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A case against a 37-year-old father regarding his son’s death filed with Paphos court

A case against the 37-year-old father, who faces a charge of causing death by reckless, careless, or dangerous conduct in connection with the death of his 3-year-old child, was filed today with the Paphos District Court.

The court set the trial for July 31, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., and ordered his release from custody on a 20 thousand euros bail and other strict conditions.

Specifically, the 37-year-old was to be placed on the stop list, and was ordered to surrender all his travel documents, to appear once a week at the Paphos Central Police Station, to refrain from passing through crossing points to Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus, and to provide the police with his full residential address.

After fulfilling all the conditions imposed by the court, the 37-year-old was released pending his next court hearing. It is recalled that the Attorney General issued instructions for the criminal prosecution of the 37-year-old after evaluating all the evidence gathered during the police investigation.

According to reports, a trace of alcohol was detected in the defendant’s blood, a factor that is expected to be considered during the trial.

The tragedy occurred around 6:00 p.m. last Sunday, when the 3-year-old child, who was staying with his parents at a hotel in the Paphos district, fell from the fourth floor of the building.

According to the police and the findings of the autopsy conducted at the Nicosia General Hospital Morgue, the cause of death was severe traumatic brain injury, as well as multiple injuries to the body and vital organs, which were caused by a fall from a height.

Azerbaijani-German documents signed in Berlin [PHOTOS/VIDEO]

A signing ceremony of German-Azerbaijani documents was held in Berlin on July 21, AzerNEWS reports.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Friedrich Merz signed the “Joint Declaration on the Strategic Agenda for Bilateral Partnership between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Federal Republic of Germany”.

During the event, the Joint Declaration on the Establishment and Operation of the Azerbaijan-Germany Business Council was also signed.

Presidents of Azerbaijan and Germany held one-on-one meeting [PHOTOS/VIDEO]

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev arrived at the ‘Villa Borsig’ residence in Berlin to meet with President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, AzerNEWS reports.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed the Azerbaijani President.

President Ilham Aliyev signed a commemorative book here.

A one-on-one meeting between the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Germany is currently being held.

DREAM Fest 2026 to unite global music stars on Caspian coast

Baku is preparing to host the third edition of DREAM Fest 2026,AzerNEWS reports.

The music festival will take place from July 23 to 26 at Sea Breeze Resort on the Caspian coast.

The four-day festival will feature performances by artists from different countries and musical genres. Among this year’s international headliners are British singer John Newman, American artists Ty Dolla $ign and Busta Rhymes, Algerian rai legend Cheb Khaled, and Turkish stars EDIS and Zeynep Bastik.

The lineup also includes well-known performers such as Thomas Nevergreen, Egor Kreed, Lucy Chebotina, Stas Mikhailov, JONY, Ani Lorak, Artik and Asti, EMIN, Alessandro Safina, Jah Khalib, Alsou, Emre Altug, Brandon Stone, Andru Donalds (ENIGMA), Aygun Kazimova, Elnur Huseynov, Nigar Jamal, Orkhan Zeynalli, Tunzala Aghayeva, Aysel, Faig Aghayev, Roza Zergerli, Dilara Kazimova, Zulfiyya Khanbabayeva, SABI, and others. Organizers say more artists will be announced in the coming days.

The festival will be hosted by TV presenter and blogger Regina Todorenko and Azerbaijani television producer and presenter Murad Dadashov.

In addition to concerts, visitors can enjoy a red carpet, meetings with artists, the unveiling of new stars on the Sea Breeze Walk of Fame, themed parties, and other entertainment throughout the festival.

Organizers say DREAM Fest 2026 aims to bring together internationally known performers, regional stars, and music fans for four days of live entertainment on the Caspian coast.

’Reliance on imported fuel, top PHL risk’

THE biggest hurdle that the Philippines faces right now is not driven by politics but its exposure to imported fuel, which has stunted the country’s progress over the years, according to Citi Philippines.

‘Let’s not forget that the biggest challenge for the country right now is not even driven by politics. It’s really external unfortunately because of our exposure to imported fuels,’ Citi Philippines CEO and Banking Head Paul Favila told reporters.

