
Turkey's Erdogan lifts threat to expel Western ambassadors
CTV
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Monday stepped back from a threat to expel the ambassadors of 10 Western nations over their support for a jailed activist, defusing a potential diplomatic crisis.
"We believe that these ambassadors, who have fulfilled their commitment to Article 41 of the Vienna Convention, will now be more careful in their statements," he said in televised remarks following a three-hour Cabinet meeting in Ankara.
The envoys, including those of the U.S., Germany and France, last week called for the release of philanthropist Osman Kavala, who has been in a Turkish prison for four years awaiting trial on charges many view as unfounded.
The ambassadors of the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and New Zealand also joined the appeal.
As Monday's Cabinet meeting was underway, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara tweeted that it "maintains compliance" with Article 41, which outlines diplomats' duties to respect the laws of the host state and not to interfere in internal affairs. Other missions posted the same message.

Two golfers in Washington, D.C., sued the U.S. government on Friday to try to prevent the Trump administration from overhauling a more than 100-year-old public golf course, accusing the administration of violating environmental laws and polluting a park that is on the National Register of Historic Places.

‘Utterly wicked, perverse and depraved’: U.K. nursery worker jailed for sexually assaulting children
A British nursery worker was jailed for 18 years on Thursday for sexually assaulting young children in his care and filming the attacks, in what the sentencing judge described as “utterly wicked, perverse and depraved” abuse.











