Turkey's Constitutional Court has ruled that the country's block on accessing Wikipedia is unconstitutional.
The court said the ban violated rights concerning freedom of expression, and ordered it be lifted.
The Turkish government barred the website in 2017 because of entries suggesting Turkey had co-operated with jihadist militants in Syria.
Turkish censors have often temporarily blocked websites carrying content critical of the government.
The Wikimedia Foundation took Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in May over the ban, arguing that the blocking of the online encyclopaedia violated the right to freedom of expression.
Thursday's ruling is a significant victory for the foundation.
Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, celebrated the ruling in a tweet, writing 'welcome back Turkey'.
A passenger plane has crashed in Kazakhstan, killing at least 15 people.
Officials say the aircraft from Bek Air - a Kazakh airline went down shortly after taking off from Almaty airport on Friday morning, smashing into a building.
At least 60 injured people, including children, were taken to hospitals.
Flight Z92100 was en route from Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, to the capital Nur-Sultan.
The cause of the crash is not known.
A Reuters reporter close to the scene said there was heavy fog at the time.
Almaty's airport said there were 93 passengers and five crew on board the Fokker 100 aircraft. A full list of the passengers published by Kazakhstan's interior ministry said there were 85 adults, five children and three infants on board, not counting the crew.
The airport said the plane lost height at 07:22 local time (01:22 GMT), before striking a concrete barrier and crashing into a two-storey building. There was no fire upon impact.
The airport later published the list of 60 survivors who were being treated at hospitals.
A Moroccan YouTuber has been sentenced to four years in prison for “insulting the king” in a video broadcast on social networks, his lawyer says.
In a separate case, a Moroccan journalist and activist was charged and detained over a tweet that had criticized a court decision, his defense council tells AFP.
The cases come after the Moroccan Human Rights Association had deplored in July an “escalation of violations of human rights and public and individual freedoms” in Morocco.
The YouTuber Mohamed Sekkaki, known as “Moul Kaskita,” was sentenced by a court in the western city of Settat to four years in prison, his lawyer Mohamed Ziane tells AFP.
Sekkaki, whose videos usually exceed 100,000 views, was arrested in early December after posting a video in which he insulted Moroccans as “donkeys” and criticised King Mohammed VI, whose is considered “inviolable” under the constitution.
Ziani says his client would appeal the verdict.
The conviction of the YouTuber came less than a month after a Moroccan rapper was sentenced to a year in prison for “insulting a public official.”
A twin has lost his beloved brother to brain cancer at the age of just 25. Ashan Corrick, from the South Gloucestershire town of Filton, near Bristol, had a headache for just two days before he was diagnosed with incurable stage-four brain cancer.
The devastating diagnosis was made at Southmead Hospital on August 17, and died just under four months later.
Before his diagnosis Ashan could not recall ever having been ill in his entire life.
His family raised more than £6,000 for experimental treatments but Ashan tragically lost his cancer battle on December 17, reports Bristol Live .
His twin Aysa posted a Facebook tribute saying Ashan had made him "the proudest brother in the world".
It reads: "Tonight was the last night I said good night to my twin brother... the most painful day I will ever go through.
"He fought so hard for the past week but unfortunately he lost his battle with cancer. He left peaceful and in our mother's arms.
"Thank you everyone for their kind words and constant support through this. Believe it or not, it has made it so much easier for everyone in our family so thank you so much.
"I love you all so much and I know this will upset a lot but one thing Ashan got upset about when he had the news he received was how much this affected people and I promised him we'll celebrate and remember the happiness he brought to our lives."
Aysa plans to organise "one of the biggest parties Bristol has ever seen" in mid-to-late January in memory of Ashan.
The management of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile-Ife, has renamed the Paediatric Ward 11 as Prof. Jerome Elusiyan Ward to immortalise the late chairman of the institution’s Medical Advisory Committee.
The renaming of the ward was announced at a commendation service held for the late Elusiyan at the institution’s Chapel of Grace on Thursday.
The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Victor Adetiloye, in his tribute, said the deceased lived a fulfilled and impactful life and deputised for him from April 2018 till his death.
Adetiloye said Elusiyan was loyal, devoted, honest, diligent and an exemplary leader whose death was a great loss.