‘If you take that away, then maybe we would have made a lot more progress,’ added Favila.

He said this during a briefing on Tuesday in Taguig City, in the context of how the Philippines is ‘viewed from the outside’ after the bank hosted the Philippine Economic Team at its headquarters in New York in April-which he said was ‘right smack in the middle’ of the Middle East conflict.

‘As a Filipino, I’ve always also been curious about how we were viewed from the outside and compare it with how we view things on the ground,’ Favila said, adding that there was a ‘very strong’ message that he received.

The CEO of Citi Philippines said the first fact he heard is what the Philippines is going through politically ‘is no different from what we see everywhere around the world,’ especially in Asia.

‘Politics is politics-it lives in its own realm, if you will,’ Favila said. Quoting the person he was in discussion with, he said: ‘The one thing that makes the Philippines different is that your politics actually seeps into your economy.’

While this is the same case being experienced by most countries, he pointed out that the Philippines has ‘not gotten to the level’ wherein parliamentarians are throwing chairs at each other.

Favila explained this after he was asked a question on the ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate against the Philippines’s Vice President Sara Duterte and how this will affect investor confidence and sentiment in the Philippines.

‘And I hope we don’t. But that has never detracted these countries from continuing to progress economically. And I guess that’s the message that we’re saying,’ added Favila.

‘We are not too fussed about politics because politics, that’s human nature. And we all understand politics from that perspective. This is about individuals playing politics,’ Favila explained further, adding that politics is an ‘industry in itself’ but it has no place in the economy.

‘Because politics does not know how to run an economy,’ Favila pointed out.

UN, TIJ honour late princess’ justice work

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ) jointly hosted a commemorative event titled “A Legacy of Justice and Compassion” on Monday to honour Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendiradebyavati.

Held at the UN building, the event highlighted her contributions to the justice system, particularly her advocacy for women and girls, as well as women in prison.

Janelle Weissman, UN Women Asia and the Pacific officer-in-charge, said the princess had built a lasting legacy through efforts to improve the lives of women and girls, eliminate violence against women and improve conditions for women prisoners.

“It has been incredibly powerful and important to ‘leave no one behind’, including those in prisons. Her leadership in promoting the elimination of all violence against women and girls was especially impactful,” Ms Weissman said.

“She served as a spokesperson for global UN campaigns, helped shape better laws in Thailand and created pathways for change worldwide.”

Ms Weissman said the princess’s work had helped position Thailand as a model in safeguarding the rights of women and girls, particularly those in prison. Phiset Sa-ardyen, executive director of the Thailand Institute of Justice, said the princess’s Bangkok Rules had raised international standards for the protection and treatment of women prisoners and helped ensure opportunities for them to rebuild their lives.

The institute will continue working with the UNODC to accelerate implementation of the Bangkok Rules, including by incorporating the experiences of formerly incarcerated women involved in social initiatives.

“She helped shift the discourse by bringing a ‘human face’ into the discussion. Previously, the system was viewed mostly through legal perspectives and institutions. She was forward-thinking, introducing ideas 10 to 15 years ahead of their time and emphasising that justice services should be designed around people’s needs,” Mr Phiset said.

Delphine Schantz, UNODC regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said the princess, as the UNODC’s Goodwill Ambassador for the Rule of Law, helped turn policy ideas into international standards through the Bangkok Rules.

“She understood that women require different treatment and paved the way for other member states to adopt similar practices,” Ms Schantz said.

IMF approves $690 million tranche for Ukraine under extended fund facility

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a new loan tranche of approximately $690 million for Ukraine, AzerNEWS reports.

The Executive Board of the IMF authorized the disbursement following the completion of the first review of Ukraine’s 48-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program.

With this latest release, Ukraine’s total financial assistance under the framework has reached $2.2 billion. The funds are part of a broader four-year, $8.1 billion EFF program originally approved by the IMF in February.

The cost of a healthy diet in Kenya up 76pc in eight years

The cost of a healthy plate of food in Kenya has risen by 75.79 percent over the past eight years, new data from a group of United Nations agencies shows, pushing nutritious meals further out of reach for over 43 million Kenyans even as the country’s food insecurity crisis persists.

