US stocks ended the week with gains after positive figures, including unemployment numbers.

The US economy added 431,000 jobs in March, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, its lowest level since February 2020.

The US manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose sharply to 58.8 in March, up from 57.3 in February.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.4%, or 140 points to 34,818.

The S&P 500 rose 15.45 points, or 0.34%, to close at 4,545.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased almost 41 points, or 0.29%, to 14,261.

At the closing bell, the dollar index was at 98,843, rising 0.04% as of 2115GMT versus the previous close.

Turkiye’s benchmark stock index was up 0.82% to 2,230.35 points.

Asian stocks ended mixed amid concerns about inflation and the Russia-Ukraine war while the stock market in Europe ended the week with gains./aa

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) sentenced France on Thursday for human rights violations in the detention of a child from Georgia in 2020.

The child, an 8-year-old girl, entered France with her parents in 2019, with media reporting that the family had been detained in an administrative detention center in the eastern Metz-Queuleu region sometime thereafter for two weeks.

The court ruled that a detention period of 14 days was an "excessive" period and that a child of such a young age "cannot be considered as having sufficient discernment to understand the situation," and that the situation placed her in "particular vulnerability." The detention center in which the family was placed is next to a jail.

It also ordered France to pay a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,500) for "moral damages" to the minor.

The Strasbourg-based court further said that the authorities in this detention subjected the 8-year-old to treatment that exceeded the limit of severity provided for in Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which concerns the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment.

The family was deported on Nov. 20, 2020./aa

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan may win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reach a solution amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, journalist Saskia van Westhreenen said in an article published in the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad on Tuesday.

In a unique position due to its friendly relations with both Russia and Ukraine, Turkey has won widespread praise for its push to end the war and Erdoğan recently met with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations ahead of their meeting in Istanbul, which the two sides hailed as “constructive.”

The journalist included remarks Erdoğan made in his meeting with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations before their talks in Istanbul, quoting the president as saying: “The whole world is waiting for the good news. We are ready to help you.”

“If it all works out, Erdoğan could almost win a Nobel Peace Prize with his current stance,” van Westhreenen noted, underlining that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and U.S. President Joe Biden are “far away from that.”

“And honestly, that's something to think about.”

The talks in Istanbul made headlines around the globe, serving as a glimmer of hope after weeks of conflict.

A negotiator who spoke after the meeting with the Russian delegation in Istanbul on Tuesday also said that Ukraine wants to see eight countries, including Turkey, as guarantor states.

Ukraine proposed adopting neutral status in exchange for security guarantees at the latest round of talks with Russia, meaning it would not join military alliances or host military bases.

The proposals would also include a 15-year consultation period on the status of annexed Crimea and could come into force only in the event of a complete cease-fire, the negotiators told reporters in Istanbul.

Neutral status would include not having foreign military bases in Ukraine, the negotiator said.

Meanwhile, the top Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said talks with Ukraine in Istanbul were constructive.

"We will convey Ukraine’s suggestions to President Putin," Medinsky said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv will be suspended for dialogue after the meeting./agencies

The mastermind behind a maple syrup heist that came to light a decade ago has been ordered by Canada's top court to pay a fine of CA$ 9 million ($7.2 million) after it on Thursday upheld an earlier ruling by a lower court.

A group of people in the province of Quebec siphoned off maple syrup worth over CA$18 million from a reservoir and replaced it with water, before authorities discovered the robbery in 2012, in what has been dubbed the "great Canadian maple syrup heist."

Richard Vallieres, who was among the 16 people arrested by police, was found guilty of fraud, trafficking and theft and sentenced to eight years in prison and fined over CA$9 million by the Quebec Superior Court.

Vallieres had successfully appealed that ruling, getting his fine lowered to about CA$1 million – the amount Vallieres says he profited from the robbery.

However, Canada's Chief Supreme Court Justice Richard Wagner said that a court cannot limit the amount of a fine to the profit made by an offender and gave Vallieres 10 years to pay the fine or serve six years in prison.

Julie Giroux, the lawyer representing Vallieres, said her client was disappointed by the court's decision to restore the initial amount imposed by the first judge and the gravity of having to bear such a substantial fine.

While the value of the stolen amber condiment was much higher, Vallieres sold the syrup for only CA$10 million, he told the Quebec Superior Court during his trial.

Canada is the largest exporter of maple products, and Quebec holds the world's only strategic reserve of the sweet topping. Last year, maple syrup producers started releasing more than half of the reserve to ease a syrup squeeze as the pandemic boosted demand as more people started eating at home./Reuters

The United States House of Representatives again voted to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level on Friday, with a slim bipartisan majority voting in favor.