Elusiyan until his demise was a consultant paediatric Endicrinologist and CMAC of the teaching hospital.
He would be buried in his hometown, Oke-Igbo, Ondo State, on Friday (today).
The deceased was murdered while returning to Ife from the Ambrose Ali University on December 13.
One of the UK's most wanted men has been arrested by Dutch police as he sat down to eat his Christmas dinner.
Daniel Burdett, 28, from Liverpool, was detained on a European Arrest Warrant at a restaurant in The Hague on Christmas Day after five years on the run, a spokesman for the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Investigators suspect Burdett, also wanted by Merseyside Police for drugs offences, is the ringleader of a criminal gang believed to be using corrupt lorry drivers to smuggle firearms and ammunition from the Netherlands into the UK.
He faces 10 charges of conspiracy to import firearms and conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs.
Burdett has previously featured in the Liverpool ECHO's festive fugitive campaign to track down Merseyside's most-wanted.
Burdett is due to appear before Dutch magistrates who will consider extraditing him to the UK to face the charges.
A company run by Bruce Lee's daughter is suing a popular Chinese fast food chain over its use of an image of the late martial arts star.
Shannon Lee's Bruce Lee Enterprises alleges Real Kungfu has used the image in its logo without permission.
The firm wants the fast food chain to immediately remove the image, and is reportedly seeking $30m (£23.1m) in compensation.
The restaurant argues local authorities approved its use of the logo.
The image depicts a dark-haired man in a martial arts pose.
"The Real Kungfu chain's logo is one that the company had applied for and obtained after a rigorous screening by the national trademark agency, we have already been using this for 15 years", the company said in a statement posted on China's Weibo platform.
"We are baffled that after so many years we are now being sued, and we are currently energetically studying the case and preparing our response."
The Guangzhou-based fast food chain, which is known as Zhen Gongfu in Mandarin, was founded in 1990 and has around 600 outlets across China.
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of a 24-year-old man and his 21-year-old girlfriend, whose bodies were found in their rented house in Nguluni, Matungulu Sub-County in Machakos County, Kenya on Christmas Day.
Neighbours say the last time they saw the couple in public was on December 22.
It is suspected the man, Stephen Mumo, who hails from Mumbuni Village in Kathiani, Machakos County, strangled his partner Anne Mariam Chalia, a native of Kitungati Village in Chuluni, Kitui County, before committing suicide by hanging.
Elizabeth Syombua Munguti, the landlady of the house that the lovers had rented, said the two moved into the building on December 15, and their union was marred by constant wrangles and domestic violence.
On December 25, the property owner said upon peeping through the couple’s window, she saw the lovers’ bodies.
“The man was hanging from a mosquito net tied to the roof, whereas the woman was lying on the bed,” said Syombua.
Police were called to the scene and took the bodies to Kangundo District Hospital mortuary.
Here are photos from the wedding of singer 9ice to the mother of one of his children, Olasunkanmi
yesterday. We say big congrats to them. More photos below....
The Kogi State Government says over 300 ghost workers have again found their way into its payroll.
The state Head of Service, Mrs Deborah Ogunmola, disclosed this in Lokoja on Thursday.
She said that the development was at the centre of the meeting she held with permanent secretaries and directors of finance and administration in the state civil service on Dec. 26.
According to her, the ghost workers are mainly those not cleared during the screening exercise conducted by the state government.
“Some state civil servants were recently dropped from salary in August because they were not cleared in 2016,” she said.
A newborn baby reportedly died after being given a sip of alcohol by his grandfather in China.
The unnamed man proposed a toast at a party marking the baby turning one month old, when he was apparently goaded into giving the baby some of his drink.
The boy was taken back by his mum but had already begun struggling to breathe before being rushed to hospital where he died.
Friends and family of the infant had gathered at his parents' home in Beijing on July 12 for the four-week anniversary, traditionally held to bless and celebrate a newborn, reports Sin Chew Daily.
The baby's grandfather was the holding him when he proposed a toast before someone teased him that he could not take a drink unless the child did first.
The man is said to have given in to the peer pressure and poured some alcohol into his grandson's mouth.
Just tiny amounts of alcohol can poison children and potentially lead to death.
Their tiny bodies absorb it more quickly than adults, according to medical experts.
