TURKEY: Police attacked and detained 13 trade unionists in Istanbul on Monday as they demanded the reinstatement of those sacked under the country’s state of emergency.

It was the 68th vigil organised by the Public Workers Confederation (Kesk), with arrests taking place in the Bakirkoy and Kadikoy districts of the city.

More than 150,000 public-sector workers have been sacked in government purges since a failed coup attempt in 2016.

ETHIOPIA: A pastor has been killed by a crocodile during a baptism ceremony near Lake Abaya in southern Ethiopia.

Docho Eshete was performing the ceremony for around 80 people when the crocodile leapt from the water and attacked him.

“He baptised the first person and he passed on to another one. All of a sudden, a crocodile jumped out of the lake and grabbed the pastor,” eyewitness Ketema Kairo said.

The crocodile escaped as fishermen tried to prevent it from taking the pastor’s body into the lake.

UNITED STATES: Preparations for the Singapore summit next week between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are going well, US officials said yesterday.

Mr Trump called off the summit last month after a dispute with Pyongyang but then changed his mind. Despite the thawing of relations, Washington said sanctions would remain in place until North Korea denuclearised.

BAHRAIN: The Court of Appeal yesterday upheld human rights defender Nabeel Rajab’s five-year jail sentence for social media posts critical of the regime.

Mr Rajab was jailed after he tweeted his opposition to the Saudi-led coalition air strikes on Yemen and made allegations of widespread torture in a notorious Bahrain prison.

He has been convicted in two separate trials and faces seven years in prison. Mr Rajab has a third stage of appeal.