In all, three Republicans joined the chamber's Democrats in supporting the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which cleared the House 220-204.

The House last passed a bill to decriminalize cannabis nationwide in 2020. But it failed to make its way through the Senate.

It is unclear if this year's legislation will fare better.

Among its provisions, the act removes cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, requires federal courts to erase prior cannabis-related convictions, and authorizes a 5% tax on the sale of marijuana and marijuana products.

A bill summary said the funds would be used for programs to provide services to communities adversely affected by the U.S. war on drugs, provide loans to small businesses in the cannabis industry owned by "socially and economically disadvantaged individuals," and fund marijuana licensing and employment among those individuals.

House Judiciary Committee Chairperson Jerry Nadler said on the House floor that, if enacted, the legislation will "reverse decades of failed federal policies based on the criminalization of marijuana."

"Whatever one's views are on the use of cannabis for recreational or medicinal use, the policy of arrests, prosecution and incarceration at the federal level has proven both unwise and unjust," Nadler, who introduced the legislation, said.

While the legislation's fate remains unclear, 36 U.S. states have already legalized medicinal cannabis in addition to Washington, D.C. The nation's capital and 19 states have gone a step further, and legalized recreational use of the drug for adults./agencies

Bulgaria said on Friday it has declared one Russian diplomat "persona non grata" and given him 72 hours to leave the Balkan country over accusations of spying.

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said it was informed by the country's prosecutors that a diplomat from the Russian Embassy had been involved in unregulated intelligence activity.

Earlier on Friday, prosecutors said they were investigating two officials of Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security and a government official for allegedly spying for Russia./Rueters

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has led to 53 cultural sites being damaged, UNESCO said on Friday.

Among the buildings were 29 churches, 16 historical buildings, four museums and four monuments, UNESCO Deputy Director General for Culture Ernesto Ottone Ramirez said in Paris.

Kharkiv in the northeast of the country is one of the areas of Ukraine most affected in this respect.

Among other things, the Holocaust Memorial, the State Theatre for Opera and Ballet and the Art Museum were hit by the Russian bombardments, Ottone Ramirez said. Kharkiv is the second-largest city in Ukraine.

Kyiv is under threat, but there is as yet no evidence of damage to the country's seven UNESCO world heritage sites, which include St. Sophia's Cathedral and the Cave Monastery.

The situation in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, which has been cut off from the surrounding countryside by Russian troops, is considered extremely complicated.

Chernihiv is one of the oldest cities in Ukraine with numerous churches and monasteries dating from the 10th to the 19th century. Among them is St. Catherine's Church, which is on the UNESCO list of over the 53 destroyed and damaged buildings.

Since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine, UNESCO and other international cultural institutions have launched several initiatives to protect cultural sites and assets, including setting up a satellite monitoring system of important Ukrainian sites and monuments./DPA

The first international aid convoy in three months is to enter Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where hundreds of thousands of people face starvation, the United Nations said Friday.

The arrival of aid in Tigray could help shore up the shaky cease-fire between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

Abiy's government last week declared an indefinite humanitarian truce in the 17-month conflict, with the TPLF agreeing to a "cessation of hostilities" if aid arrives in Tigray.

"WFP-led convoys to Tigray are back on the road & making steady progress!" the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Twitter.

"Just arrived in Erepti (in the neighboring Afar region) & will soon cross into Tigray, bringing in over 500 mt (tons) of urgently needed WFP/partner food & nutrition supplies for communities on edge of starvation."

The TPLF said the 20 aid trucks were now in territory under its control in Afar and on their way to Tigray's capital Mekele.

"This is one good step in the right direction; the bottom line, though, isn't about how many trucks are allowed but whether there is a system in place to ensure unfettered humanitarian access for the needy!" TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda said on Twitter.

He told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Nairobi that it was likely that the aid convoy would take "a few hours" to reach Mekele as the trucks may have to refuel.

'Extreme lack of food'

The development comes just days after both sides accused each other of blocking an aid convoy headed for Tigray, which has not seen any humanitarian supplies arrive by road since Dec. 15.

The government had announced on Thursday that 21 vehicles carrying relief supplies had started moving through Afar toward Tigray.

"The government of Ethiopia reaffirms its commitment to work closely with stakeholders to ensure the full delivery of humanitarian assistance to those in need," it said.

A humanitarian source said the convoy had been blocked on Thursday evening by regional forces in Afar but was able to resume its journey on Friday.

