Harry Potter And The Cursed Child is now the most nominated new play in the history of the Olivier awards.
The lavish production has been nominated in 11 categories including best director, best new play and outstanding achievement in music for the awards in April.
Jamie Parker, who plays Potter in the sequel to JK Rowling's books, is up against Buried Child actor Ed Harris, Travesties star Tom Hollander and six-time winner Sir Ian McKellen, who receives his tenth nomination in the best actor category.
The musical category nominations include Groundhog Day, which opened on Broadway this month and has eight nominations, while Andrew Lloyd-Webber, as a composer, takes three nods for three separate shows, Sunset Boulevard, Jesus Christ Superstar and School Of Rock The Musical.
Former Labour MP Glenda Jackson's role in King Lear sees her up for her first Olivier since 1984 in the best actress category, along with Billie Piper, who has been showered with plaudits for her performance in the title role of Yerma, The Glass Menagerie's Cherry Jones and Hedda Gabler's Ruth Wilson.
Written by Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, who has been nominated for best director, The Cursed Child has also been put forward for best set design, best lighting design, best costume and best sound.
Noma Dumezweni, who plays Hermione, has been shortlisted for best actress in a supporting role while the production's choreographer, Steve Hoggett, has also been nominated.
In the best supporting actor category, Anthony Boyle, who plays Scorpius Malfoy, is up against Rafe Spall, who is nominated for his performance as the sinister Judge Brack in Hedda Gabler.
Sir Kenneth Branagh is also to be honoured for his contribution to theatre at this year's awards.
Julian Bird, executive producer of the Olivier Awards, said: "In a year of global change, the nominees for this year's awards demonstrate London theatre's ability to challenge our perceptions, stir our emotions, and entertain us.
The nominations were announced by former winners Denise Gough and Matt Henry and the awards take place at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday 9 April.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Adele confirms marriage to long-term partner Simon Konecki
Adele has confirmed she is now married to long-term partner Simon Konecki, ending weeks of speculation.
The Hello and Rumour Has It singer made the announcement during a concert in Brisbane, Australia, where she spoke about her relationship with him.
Talking on stage about her hit song Someone Like You, she told fans: "I was trying to remember how it was I felt at the beginning of the relationship that inspired that record.
"Because as bad as a break-up can be and as bitter and horrible and messy as it can be, that feeling when you first fall for someone is the best feeling on earth, and I am addicted to that feeling.
"Obviously, I can't go through with those feelings because I'm married now."
The Hello and Rumour Has It singer made the announcement during a concert in Brisbane, Australia, where she spoke about her relationship with him.
Talking on stage about her hit song Someone Like You, she told fans: "I was trying to remember how it was I felt at the beginning of the relationship that inspired that record.
"Because as bad as a break-up can be and as bitter and horrible and messy as it can be, that feeling when you first fall for someone is the best feeling on earth, and I am addicted to that feeling.
"Obviously, I can't go through with those feelings because I'm married now."
FBI director rejects Trump's wire-tap claims
The FBI Director has refuted suggestions by President Trump that Barack Obama had his wires tapped, according to US media reports.
James Comey has asked the US Justice Department to publicly refute Mr Trump's accusations - a move which questions the President's truthfulness.
His intervention follows comments from James Clapper - the director of national intelligence in the Obama administration - who denied there was an order for surveillance at Trump Tower.
:: Trump's awkward relationship with Barack Obama
In an interview with NBC's Meet The Press, Mr Clapper said that in the national intelligence work he oversaw, there was "no such wiretap activity mounted against the President, the President-elect at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign".
Mr Clapper, who left the White House on 20 January when Mr Trump took office, said he would have known about such an order.
"Absolutely, I can deny it," he said.
The White House has requested that Congress investigate Mr Trump's accusation that his predecessor ordered a wiretap of the phones at Trump Tower - his New York residence and campaign headquarters - the month before the country went to the polls.
Mr Trump has not offered any evidence to support his claims, and Mr Obama has rejected the allegations, with a spokesman describing them as "simply false".
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement on Sunday: "Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling."
He said the President had requested "that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016".
It was unclear which reports Mr Spicer was referring to, but he added neither the White House or the President would be commenting further on the matter until the investigation concluded.
