ISTANBUL – Fifty-two people are still in the hospital four days after suicide bombers attacked Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, killing at least 44 others, the city’s governor said Saturday.
The governorate said 184 airport victims have been discharged from hospitals so far, including 13 people released Saturday. It said 20 people were still in intensive care.
Three militants armed with assault rifles and suicide bombs attacked one of the world’s busiest airports on Tuesday night. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Turkish officials say they believe it was the work of the Islamic State group.
Turkish authorities have detained at least 24 people in raids in several Istanbul neighborhoods over possible connections to the attack. Seventeen other people were detained in the province of Gaziantep, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
MADRID – An animal caretaker has been found dead in a nature park in the southern Spanish town of Benidorm after she was attacked by a tiger for reasons that remain unclear.
The deadly attack occurred at 5 p.m. Saturday, when the Red Cross received a call from local police, informing them that a woman had been attacked by the tiger in his cage.
Ambulances rushed to the scene, but the body of the caretaker was found shortly after workers at the Terra Natura de Benidorm nature park were able to anesthetize the feline.
Police are investigating the death.
MOSCOW – The Kremlin-backed strongman leader of Chechnya says he will seek another term in office.
Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s president since 2007, had said earlier this year that he considered his mission to be complete. His term was to expire in April, but Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed him interim leader until a September election.
Russian news agencies cited Kadyrov as saying Saturday he has filed to run in the election.
Putin has relied on Kadyrov to stabilize Chechnya after two separatist wars, effectively allowing him to rule the region like a personal fiefdom. Critics allege human rights violations have been widespread under Kadyrov.
The suspected triggerman in the 2015 killing of prominent Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov was an officer in Kadyrov’s security force.
PARIS – Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed his intention of stepping down from being the head of the conservative party in order to run in presidential election primaries.
Sarkozy on Saturday told members of his party that this was his last meeting at that position. Sarkozy, who lost the presidency in 2012 to Socialist Francois Hollande, has not hidden his ambition to run in France’s 2017 presidential election.
The party’s primaries are in November. Sarkozy is expected to face tough competition against 13 others in his party who have already declared their candidacies. So far, Sarkozy has not formally done so.
His main competitor, former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, on Saturday criticized the “confusion between Nicolas Sarkozy, president of the party, and Nicolas Sarkozy, candidate campaigning for the primaries.”
PARIS – French authorities say former Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard has died at age 85 in a Paris hospital.
French President Francois Hollande issued a statement Saturday regretting the loss of a “great figure of the Republic and the left.”
Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Rocard, who died Saturday, had been waging a “fight against disease.” He did not elaborate.
Rocard was prime minister from 1988 to 1991 under Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. He notably created a minimum allowance for poor people who had no other income.
Associated Press & Washington Post
