In a massive security operation before US President George W. Bush's arrival yesterday, Turkish police defused bombs, sealed off streets and detained scores of people as a recent spate of bombings put the country on alert.
A false report of a bomb blast yesterday morning caused confusion briefly until officials clarified it had been a gas explosion in a hotel in southern Turkey.
Two confirmed small bomb blasts overnight caused minor damage but no injuries in the southern city of Adana, and police defused a remote-controlled bomb placed under a car in the Black Sea port town of Zonguldak, the semi-official Anatolia news agency said. Twin bombings killed four people two days ago.
For weeks, demonstrators have protested against a NATO summit that begins tomorrow in Istanbul and against the US president, who is extremely unpopular in a country where most people opposed the Iraq war.
Some 500 worshippers gathered after prayers Friday at Istanbul's 16th-century Beyazit mosque, some chanting "Death to Bush."
In the capital, Ankara, police prepared to close several roads to traffic hours for Bush's arrival. He was to meet with Turkish leaders in Ankara today before proceeding to Istanbul for the summit.
Police sealed off streets in Istanbul, searching cars and blowing up suspect packages as part of the security operation.
More than 23,000 officers will be on duty during the summit, to be attended by leaders of NATO countries, including Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac.
Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said Friday there was "no situation present that would affect the NATO meeting."
Around the Istanbul convention center where the NATO summit will take place, police have installed dark-blue steel barricades.
Officers searched the trunks of cars and frisked people along the road leading to Istanbul's airport Friday, causing gridlock on Istanbul's already clogged streets.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
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Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
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