House Intelligence chairman and Republican Devin Nunes said in a statement that his committee "will make inquiries into whether the government was conducting surveillance activities on any political party's campaign officials or surrogates".
Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said his panel would also look at the allegations as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election.
Mr Cotton said: "We're going to follow the facts wherever they lead us and I'm sure that this matter will be a part of that inquiry."
The Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Mr Trump's claims were "just ridiculous", telling CNN that he was following the playbook of making something up, having the media report it and then saying everybody is writing about it.
She said having people "talking about what you want them to be talking about" was a "tool of an authoritarian".
Mr Trump made the allegations against Mr Obama in a series of tweets on Saturday, amid growing scrutiny of his campaign's ties with Russia.
He wrote: "Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!"
The President added: "Is it legal for a sitting president to be 'wire tapping' a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!"
"I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to election!"
:: Is Russia going to be Trump's Watergate?
A spokesman for Mr Obama has dismissed the claims, insisting it was "a cardinal rule" of his administration that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigations led by the Department of Justice.
Earlier, Republican senator Ben Sasse called the US President's surveillance claims serious and said the public deserved more information.
The politician said it was possible Mr Trump had been illegally tapped and he should explain what sort of device it was and how he knew about it.
Under US law, a federal court would have to have found probable cause that the target of the surveillance is an "agent of a foreign power" before authorising such an order.
James Comey has asked the US Justice Department to publicly refute Mr Trump's accusations - a move which questions the President's truthfulness.
His intervention follows comments from James Clapper - the director of national intelligence in the Obama administration - who denied there was an order for surveillance at Trump Tower.
:: Trump's awkward relationship with Barack Obama
In an interview with NBC's Meet The Press, Mr Clapper said that in the national intelligence work he oversaw, there was "no such wiretap activity mounted against the President, the President-elect at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign".
Mr Clapper, who left the White House on 20 January when Mr Trump took office, said he would have known about such an order.
"Absolutely, I can deny it," he said.
The White House has requested that Congress investigate Mr Trump's accusation that his predecessor ordered a wiretap of the phones at Trump Tower - his New York residence and campaign headquarters - the month before the country went to the polls.
Mr Trump has not offered any evidence to support his claims, and Mr Obama has rejected the allegations, with a spokesman describing them as "simply false".
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement on Sunday: "Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling."
He said the President had requested "that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016".
It was unclear which reports Mr Spicer was referring to, but he added neither the White House or the President would be commenting further on the matter until the investigation concluded.
House Intelligence chairman and Republican Devin Nunes said in a statement that his committee "will make inquiries into whether the government was conducting surveillance activities on any political party's campaign officials or surrogates".
Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said his panel would also look at the allegations as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election.
Mr Cotton said: "We're going to follow the facts wherever they lead us and I'm sure that this matter will be a part of that inquiry."
The Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Mr Trump's claims were "just ridiculous", telling CNN that he was following the playbook of making something up, having the media report it and then saying everybody is writing about it.
She said having people "talking about what you want them to be talking about" was a "tool of an authoritarian".
Mr Trump made the allegations against Mr Obama in a series of tweets on Saturday, amid growing scrutiny of his campaign's ties with Russia.
He wrote: "Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!"
The President added: "Is it legal for a sitting president to be 'wire tapping' a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!"
"I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to election!"
:: Is Russia going to be Trump's Watergate?
A spokesman for Mr Obama has dismissed the claims, insisting it was "a cardinal rule" of his administration that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigations led by the Department of Justice.
Earlier, Republican senator Ben Sasse called the US President's surveillance claims serious and said the public deserved more information.
The politician said it was possible Mr Trump had been illegally tapped and he should explain what sort of device it was and how he knew about it.
Under US law, a federal court would have to have found probable cause that the target of the surveillance is an "agent of a foreign power" before authorising such an order.
Iraqi forces near government buildings in Mosul as fight against IS continues
US-backed Iraqi forces are set to reach the main government complex in Mosul, their next target in the battle to retake the city from Islamic State.
The site should be taken on Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi told the Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile, Colonel John L Dorrian, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the American-led coalition against IS, told Sky News the Iraqi forces were "imposing their will on the enemy" in the city.