Alcohol impacts the nervous system, causing glucose in the blood to fall, which can lead to seizures and comas, while heart rate and blood pressure can also slow to fatal levels.
Dr Abdullah Kabir, a gynaecologist with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), has stressed the need for addressing growing cases of infertility in women of reproductive age in Bauchi State.
Kabiru stated this in Bauchi on Thursday. He noted that cases of infertility were currently on the increase, especially among spinsters.
“These days, cases of infertility are increasing among women of reproductive age and such symptoms have been manifesting even in young ladies who are not married,” Kabiru said.
According to him, some of the causes are infection-related, including fibroid and blockage of fallopian tubes.
Although he said some might be curable, if detected early, he, however, said that preventive measures were the best option to guide against such cases.
The gynaecologist urged mature women of all ages to always contact their doctors for regular check-ups, especially anytime they noticed abnormal discharges and issues relating to their monthly menstrual cycle.
A Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor at the Open Heavens group based in Charlton, south-east London, Gabriel Diya, and his two children, died at a swimming pool in the Costa del Sol, in the south of Spain on Christmas eve.
Gabriel Diya, 52, his daughter Comfort Diya, nine, and his son Praise-Emmanuel Diya, 16, were named as the tourists who died at the Club La Costa World complex in Spain on Christmas Eve.
Mr Diya, who was a Christian pastor in south-east London, and his daughter are both understood to be British while his son was travelling on a US passport.
His wife Olubunmi Diya, 49, and younger daughter Favour Diya, 14, were also on the holiday but were unharmed.
On Thursday they told investigators that none of their relatives could properly swim and only nine-year-old Comfort had 'some idea'.
It is feared that the family could have fallen victim to a suction problem which made it impossible for the nine-year-old girl's father and brother to rescue her after she got into difficulties at the resort near Fuengirola.
It was revealed that police divers had found her swimming cap as they investigate the Christmas tragedy.
But the exact circumstances of their deaths remained a mystery this morning as resort chiefs said they had been given permission to reopen the pool and insisted a police investigation had found 'no concerns' with it.
Mr Diya, who also ran his own property business, was a pastor at Open Heavens London in Charlton, south-east London, which is part of a network called the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
It is part of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, which posted in tribute on Facebook: 'With heavy hearts, we extend our condolences to the family, parish, friends and associates of Area Pastor Gabriel Diya who sadly passed away, along with two of his children ... in a tragic incident while on a family holiday in Spain.
'At this very difficult time, our prayers are for Pastor Gabriel Diya's family, the parishes that were under his supervision, friends, associates, members of RCCG and the general public.'
A neighbour of the family told the PA news agency she was 'really devastated' to learn of the deaths, describing the Diyas as 'very religious, very friendly, very humble'.
Speaking outside her home in Charlton, south-east London, Lara Akins, 59, added: 'I still can't comprehend it, it's still shocking.
'They are so nice, that is why everybody is shocked... we are very friendly with each other.'
Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde on Wednesday lashed out at those criticising him for reversing some of his earlier decisions in the last seven months of his administration, saying he will not be too proud to reverse himself whenever it’s necessary to do so.
According to him, only God is infallible. He also assured that he would not be a party to chasing traders off the streets without first providing them alternatives, recounting that he once sold bread at Yemetu area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The governor, who spoke when he joined members of the Muslim community at the Oja’ba Central Mosque for a special prayer to commemorate his 52nd birthday, also said that his government would always be open to corrections.
He said: “We don’t know it all. If people tell us what we need to do, we will act. I am not proud to the extent that I can’t reverse myself because I know that pride comes before a fall.
“Somebody said that I was quoted as saying that I would not chase away street traders without providing them with alternatives. Yes, that is true because I know the mentality of street trading. I once sold bread by the roadside in Yemetu Area.
“I said so because we cannot send them away until we provide an alternative for them. And we have started enforcing that. We did that at Ojoo, where we asked people not to trade at the point where we want to situate our modern terminus.
Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has retained his position as the ‘Best Performing Governor,’ according to the assessment of the Progressive Governors Forum’s Progressive Strides Tracking Developmental Initiatives in APC states.
