PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT MEETS IN GAZA FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2014

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian cabinet met in Gaza on Tuesday for the first time since 2014 in a further step towards the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority retaking control of the territory. The meeting of the government, which is based in the occupied West Bank, comes as part of moves to end a decade- long split between the PA and the Islamist Hamas movement, which runs Gaza. In an opening speech, Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah renewed his pledge to end the rift. “We are here to turn the page on division, restore the national project to its correct direction and establish the ( Palestinian) state,” he said. It was the first meeting of

TURKEY DETAINS 35 ISTANBUL OFFICIALS OVER COUP LINKS – REPORT

ISTANBUL: Turkish police on Tuesday arrested 35 local authority officials in Istanbul over alleged ties to last year’s failed coup, just weeks after the city’s long- serving mayor stepped down, state media reported. Another 77 Istanbul officials also face arrest, with a total of 112 warrants issued for current or former employees of several district authorities, Anadolu news agency reported. They are accused of links to US- based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for orchestrating the bloody coup, charges he fiercely rejects. They are accused of “membership in an armed terror group,” Anadolu

TOM PETTY, HEARTLAND ROCKER WITH DARK STREAK, DEAD AT 66

NEW YORK: Tom Petty, the Southern-accented rocker whose classic melodies and dark storytelling created 40 years of hit songs, died Monday of cardiac arrest, his family said. He was 66. Petty, who sold 80 million records, passed away Monday evening surrounded by loved ones after a confusing day in which several media outlets reported and then retracted premature news of his death. “On behalf of the Tom Petty family we are devastated to announce the untimely death of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty,” a family statement said. Early on Monday, Petty suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu, exactly a week after he triumphantly put on what would be his career- capping concert.