ANKARA: Turkish authorities have arrested a former top-tier soccer player who confessed to killing his 5-year-old son while the boy was being treated in a hospital on suspicion of a COVID-19 infection.
Cevher Toktas, 32, handed himself over to police and confessed to having smothered his son, Kasim, with a pillow on May 4, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The boy’s death was initially not believed to be suspicious, although he tested negative for COVID-19. His body has been exhumed for an autopsy as part of the investigation, Anadolu reported.
HaberTurk television reported that Toktas, who currently plays with amateur league team Bursa Yildirimspor, told police that he tried to suffocate his son because he did not love him, and turned himself in to police 11 days later because he felt remorse.
The boy was admitted to the children’s hospital in the northwestern province of Bursa with a cough and high fever on April 23 — an official Turkish public holiday celebrating children — and placed in isolation along with his father.
Soon after, Toktas said, he smothered the boy and called for help, saying Kasim had taken a turn for the worse. The 5-year-old was rushed to the hospital’s intensive care unit, where he died two hours later.
No trial date has been set yet.
Between 2007 and 2009, Toktas played for the Hacettepe soccer team, who briefly competed in the Turkish top-tier Super League.

TEHRAN: Iran warned of a possible coronavirus cluster hitting another province on Thursday as it announced 71 new deaths and more than 1,800 infections nationwide.
“We are in situation similar to previous days (in most provinces) save for Khuzestan, which is still in a critical condition, and it seems that North Khorasan may be critical as well,” said health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour.
“If this trend continues, North Khorasan will require more serious measures, too,” he added in televised remarks.
North Khorasan province lies in northeastern Iran on the border with Turkmenistan. Khuzestan province in the southwest borders Iraq.
The ministry had on Monday signalled a setback in its efforts to contain the virus in Khuzestan where authorities shut state bodies, banks and non-essential businesses again in around a third of its counties.
Iran stopped publishing provincial figures for the coronavirus last month.
Authorities in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, have also warned of a fresh spike in infections.
“We had not seen such an increase in coronavirus infections since” late February, said Ghasem Miri, deputy head of provincial capital Zahedan’s medical university.
The total number of people infected in the province had hit 909, of whom 821 had recovered and 59 died, Miri told ILNA news agency on Tuesday.
Miri said the jump was due to the failure of people to observe “social distancing and health protocols.”
Iran has deemed more than 150 counties across the country as low-risk from the virus and has allowed them to reopen mosques.
Since April 11, it has allowed a phased reopening of its economy and lifted restrictions on intercity travel.
Iran’s deputy health minister also announced on Thursday that athletes in 29 sports — including track and field, tennis and weightlifting — could resume training.
Iraj Harirchi also told ISNA news agency that a decision about Iran’s top flight football league would be made on Saturday.
According to health ministry spokesman Jahanpour, the latest deaths brought the official toll to 6,854.
He said 1,808 new cases of COVID-19 infection had been detected, raising the total to 114,533.
Of those hospitalized, 90,539 had recovered and been discharged, while 2,758 were in critical condition.
Iran has struggled to contain its outbreak of the novel coronavirus since announcing its first cases in the Shiite holy city of Qom on February 19.
Experts inside and outside the country have voiced skepticism about the official figures, saying the real toll could be much higher.

RIYADH: The UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths on Thursday thanked the Arab coalition for its recent extension of the cease-fire in the country.

Speaking to the United Nations Security Council, Griffiths said negotitations betwen the Yemeni government other parties were making “significant progress,” especially with the cease-fire, but that differences on both sides remain regarding the humanitarian and economic solutions.

He added that, despite the constructive efforts from both sides, the people of Yemen were “right to be frustrated about the slow pace,” and said he hoped the negotiations would “soon come to a successful close.”

Griffiths also said that he was alarmed by the Southern Transitional Council’s (STC) declaration in the south and the steps it had taken to make local institutions in Aden answer to them.

He called the situation in southern Yemen “very disturbing,” and urged the Yemeni government and the STC to “urgently” implement the Riyadh agreement.

Yemen’s government said earlier this week that forces would confront an “armed rebellion” by southern forces, in the latest developments of a near month-long standoff between allies in the anti-Houthi alliance. On April 25, the STC declared a plan to move towards self-rule.

Griffiths highligted the positive steps made by women in Yemen.

“Yemeni women have demonstrated leadership and activism, leading cease-fire calls, calls for prisoners’ release as well as assisting civilians. I reiterate my call that both parties include women in their negotiation delegations and decision-making, in line with National Dialogue outcomes,” he said.

Griffiths said he was concerned about the recent death sentences passed down to journalists in Yemen, and used his address to call for the immediate release of detained journalists.

Yemen’s Prime Minister, Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, met with the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the Security Council on Wednesday to discuss the latest security developments, and efforts to bring peace to unify efforts to confront the coronavirus pandemic.

BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday that Israel is now concentrating its attacks in Syria on missile-manufacturing sites.
Israel has conducted many raids inside Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011. It sees the presence of Hezbollah and its ally Iran there as a strategic threat.
The heavily armed Lebanese Shiite movement has played a vital role in the war, helping Syrian President Bashar Assad reclaim much of the country.
In rare comments on Israeli attacks in Syria, Nasrallah said that with Assad firmly in control, Israel has turned its attention more recently to striking Syrian targets for precision missile manufacturing seen as a threat.
He denied that Israeli air strikes have pushed either Hezbollah or Iran to retreat from Syria, calling Israel’s insistence that they have done so “imaginary victories.”
Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said in April that the Israeli military was working to drive Tehran out of Syria.

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates will review the structure and size of its government as part of its strategy for dealing with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s vice president said on Wednesday.
“We may merge ministries and alter bodies. We will make changes. We need a more agile, flexible and speedy government,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, who is also the ruler of regional tourism and business hub Dubai, said on Twitter, reporting the outcome of government meetings held Wednesday.