"They're not going to be pushed out of Mosul - they're going to surrender or they're going to be killed there," he vowed.
A senior commander said earlier Iraqi troops had been involved in the "heaviest" clashes yet with IS fighters in the west of the city since the start of their offensive.
Major General Haider al-Maturi of the Federal Police Commandos Division told the Associated Press the militants had dispatched at least six suicide car bombs, which were all destroyed before reaching Iraqi forces.
He said IS fighters are moving from house to house and deploying snipers.
Iraqi forces launched attacks against IS-held neighbourhoods in western Mosul from three points on Sunday morning.
IS fighters have "some mortar (teams) and snipers positioned inside homes," Iraqi special forces Major Ali Talib said, adding that US-led coalition airstrikes have helped destroy some IS defences, but clashes were continuing.
As the fighting continues, the total number of civilians displaced from the city has risen over the last few days.
More than 200,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
International aid agencies have voiced fears that camps to accommodate displaced people are approaching full capacity.
The push to recapture the west of the city was launched around two weeks ago after the eastern half of Mosul was declared "fully liberated" in January.
The overall operation to retake the city - which IS has held since the summer of 2014 - began in October after more than two years of slowly taking back territory from IS militants.
The site should be taken on Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi told the Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile, Colonel John L Dorrian, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the American-led coalition against IS, told Sky News the Iraqi forces were "imposing their will on the enemy" in the city.
"They're not going to be pushed out of Mosul - they're going to surrender or they're going to be killed there," he vowed.
A senior commander said earlier Iraqi troops had been involved in the "heaviest" clashes yet with IS fighters in the west of the city since the start of their offensive.
Major General Haider al-Maturi of the Federal Police Commandos Division told the Associated Press the militants had dispatched at least six suicide car bombs, which were all destroyed before reaching Iraqi forces.
He said IS fighters are moving from house to house and deploying snipers.
Iraqi forces launched attacks against IS-held neighbourhoods in western Mosul from three points on Sunday morning.
IS fighters have "some mortar (teams) and snipers positioned inside homes," Iraqi special forces Major Ali Talib said, adding that US-led coalition airstrikes have helped destroy some IS defences, but clashes were continuing.
As the fighting continues, the total number of civilians displaced from the city has risen over the last few days.
More than 200,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
International aid agencies have voiced fears that camps to accommodate displaced people are approaching full capacity.
The push to recapture the west of the city was launched around two weeks ago after the eastern half of Mosul was declared "fully liberated" in January.
The overall operation to retake the city - which IS has held since the summer of 2014 - began in October after more than two years of slowly taking back territory from IS militants.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan Rejected British Offer To Rescue Kidnapped Chibok Schoolgirls |UK Guardian
British armed forces offered to attempt to rescue nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, but were rebuffed by Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s president at the time, the Observer has learned.
In a mission named Operation Turus, the RAF conducted air reconnaissance over northern Nigeria for several months, following the kidnapping of 276 girls from the town of Chibok in April 2014. “The girls were located in the first few weeks of the RAF mission,” a source involved in Operation Turus told the Observer. “We offered to rescue them, but the Nigerian government declined.”
The girls were then tracked by the aircraft as they were dispersed into progressively smaller groups over the following months, the source added.
Chibok is located in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state. Today 195 of the girls are still missing. Those who have managed to escape from their kidnappers have told of a life of torture, enslavement, rape, and forced marriages in captivity.
Notes from meetings between UK and Nigerian officials, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, also suggest that Nigeria shunned international offers to rescue the girls. While Nigeria welcomed an aid package and assistance from the US, the UK and France in looking for the girls, it viewed any action to be taken against kidnapping as a “national issue”.
“Nigeria’s intelligence and military services must solve the ultimate problem,” said Jonathan in a meeting with the UK’s then Africa minister, Mark Simmonds, on 15 May 2014.
A document summarizing a meeting in Abuja in September 2014 between Nigeria’s national security adviser and James Duddridge MP, former under-secretary of state at the Foreign Office, shows Operation Turus had advanced to the point where rescue options were being discussed. Minutes from a meeting the following month between Major-General James Chiswell and Jonathan hinted at the frustration felt by those trying to prompt some action from Nigeria.