The data shows that the cost of a healthy diet in Kenya climbed from $2.56 (about Sh114.68 at current purchasing power parity rates) per person per day in 2017 to $4.50 (about Sh201.6) in 2025. The IMF has set Kenya’s current purchasing power parity (PPP)-the rate primarily used to compare living standards and economic productivity across nations-at 44.8 against the international dollar.

The data is from a survey conducted by UN agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.

According to the FAO, a healthy diet is adequate, diverse, balanced, and moderate, ensuring that people receive the necessary nutrients while avoiding harmful excesses.

The cost estimates are based on what the FAO calls a ‘healthy diet basket’, which is a combination of the cheapest locally available foods across six food groups: starchy staples, animal-source foods, legumes, nuts and seeds, oils and fats, fruits, and vegetables, standardised to provide 2,330 kilocalories per day. It is designed as a cost floor, not a record of what people actually eat, and does not capture the cost of preparing food or how it is shared within a household.

In 2017, a healthy diet in Kenya was cheaper than the Eastern African sub-regional average ($2.56 versus $2.84). By 2025, the two had nearly closed the gap, with Kenya at $ 4.50 and Eastern Africa as a whole at $4.34. Kenya’s 2025 cost also sits close to the average for lower-middle-income countries globally, $4.36, the income group that Kenya belongs to.

Rising diet costs across Africa are attributed to climate shocks affecting harvests, elevated fuel and transport costs, reliance on food imports, post-harvest losses, and volatility in global markets-particularly for nutrient-dense foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, and lean proteins, which make up the most expensive part of a healthy diet. In the region, animal-source foods, fruits and vegetables together account for close to 70 per cent of the total cost of a healthy diet, despite contributing less than half of its calories.

‘Inflation continued to raise food prices in 2025…The percentage of people who cannot afford a healthy diet (PUA) remains highest in Africa, where it is estimated to have reached 66.6 percent in 2025, more than double the levels currently estimated for Asia (28.9 percent) and Latin America and the Caribbean (25.7 percent),’ reads the report.

That 75.8 percent increase outpaced the global average, which rose from $2.94 to $4.28 over the same period, and pushed Kenya’s diet cost above the world average for the first time in the series, even though the country remains a lower-middle-income economy with far lower average incomes than many high-income countries with cheaper healthy diets.

Meanwhile, 76.3 percent of Kenyans, or about 43.9 million people, could not afford a healthy diet in 2025, up from 69.8 percent (34.3 million people) in 2017. The situation worsened in 2021, when 78.0 percent of the population was priced out of a healthy diet, at the height of pandemic-era disruption and the food and fuel price shocks that followed.

That means Kenya added roughly 9.6 million people to the ranks of those unable to afford proper nutrition in eight years.

‘When healthy food becomes unaffordable, households typically shift toward cheaper, calorie-dense but nutrient-poor foods, a pattern linked to childhood stunting and a rising burden of diet-related non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension,’ said the report.

Kenya’s food unaffordability rate is now higher than both the Sub-Saharan Africa average (73.5 percent) and the Africa-wide average (66.6 percent), and more than double the global average of 32.7 percent. It is also marginally higher than the Eastern Africa subregional average of 76.5 percent, a group that includes Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Somalia, among others.

Trkiye secures ASEAN dialogue seat

Trkiye has been given a seat at ASEAN’s many tables – joining heavyweight dialogue partners that already include the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and South Korea – a move that expands the bloc’s reach and underscores its growing ties with Euro-Atlantic allies.

With Turkiye accepted as the bloc’s newest dialogue partner, ASEAN foreign ministers decided to lift the moratorium in accepting new dialogue partners.

Foreign Affairs Secretary and ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) Chairperson Ma. Theresa Lazaro also announced Tuesday that ASEAN also granted Germany and Qatar Sectoral Dialogue Partner status, reflecting the bloc’s widening external network.

‘These developments demonstrate the continued confidence of our partners in ASEAN. We also view this as a positive step in realizing the aspirations laid down in the ASEAN Community Vision 2045,’ Lazaro said.

