Turkey votes to expand president’s powers; critics cry fraud
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a historic referendum Sunday that will greatly expand the powers of his office, although opposition parties questioned the outcome and said they would challenge the results.
With nearly all ballots counted, the “yes” vote stood at 51.41 percent, while the “no” vote was 48.59 percent, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. The head of Turkey’s electoral board confirmed the “yes” victory and said final results would be declared in 11-12 days.
Although the margin fell short of the sweeping victory Erdogan had sought in the landmark referendum, it could nevertheless cement his hold on power in Turkey and is expected to have a huge effect on the country’s long-term political future and its international relations.
The 18 constitutional amendments that will come into effect after the next election, scheduled for 2019, will abolish the office of the prime minister and hand sweeping executive powers to the president.
Erdogan, who first came to power in 2003 as prime minister, had argued a “Turkish-style” presidential system would bring stability and prosperity to a country rattled by a failed coup last year that left more than 200 people dead, and a series of devastating attacks by the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants.
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Turkey’s Erdogan proves a popular and polarizing figure
ISTANBUL (AP) — Rising from humble origins to take the helm of Turkey’s government in 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan quickly attracted a fervent following. But Erdogan, who served as prime minister and then president, also became feared and hated by many who saw him as an increasingly autocratic leader seeking to erode the country’s secular traditions by imposing his conservative, religious views.
Constitutional changes that would change the country’s system of government from parliamentary to presidential — and grant Erdogan even more authority — were narrowly approved by Turkey’s voters on Sunday, according to unofficial results from the country’s election commission.
The changes, one of the most radical political reforms since the Turkish republic was established in 1923, could see the 63-year-old president remain in power until 2029.
The vote’s outcome reinforced Erdogan’s image as a figure both popular and polarizing. While thousands of flag-waving supporters cheered the referendum’s approval, political opponents immediately questioned the legitimacy of the balloting and said they intended to challenge a sizeable share of the count.
Erdogan served three consecutive terms as prime minister as head of his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party, before becoming Turkey’s first directly elected president in 2014.
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Trump: China, US working on ‘North Korea problem’
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Donald Trump asserted on Sunday that China was working with the United States on “the North Korea problem,” and his vice president told American and South Korea service members that the North’s latest “provocation,” a failed missile launch shortly before his arrival in Seoul, laid bare the risks they face.
While the North did not conduct a nuclear test, the specter of a potential escalated U.S. response trailed Pence as he began a 10-day trip to Asia amid increasing tensions and heated rhetoric. Trump’s national security adviser cited Trump’s recent decision to order missile strikes in Syria after a chemical attack blamed on the Assad government as a sign that the president “is clearly comfortable making tough decisions.”
But at the same time, H.R. McMaster said, “it’s time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully.”
In a broadcast interview that aired on Sunday, McMaster said the U.S. would rely on its allies as well as on Chinese leadership to resolve the issues with North Korea. “I mean, North Korea is very vulnerable to pressure from the Chinese,” McMaster said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The bottom line, McMaster said, is to stop the North’s weapons development and make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free: “It’s clear that the president is determined not to allow this kind of capability to threaten the United States. And our president will take action that is in the best interest of the American people.”
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Manhunt underway for man who livestreamed homicide
CLEVELAND (AP) — A manhunt is underway for a suspect who police say killed a man on the street Sunday while streaming it live on Facebook.
Law enforcement is searching the Cleveland area and beyond for Steve Stephens, the suspect police say walked up to an elderly man and shot him while on video, said Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams.
The victim has been identified as 74-year-old Robert Goodwin Sr.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson publicly urged Stephens to turn himself into police and not to “do anymore harm to anybody.”
“Any problems he is having, we can have a conversation,” Jackson said.
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Mass transit advocates hope for boost from highway collapse
ATLANTA (AP) — The collapse of an interstate in the heart of Atlanta has more than 2 million metro residents sitting in even more traffic in the already congested city, and mass transit advocates hope the headaches will spur new interest in expanding rail and bus routes.
Many commuters come from surrounding counties that have long resisted mass transit, creating a car-centric region shaped by issues of race and class for more than four decades.
Georgia transportation officials hope to reopen Interstate 85 by mid-June after a 350-foot span came crashing down March 30 amid intense heat from a fire set beneath the roadway.
Until then, 250,000 drivers who depend on that route each day are stretching the limits of Atlanta’s other highways and surface roads, or using the region’s transit system at unprecedented levels. Ridership has gone up 20 percent since the collapse.
Skeptics of expanding mass transportation in metro Atlanta wonder whether residents of such a sprawling region will leave their cars behind barring a crisis of this magnitude.
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Border wall could leave some Americans on ‘Mexican side’
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The last time U.S. officials built a barrier along the border with Mexico, they left an opening at the small road leading south to Pamela Taylor’s home on the banks of the Rio Grande.
Taylor hadn’t been told where the fence would be built, and she doesn’t know now whether officials are coming back to complete it.
“How would we get out?” asked Taylor, 88, sitting in the living room of the home she built with her husband half a century ago. “Do they realize that they’re penalizing people that live along this river on the American side?”
Taylor’s experience illustrates some of the effects that the border wall President Donald Trump has imagined could have on residents in the Rio Grande Valley, the sunny expanse of bilingual towns and farmland that form the southernmost point of the U.S.-Mexico border. The wall could seal some Americans on the “Mexican side” — technically on U.S. soil, but outside of a barrier built north of the river separating the two countries. Landowners could lose property, and those who already lost some for the existing fence are already preparing for a new battle.
Even if they don’t win, lawyers hope to tie up the wall in court long enough that politics could effectively stop it, either in Congress or after another election.
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NYC Easter: Costume spectacle meets elegant tradition
NEW YORK (AP) — Fifth Avenue came alive on Easter Sunday with outlandish costumes mingling with elegant bonnets fit for St. Patrick’s Cathedral and nearby churches.
The secular spectacle was a takeoff on a New York tradition from the 1800s, when the city’s elite paraded their Sunday best to mark the holiday. New York’s Easter parade is now an outdoor free-for-all of participants and spectators from around the world.
One faithful Christian mixed formality with pushing-the-envelope style: Cynthia Gable, of Easton, Connecticut, attended Mass wearing a shocking pink suit and a hat exploding with matching-colored feathers, while her husband, Scott Doerr, wore a black top hat.
“I think it’s exciting,” her demurely clad mother, Florence Gable, said of New York’s unusual annual rite celebrating Christians’ belief in the resurrection of Christ.
Weeks were spent making costumes, with some even adorning their pets.
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He’s how tall? Birth stats out for April the giraffe’s calf
HARPURSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — April the giraffe’s calf is nursing strongly and his mother is recovering “perfectly,” said officials with Animal Adventure Park on Sunday after a morning veterinarian check with the newborn.
April gave birth to a healthy male calf Saturday at the privately owned Animal Adventure Park before an online audience of more than a million viewers.
The 15-year-old giraffe delivered her calf shortly before 10 a.m. EDT in an enclosed pen at the zoo in Harpursville, a rural upstate village about 130 miles (209 kilometers) northwest of New York City.
The calf weighs in at 129 pounds (58.5 kilograms) and stands 5 feet 9 inches tall (1.75 meters).
“April has recovered perfectly and is eating everything in sight!” the team posted on its official Facebook page .