech on Friday, Mr Mugabe acknowledged that some people within the party wanted him to quit and he warned officials to stop squabbling as a succession battle intensifies. Mr Mugabe has been in power since Zimbabwe’s independence from white minority rule in 1980.