Nearly 40% of Tigray's 6 million inhabitants face "an extreme lack of food," the United Nations said in January, with fuel shortages forcing aid workers to deliver medicines and other crucial supplies sometimes by foot.

Since mid-February, humanitarian operations in the northern region have been virtually halted due to local shortages of fuel, food and cash, according to the U.N.

Tigray has also been subject to what the U.N. says is a de facto blockade.

The United States has accused Abiy's government of preventing aid from reaching those in need, while the authorities in turn have blamed the rebels for the obstruction.

Both sides have issued demands in connection with the truce.

The government has called on the rebels to "desist from all acts of further aggression and withdraw from areas they have occupied in" the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara.

The rebels have in turn urged the Ethiopian authorities "to go beyond empty promises and take concrete steps to facilitate unfettered humanitarian access" to Tigray.

The government previously declared a "unilateral cease-fire" in Tigray in June last year, after the TPLF mounted a shock comeback and retook the region from federal forces before expanding into Amhara and Afar.

The fighting intensified in the second half of 2021 before reaching a stalemate. The rebels at one point claimed to be within 200 kilometers (125 miles) of the capital Addis Ababa.

According to the U.N., the war has displaced more than 2 million people, driven hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine and left more than 9 million in need of food aid.

The conflict erupted in November 2020 when Abiy sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF, the region's former ruling party, saying the move came in response to rebel attacks on army camps.

Thousands of people have died as fighting has dragged on, while accounts have emerged of massacres and mass rapes, with both sides accused of human rights violations./AFP

Animal conservationists warn that African penguins, also called black-footed penguins, found along the coast of South Africa, could go extinct in the near future.

Listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the African penguin population has been plummeting due to multiple human factors, from industrial fishing to fuel spills.

Katta (Katrin) Ludynia, research manager at the South African Coastal Birds Conservation Foundation (SANCCOB), told Anadolu Agency that only 2% of the species' early-20th century population remain.

"There were millions of penguins in the region at the beginning of the 20th century. The 2021 data shows that we only have 10,000 breeding pairs left in South Africa," said Ludynia.

"This decline is so dramatic that our modelings show that they could disappear in just a few decades," she warned.

Noting that the main reason for the decline was the lack of fish that the penguins feed on, she said this situation was the result of overfishing of sardines and anchovies, which are the main food source of the flightless birds.

Climate change, fuel leaks, underwater noise pollution caused by marine traffic and infectious diseases are other important factors contributing to the decline in population, she added.

Rehabilitation manager Romy Klusener said the SANCCOB facility in Cape Town has been working for years to rehabilitate penguins and release them into the wild.

Klusener said that eggs from unsafe nesting areas take about three months of rehabilitation until they hatch and are released. This period can extend up to one year depending on whether the hatchling is injured or weak, she added.

When deciding to release a penguin, she explained, they consider its weight at various ages, as well as whether its flippers have become waterproof, which is another important factor, and for this they are floated in water three times a day.

Ronnis Daniels, a resource development manager at the SANCCOB, said more volunteers are needed to rescue the penguins.

"Those who want to save African penguins can join our six-week international volunteer program. Also, unqualified ones can join our three-month internship program," said Daniels, inviting people all around the world to work as volunteers.

She said those who participate in the internship program must take a firm stand to protect the African penguin species./aa

The Türkiye Diyanet Foundation (TDV), a charity associated with the country’s Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), delivered 2,500 food aid packages to families in need on Thursday in different areas of Sudan ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Along with the foundation, volunteers from the largest Turkish Muslim association in Germany, DITIB, attended a program with Ankara’s Ambassador to Khartoum Irfan Neziroğlu.

"A total of around 6,000 food packages will be distributed through our Turkish (nongovernmental organizations) NGOs in Sudan," Abdullah Şen, religious affairs counselor at the Khartoum Embassy, told Anadolu Agency (AA).

"Additionally to the capital, Khartoum, distributions will be made in South Kordofan, Darfur, Kassala, Port Sudan and in the north (regions)," he added.

Established in 1975, the TDV is a voluntary organization that works in a wide range of fields spanning education, culture, social and religious services to international aid activities with 1,003 branches in nearly 150 countries.

Aid groups had said in January that South Sudan was expected to face severe hunger this year amid the worst floods in 60 years in the country and ongoing conflict.

Nearly 1 million people across South Sudan have been affected by the floods, according to the United Nations, which last year had to reduce food aid by half in most places because of funding constraints, affecting some 3 million people.

Two years of floods have prevented people from farming and killed more than 250,000 livestock in Jonglei state alone, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)./agencies