Trkiye’s Fast Track

Trkiye’s upgrade is notable for its speed. After acceding to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in 2010, it was conferred Sectoral Dialogue Partner status in 2017.

Less than a decade later, ASEAN approved its request to become a full Dialogue Partner in 2026 – one of the fastest progressions in ASEAN’s partnership history.

According to Malaysia’s Bernama news agency, Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said Turkiye had already accepted the dialogue partner status last year. But ASEAN leaders forwarded the decision to the ASEAN secretariat and foreign minister to decide because the bloc still has a moratorium on accepting new dialogue partners.

Trkiye’s admission adds to the roster of NATO states already embedded in ASEAN’s framework.

The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are long-standing Dialogue Partners.

France and Italy hold Development Partner status, a status conferred in 2020. Their cooperation focuses on practical projects – energy efficiency, maritime waste management, mine action, gender equality, and MSME access – but does not yet extend to full participation in ASEAN’s political-security mechanisms.

Benefits of Dialogue Partner Status

Being an ASEAN Dialogue Partner confers significant privileges:

– Participation in ASEAN-led mechanisms such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), East Asia Summit (EAS), and ASEAN Plus Three (APT).

– Comprehensive cooperation across political-security, economic, and socio-cultural pillars.

– Annual summits and ministerial meetings with ASEAN leaders, providing a platform to shape regional policy.

– Strategic action plans aligning external partners with ASEAN’s integration and development goals.

– Enhanced trade and investment opportunities through closer frameworks.

ASEAN’s Expanding Network

The ministers also expressed full support for the 50th anniversary commemoration of the TAC on July 24, when Poland, Romania, Sweden, and Lithuania – all NATO members – are expected to accede to the treaty formally.

ASEAN also adopted the Guidelines on Modalities for Engagement with High Contracting Parties to the TAC.

The guidelines establish a framework for practical cooperation between ASEAN and TAC signatories to strengthen political, economic, and socio-cultural ties.

The 59th AMM continues this week with ASEAN’s engagements with Dialogue Partners, the ASEAN Plus Three (APT), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the East Asia Summit (EAS), and the TAC’s golden anniversary activities.

Restaurants call for more reforms to lower food prices

The Thai Restaurant Association is asking the government to connect raw material wholesalers with restaurants to lower ingredient costs, rather than providing subsidies for each dish.

Thaniwan Kulmongkol, president of the association, met with the Commerce Ministry’s Department of Internal Trade on Monday to provide feedback on the “40-baht Khao Kaeng scheme”, a programme offering a dish of rice with one choice of kab khao (side dishes).

Last week, the scheme was put on hold pending further review, following a public debate.

She said the department is revising the measures and considering expanding the scheme to cover other single-dish menus such as noodles and Hainanese chicken rice.

Mrs Thaniwan said the subsidy model may help to temporarily reduce meal prices. However, once a restaurant reaches its quota or the scheme ends, prices are likely to return to previous levels.

She suggested that restaurants could consolidate their raw material orders into bulk purchases to negotiate lower prices with wholesalers, a strategy she sees as a long-term solution for reducing raw material costs.

She also said the government should subsidise the development of a centralised platform to connect all stakeholders for these bulk orders.

According to a Facebook post by Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun, the 40-baht Khao Kaeng scheme is intended to ease the burden of rising food prices during the economic crisis.

The initiative proposes subsidising registered food vendors to enable them to offer meals at reduced prices. The exact price is still under discussion, and the 40-baht figure is cited as an example rather than a final decision.

Although the scheme is currently on hold, officials remain open to feedback from all stakeholders.

Mrs Thaniwan added that the current “Thai Chuay Thai Plus” co-payment scheme has increased sales for small vendors by around 20%. However, sales are expected to drop once the scheme ends in September.

She noted that medium-sized restaurants ineligible to participate in the co-payment scheme have been impacted. She urged the government to provide low-interest loans to help these businesses maintain cash flow until the industry’s high season at year-end.

She added that if restaurants participate in the government’s upcoming initiative to lower food prices, they should receive incentives in return. For example, they should have easier access to government loans in the future.