German couple found dead in Turkish resort town

August 22, 2014 By administrator

The police found a German couple dead, with their hands tied and mouths taped shut, in an apartment the two were renting in the resort town of Alanya on Thursday.

Relatives of the couple could not reach them for a few days and the police were contacted to investigate. Unable to enter the apartment in Alanya, a town in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, police broke down the door and entered the unit to find the German couple dead.

The couple, Kerstin (50) and Peter Horvath (65), arrived in Alanya last month on vacation.

Police noted that the two were killed after sustaining blows to their heads. The couple was sent to the Alanya Municipality morgue. Experts believe the two might have been killed two weeks ago.

The gardener of the apartment, Şeref Ö., said he last saw the couple on Aug. 16. He was taken to Mahmutlar Gendarmerie Command to testify. Security services also seized security camera footage from the apartment complex.

Kurdish reporter killed in Iraqi Kurdistan

August 11, 2014 By administrator

New York, August 11, 2014–A Kurdish journalist was killed in Makhmur district, south of the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, on Friday when shrapnel from mortar shelling hit her in the chest, according to news reports. Deniz Firat, a freelance reporter, was covering clashes between Kurdish forces and insurgents with the Islamic State, an Al-Qaeda splinter group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, the Firat News Agency said.

“As the violence in Iraq increases, all parties involved need to ensure that journalists covering the conflict are treated as civilians and can report safely,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator.

Firat, who was from the Kurdish city of Van in eastern Turkey, had been embedded with Kurdish forces, according to Rahman Gharib, general coordinator for the local press freedom group Metro Center to Defend Journalists, and news reports. She was reporting for the Firat agency, an outlet based outside Turkey that offers a pro-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) viewpoint. She also reported for several pro-Kurdish TV stations, including Sterk TV, Med NUÇE, and Ronahi TV.

Kurdish forces regained control over Makhmur district after U.S. air strikes in the region on Friday, according to reports. The strikes aimed to stop the Islamic State offensive in northern Iraq, reports said.

The escalation of violence and the instability in Iraq have led to a substantial increase in the risks that journalists face in the region. More than a dozen journalists have been killed in the past year in Iraq, according to CPJ research.

Firat’s body was sent back to Turkey after her funeral, according to news reports. The Metro Center organized a candlelight vigil in Sulaymaniyah for the journalist.

Armenian side has one casualty and 2 injuries – MOD

July 26, 2014 By administrator

YEREVAN. – One military serviceman has died and two others are wounded while driving back the adversary’s sabotage-intelligence operations, in the early morning hours on Saturday, at the northeastern borders of Armenia and on the Line of Contact of the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh]Republic (NKR), in several directions.

Armenia Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan stated the aforementioned on Saturday.

“Suffering losses, the adversary withdrew. Glory and honor to all those soldiers thanks to whose blood that has been shed that today we live in the conditions of peace,” the minister said.

In Ohanyan’s words, the subdivisions of the Armenian armed forces control of the situation.

The NKR MOD reported earlier that the adversary on Saturday attempted to conduct sabotage-intelligence infiltrations in the northern and northeastern directions of the Line of Contact between the Karabakh-Azerbaijani opposing forces.

The NKR Defense Army vanguard units, however, drove the adversary back to its initial positions causing them to suffer casualties and leave behind a large number of technical equipment and armaments.

Sadly, however, Armenian military serviceman Khachatur Badasyan (born in 1994) was mortally wounded as a result of the military operations.