Addressing reporters in his office on Wednesday, Ganduje’s Chief Press Secretary, Malam Abba Anwar, stated that the assessment was part of the strategy to further deepen good governance among All Progressives Congress (APC) states in the country.
He explained: “Under this methodology, APC states are assessed on a monthly basis.
The assessment cuts across all sectors of government, ranging from health, education, agriculture, housing, transport, environmental sanitation, among others. All states are equally assessed and evaluated.”
“For the period of three consecutive months, that is three assessments from September, October to November, of this year, 2019, Kano under Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje takes the leading positions with various degrees of improvement from one stage to another.”
Mohamed Salah gave a rare glimpse of his family life when the Liverpool star shared photos of himself enjoying Christmas Day with his wife and daughter.
Salah shared the photo of his family in front of their Christmas tree with his 35million followers on Instagram.
The Liverpool forward, his wife Maggi and their daughter Makka were relaxing at home on Christmas Day before Salah goes back to work on Liverpool's title challenge with their Boxing Day game away to Leicester City.
In the photo - which clocked up 1.5 million likes in just one hour - Salah beamed at the camera while placing an arm around his wife and young daughter as he posed bare foot in front of their huge blue and white tree.
Captioning the photo with two Christmas tree emojis, Salah wore an understated black outfit, pairing dark jeans with a hoodie.
Men of the Ogun State Police Command have arrested 23 suspects, including a dismissed soldier, for armed robbery, kidnapping and murder.
The state Commissioner of Police, Kenneth Embrison, who paraded the suspects at the police headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, on Tuesday, said they were arrested in the first two weeks after the Operation Restore Hope was launched.
Embrison stated that the command had deployed men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Anti-Kidnapping, Anti-Cultism and other special units across the state to fight crime.
He gave an assurance of adequate police visibility on the highways during and after the festive season.
He added that residents would be safe from armed robbers and other criminals in the state.
Giving details of the arrests, the CP stated that a dismissed soldier, Adebanjo Bamidele, as well as Matthew Olagoke, Ahmed Abdullahi and Johnson Idowu were arrested for planning to launch an attack on a bank in Ekiti State.
He said the men of the IGP-STS monitored the suspects’ conversations and arrested them in Ibadan, Oyo State, while on their way to launch the attack.
Embrison added that three locally-made shot guns, 21 live cartridges, three identity cards, four Automated Teller Machine cards, seven mobile phones and assorted charms were recovered from the suspects.
Speaking with journalists, Bamidele said he was dismissed from the Nigerian Army for being absent without official leave.
“I served in the military for six to seven years in Maiduguri before I was dismissed for going AWOL,” he stated.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Christmas Day signed two Executive Orders, with one setting free six inmates at different prisons.
Sanwo-Olu’s Media Aide, Gboyega Akosile, said in a statement that the governor also commuted death sentences of three convicted inmates to life imprisonment.
The two Orders – Executive Commutation of Death Sentence Order and Executive Grant of Clemency Order – signed by the governor were both expected to take immediate effect.
Speaking on the two orders at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, Sanwo-Olu said Nigerians should return to God with hearts of gratitude for His protection over the country and Lagos State.
He said that in spite of the numerous challenges facing the nation, it kept growing stronger.
Sanwo-Olu said that the Christmas period was a season of reflection, blessings and gifts.
”As a nation and as a state, it is only appropriate for us to count our blessings and reflect on those things that have happened to us in the course of the year and how we can improve them and be better citizens.
”For us as a state, it is also a season of giving back, so I have also signed a small release of some convicts that we have in the various prisons.
”People who have been given death sentences have been reduced to life sentences and some who have been jailed for minor offences have also been given warning and have asked for them to be pardoned,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu urged Lagos residents to continue to be law-abiding and do things in moderation.
Customs authorities in east China’s Jiangsu Province have said customs officers had intercepted several kinds of pests from a Panamanian vessel.
One of the pests is Platypus cavicepts, an alien species intercepted by Chinese customs for the first time, according to sample tests sent by the Nantong Customs to the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine.
The pest found in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea is parasitic on beech trees, posing a threat to forestry resources and the ecological environment.
Other intercepted pests include a rubber wood timber pest, Xyleborus affinis, and the dangerous pest Platypus parallelus. The vessel is under supervision
