NEWS OF THE DAY
Mosque shooting death: The death toll from the Christchurch mosque attacks has risen to 51 after a Turkish man who had been hospitalized since a gunman opened fire on worshipers seven weeks ago died overnight, authorities in New Zealand and Turkey confirmed. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Friday the sad news would be felt across both countries. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said the father of two was wounded in the back and the leg and died after undergoing surgery. New Zealand police said Zekeriya Tuyan was 46. He was one of three Turkish citizens wounded in the attack. Relations between Turkey and New Zealand have been strained since the attack after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan showed clips of a livestream video taken by the gunman at election campaigns to denounce hatred against Islam. New Zealand authorities have banned the video, and anybody caught sharing it in New Zealand can face up to 14 years in prison.
Justice chief quits: The Cypriot justice minister, Ionas Nicolaou, resigned Thursday as criticism of police mounted for mistakes that may have let a serial killer claim more victims. The president vowed that Cyprus would solve these slayings and promised better protections for the island’s foreign workers. A detained Cypriot army captain has admitted to killing seven foreign women and girls, but he has not been named because he has not yet been formally charged. Critics say Cypriot police did little to investigate the disappearances of the women because they were low-paid workers who came to the island from other countries. Two of the victims — a Romanian mother and her 8-year-old daughter — had vanished in 2016. Other victims include three Filipino women and one of their 6-year-old daughters. Police Chief Zacharias Chrysostomou is slated to meet with the Cypriot president on Friday amid speculation he may also be on his way out.
Prisoner freed: The Vietnamese woman who was tried for killing the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader has been released from a Malaysian prison, an embassy official in Kajang, Malaysia, said Friday. Doan Thi Huong’s lawyers have said she is expected fly back to Hanoi later Friday. Huong pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of causing injury after prosecutors dropped the murder charge against her. Huong and Siti Aisyah, who was freed in March, were accused of killing Kim Jong Nam at a Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017.
Sudan protest: Tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters took part in a mass rally Thursday to step up pressure on the military to hand power to civilians following last month’s overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir. Demonstrators gathered at meeting points across the capital, Khartoum, and marched toward the main sit-in outside the military headquarters, waving Sudanese flags and chanting slogans against the transitional military council.
Measles quarantine: Authorities on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia said Thursday that they quarantined a cruise ship with about 300 people aboard after discovering a confirmed case of measles aboard. Dr. Merlene Fredericks-James, the island’s chief medical officer, said the ship, identified the ship as the Freewinds, was still in port and no one had been allowed to disembark since its arrival. “One infected person can easily infect others,” she said in a public statement. Fredericks-James said a doctor aboard the ship requested 100 doses of the measles vaccine.
Chronicle News Services