Police have found the body of an Italian artist and activist who went missing while hitchhiking in Turkey dressed in a wedding gown to appeal for peace, officials said.
A man suspected of killing the artist, Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, was detained late on Friday and charged with murder on Saturday, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
The woman was last seen on March 31 in the industrial city of Gebze while hitchhiking to Israel in the wedding dress as part of her “Brides on Tour” project, aimed at pleading for peace in conflict areas.
PHOTO: EPA
Police found her naked body hidden in bushes in a forested area near Gebze, northwest Turkey, after questioning the suspect late on Friday, the governor’s office said.
The artist, also known as Pippa Bacca, was hitchhiking to the Palestinian territories with a friend, who was also wearing a wedding gown.
The two left di Marineo’s hometown of Milan on March 8 and hitchhiked to Turkey. They separated in Istanbul shortly before di Marineo went missing.
Police tracked down the suspect when he switched on di Marineo’s mobile phone, having inserted his own SIM card, an Italian embassy official said. The official asked not to be named because he was not authorized to give information on the police investigation.
The Dogan and Anatolia news agencies said the woman had been strangled.
The Italian embassy official would not confirm the reports.
Anatolia identified the suspect as 38-year-old Murat Karatas and said he had previously been convicted for theft.
One of di Marineo’s sisters, who was in Turkey to search for the artist, identified the body.
“Her travels were for an artistic performance and to give a message of peace and of trust, but not everyone deserves trust,” another sister, Maria, was quoted as saying in Milan by Italian news agency ANSA.
“We weren’t particularly worried because she had been hitchhiking for a long time and was therefore capable of avoiding risky situations,” she said, according to ANSA. “She was a determined person when working for art.”
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS