11 killed, 36 wounded in Istanbul car bombing attack

As many as 11 people, including seven policemen, were killed and 36 others wounded in the bomb attack that targeted a police bus in the central Beyazıt district of Istanbul, near the city's historic quarter, Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin said.

 

He said three of the wounded people were in a critical condition.

Tuesday's explosion occurred as a police vehicle was passing in the area. Gunshots were heard following the explosion.

The wounded were taken to Çapa and Cerrahpaşa Hospitals close to the scene.

There is no immediate claim of responsibility. Details Here ...

70-year-old woman gives birth to first baby in India

New Delhi, India: A woman who gave birth at the age of 70 said Tuesday she was not too old to become a first-time mother, adding that her life was now complete. Daljinder Kaur gave birth last month to a boy following two years of IVF treatment at a fertility clinic in the northern state of Haryana with her 79-year-old husband

Kaur said the couple, married for 46 years, had almost lost hope of ever having a child. "God heard our prayers. My life feels complete now. I am looking after the baby all by myself, I feel so full of energy. My husband is also very caring and helps me as much as he can,"

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Kaur said from Amritsar. "When we saw the (IVF) advert, we thought we should also give it a try as I badly wanted to have a baby of my own," she said. Kaur put her age at about 70, a common scenario in India where many people don't have birth certificates, while the clinic said in a statement that she was 72.

The baby was conceived using the couple's own egg and sperm and was now "healthy and hearty" after weighing just two kilogrammes (4.4 pounds) at birth on April 19, the National Fertility and Test Tube centre said. Kaur's husband, Mohinder Singh Gill, who owns a farm outside Amritsar, said he was unfazed about their age, saying God would watch over their child whom they named Armaan. "People say what will happen to the child once we die. But I have full faith in God. God is omnipotent and omnipresent, he will take care of everything," he said. READ MORE HERE ...

Muslims are part of Germany, but Islam is not, says senior German politician

Muslims are a part of Germany, but Islam is not, a senior German politician and close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.

Volker Kauder, of the Christian Democratic Union, was interviewed by local newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung in response to earlier comments by former president Christian Wulff, who asserted that Islam was a part of Germany.

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Kauder said the statement, while "well-intentioned", was not factually correct.

"Just so there is no misunderstanding: the Muslims themselves are part of Germany, no question about it."

However, he said, Islam has had no role in shaping Germany "historically and culturally" and so cannot be considered an integral part of the country's culture.

Kauder also argued that, since Islam does not take one homogenous form, it cannot as an entity be said to be part of Germany.

He said that, as a diverse religion, Islam sometimes takes on forms "that we can never accept in Germany".

However, he Kauder warned against excluding Muslims, as he accused far-right populist parties of seeking to do. "It is, of course, permissible to build mosques with minarets," Kauder said. READ MORE HERE ...