“[President] Jonathan was still focused on ‘platforms’. General Chiswell said again we could offer advice on what equipment might make sense and how weapon systems might be best deployed,” the October 2014 document stated.
The Nigerian government did not respond to a request for comment. The Foreign Office said: “We wouldn’t comment on specific operational details, which are a matter for the Nigerian government and military.”
Jonathan has drawn criticism at home and abroad for a lack of action and perceived apathy over the kidnappings. The government was slow to mount any response in the weeks after the girls were taken. The governor of Borno, Kashim Shettima, also publicly criticized Jonathan for failing to even call him or any other state official for 19 days after the kidnappings. Jonathan also hit out at the worldwide #BringBackOurGirls campaign, branding it a “manipulation” of the victims of the attack.
Boko Haram had raided the dormitories of the government secondary school at Chibok. The girls staying there had braved warnings of an attack to sit their final examinations. Boko Haram looted the school and then burned it to the ground. The kidnappings also blighted the lives of the girls from the town who were not taken away, as many have been too scared to continue their education.
In addition to Nigeria, Boko Haram is active in regions of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. According to Unicef, more than 1.3 million children have now been displaced. Some of those taken by Boko Haram have been forced to become child soldiers: one in five suicide bombers in Nigeria are believed to be children, and three-quarters of those are girls.
In a mission named Operation Turus, the RAF conducted air reconnaissance over northern Nigeria for several months, following the kidnapping of 276 girls from the town of Chibok in April 2014. “The girls were located in the first few weeks of the RAF mission,” a source involved in Operation Turus told the Observer. “We offered to rescue them, but the Nigerian government declined.”
The girls were then tracked by the aircraft as they were dispersed into progressively smaller groups over the following months, the source added.
Chibok is located in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state. Today 195 of the girls are still missing. Those who have managed to escape from their kidnappers have told of a life of torture, enslavement, rape, and forced marriages in captivity.
Notes from meetings between UK and Nigerian officials, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, also suggest that Nigeria shunned international offers to rescue the girls. While Nigeria welcomed an aid package and assistance from the US, the UK and France in looking for the girls, it viewed any action to be taken against kidnapping as a “national issue”.
“Nigeria’s intelligence and military services must solve the ultimate problem,” said Jonathan in a meeting with the UK’s then Africa minister, Mark Simmonds, on 15 May 2014.
A document summarizing a meeting in Abuja in September 2014 between Nigeria’s national security adviser and James Duddridge MP, former under-secretary of state at the Foreign Office, shows Operation Turus had advanced to the point where rescue options were being discussed. Minutes from a meeting the following month between Major-General James Chiswell and Jonathan hinted at the frustration felt by those trying to prompt some action from Nigeria.
“[President] Jonathan was still focused on ‘platforms’. General Chiswell said again we could offer advice on what equipment might make sense and how weapon systems might be best deployed,” the October 2014 document stated.
The Nigerian government did not respond to a request for comment. The Foreign Office said: “We wouldn’t comment on specific operational details, which are a matter for the Nigerian government and military.”
Jonathan has drawn criticism at home and abroad for a lack of action and perceived apathy over the kidnappings. The government was slow to mount any response in the weeks after the girls were taken. The governor of Borno, Kashim Shettima, also publicly criticized Jonathan for failing to even call him or any other state official for 19 days after the kidnappings. Jonathan also hit out at the worldwide #BringBackOurGirls campaign, branding it a “manipulation” of the victims of the attack.
Boko Haram had raided the dormitories of the government secondary school at Chibok. The girls staying there had braved warnings of an attack to sit their final examinations. Boko Haram looted the school and then burned it to the ground. The kidnappings also blighted the lives of the girls from the town who were not taken away, as many have been too scared to continue their education.
In addition to Nigeria, Boko Haram is active in regions of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. According to Unicef, more than 1.3 million children have now been displaced. Some of those taken by Boko Haram have been forced to become child soldiers: one in five suicide bombers in Nigeria are believed to be children, and three-quarters of those are girls.
Hassan Ali Khaire: Hunger, disease kill 110 in two days
Somalia's prime minister has announced the deaths of at least 110 people due to hunger and diarrhoea in the country over the past 48 hours amid a drought in the Bay region.
The announcement by Hassan Ali Khaire on Saturday followed the Somali government's warning last week that the drought amounts to a national disaster.
"It is a difficult situation for the pastoralists and their livestock. Some people have been hit by [hunger] and diarrhoea at the same time. In the last 48 hours, 110 people died due to [hunger] and diarrhoea in Bay region," Khaire's office said in a statement.
The Bay region is in the southwest part of the country.
READ MORE: Dying of hunger - What is a famine?
"The Somali government will do its best, and we urge all Somalis, wherever they are, to help and save the dying Somalis," said the statement, released after a meeting of a famine response committee.
Mostly children and elderly people died in villages surrounding the town of Baido, Abdullahi Omar Roble, the government's regional humanitarian chief, told the DPA news agency.
There was not enough medication to treat all of the patients, Roble said.
The drought has led to a spread of acute watery diarrhoea, cholera and measles and nearly 5.5 million people are at risk of contracting waterborne diseases.
The cholera outbreak has killed at least 69 since Friday, a local government official said.
More than 70 others have been hospitalised.
Thousands flock to Mogadishu
UN experts have sounded a warning on deaths related to cholera and other diseases that arise from a lack of clean water.
The UN estimates that five million people nationwide need aid, amid warnings of a full-blown famine.
Thousands have streamed into the capital, Mogadishu, in search of food aid, overwhelming local and international aid agencies.
More than 7,000 internally displaced people checked into one feeding centre recently.
READ MORE: Somalia drought forces children out of school
About 363,000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia "need urgent treatment and nutrition support, including 71,000 who are severely malnourished", the US Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning Systems Network has said.
The Somali government has said the widespread hunger "makes people vulnerable to exploitation, human rights abuses and to criminal and terrorist networks".
Somalia was one of four regions singled out by the UN secretary-general last month in a $4.4bn aid appeal to avert catastrophic hunger and famine, along with northeast Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
In 2011, an estimated 260,000 people starved to death in Somalia.
The UN humanitarian appeal for 2017 for Somalia is $864m, to provide assistance to 3.9 million people.
But the UN World Food Programme recently requested an additional $26m plan to respond to the drought.
IN PICTURES: Drought in Somalia - Time is Running Out
The drought is the first crisis for Somalia's newly elected Somali American leader, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who is also known as Farmajo.
Mohamed has appealed to the international community and Somalia's diaspora of two million people for help.
Previous droughts and a quarter-century of conflict, including ongoing attacks by al-Shabab, have left the country fragile.
The announcement by Hassan Ali Khaire on Saturday followed the Somali government's warning last week that the drought amounts to a national disaster.
"It is a difficult situation for the pastoralists and their livestock. Some people have been hit by [hunger] and diarrhoea at the same time. In the last 48 hours, 110 people died due to [hunger] and diarrhoea in Bay region," Khaire's office said in a statement.
The Bay region is in the southwest part of the country.
READ MORE: Dying of hunger - What is a famine?
"The Somali government will do its best, and we urge all Somalis, wherever they are, to help and save the dying Somalis," said the statement, released after a meeting of a famine response committee.
Mostly children and elderly people died in villages surrounding the town of Baido, Abdullahi Omar Roble, the government's regional humanitarian chief, told the DPA news agency.
There was not enough medication to treat all of the patients, Roble said.
The drought has led to a spread of acute watery diarrhoea, cholera and measles and nearly 5.5 million people are at risk of contracting waterborne diseases.
The cholera outbreak has killed at least 69 since Friday, a local government official said.
More than 70 others have been hospitalised.
Thousands flock to Mogadishu
UN experts have sounded a warning on deaths related to cholera and other diseases that arise from a lack of clean water.
The UN estimates that five million people nationwide need aid, amid warnings of a full-blown famine.
Thousands have streamed into the capital, Mogadishu, in search of food aid, overwhelming local and international aid agencies.
More than 7,000 internally displaced people checked into one feeding centre recently.
READ MORE: Somalia drought forces children out of school
About 363,000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia "need urgent treatment and nutrition support, including 71,000 who are severely malnourished", the US Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning Systems Network has said.
The Somali government has said the widespread hunger "makes people vulnerable to exploitation, human rights abuses and to criminal and terrorist networks".
Somalia was one of four regions singled out by the UN secretary-general last month in a $4.4bn aid appeal to avert catastrophic hunger and famine, along with northeast Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
In 2011, an estimated 260,000 people starved to death in Somalia.
The UN humanitarian appeal for 2017 for Somalia is $864m, to provide assistance to 3.9 million people.
But the UN World Food Programme recently requested an additional $26m plan to respond to the drought.
IN PICTURES: Drought in Somalia - Time is Running Out
The drought is the first crisis for Somalia's newly elected Somali American leader, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who is also known as Farmajo.
Mohamed has appealed to the international community and Somalia's diaspora of two million people for help.
Previous droughts and a quarter-century of conflict, including ongoing attacks by al-Shabab, have left the country fragile.
'Syrian' warplane crashes near Turkish border
A Syrian military plane crashed in Turkey near its border with Syria, the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu said.
The plane crashed in the Turkish province of Hatay on Saturday, the news agency said, quoting provincial governor Erdal Ata as saying police and medical teams were at the crash site.
"The plane's cockpit was empty. We believe that the pilots parachuted out," Ata said, adding that a search for them was under way.
On Sunday, Anadolu reported that the pilot was found and taken to hospital, adding that he had managed to use his parachute to land safely.
He was found exhausted after a nine-hour search by Turkish security teams and was being given medical care at a local medical centre.
Earlier, people in the Turkish border village of Samandag said they heard a loud noise at around 6:30pm (1530 GMT) and alerted the police, the Dogan news agency said.
A Syrian military official, quoted by state television, said: "Contact was lost with a military aircraft on a reconnaissance mission near the Turkish border."
The Syrian rebel group Ahrar al-Sham told AFP news agency that it had shot down a government plane "as it was overflying Idlib province [in northwestern Syria] and carrying out air strikes".
The British-based monitor of the Syrian conflict, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a plane "which probably belongs to the Syrian regime crashed in Idlib province. The status of the pilot is unknown and there are contradictory reasons for the cause of the crash."
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, quoted by Anadolu, said the cause of the crash was unknown, but he pointed to poor weather conditions at the time.
The Syrian civil war started as a largely unarmed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but quickly developed into a fully armed conflict.
Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special envoy to Syria, estimated in April 2016 that more than 400,000 Syrians had been killed since the war started.
Calculating a precise death toll is difficult, partially owing to the forced disappearances of tens of thousands of Syrians whose fate remains unknown.
Almost 11 million Syrians - half the country's prewar population - have been displaced from their homes.
The plane crashed in the Turkish province of Hatay on Saturday, the news agency said, quoting provincial governor Erdal Ata as saying police and medical teams were at the crash site.
"The plane's cockpit was empty. We believe that the pilots parachuted out," Ata said, adding that a search for them was under way.
On Sunday, Anadolu reported that the pilot was found and taken to hospital, adding that he had managed to use his parachute to land safely.
He was found exhausted after a nine-hour search by Turkish security teams and was being given medical care at a local medical centre.
Earlier, people in the Turkish border village of Samandag said they heard a loud noise at around 6:30pm (1530 GMT) and alerted the police, the Dogan news agency said.
A Syrian military official, quoted by state television, said: "Contact was lost with a military aircraft on a reconnaissance mission near the Turkish border."
The Syrian rebel group Ahrar al-Sham told AFP news agency that it had shot down a government plane "as it was overflying Idlib province [in northwestern Syria] and carrying out air strikes".
The British-based monitor of the Syrian conflict, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a plane "which probably belongs to the Syrian regime crashed in Idlib province. The status of the pilot is unknown and there are contradictory reasons for the cause of the crash."
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, quoted by Anadolu, said the cause of the crash was unknown, but he pointed to poor weather conditions at the time.
The Syrian civil war started as a largely unarmed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but quickly developed into a fully armed conflict.
Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special envoy to Syria, estimated in April 2016 that more than 400,000 Syrians had been killed since the war started.
Calculating a precise death toll is difficult, partially owing to the forced disappearances of tens of thousands of Syrians whose fate remains unknown.
Almost 11 million Syrians - half the country's prewar population - have been displaced from their homes.
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