ISTANBUL, Turkey — Osman Bayezid, the last Ottoman heir, liked to eat and throw dinner parties where circassian chicken, borek‌ and stuffed grape leaves were served liberally. His fondness for lavish Ottoman-style food was so much that when a doctor asked him to cut his meals, he went for the medical check-up with his coat's pockets full of coins. He knew he was going to be asked to step onto a weighing scale and then given a strict diet to follow. Bayezid thought it best to add a few artificial pounds so that he wouldn't be nagged about his weight in follow-up trips. "Oh, he had so many tricks up his sleeve," recalls Bosiljka Stevanovic, a longtime friend, in an interview with TRT World. "He would make you laugh and laugh and laugh."

British phone maker Vertu has long been considered unique because it designs and makes all of its devices on site at a small plant in the Hampshire countryside. Now the luxury tech company has been snapped up by exiled Turkish businessman Hakan Uzan for £50 million ($60 million), the Telegraph reported Monday. Vertu is known for making phones with sapphire screens, titanium frames and leather cladding that can cost up to £40,000 apiece. Included in the deal is a concierge on speed dial.

The Ottoman Lieutenant," a love story about an American nurse and an Ottoman officer serving in eastern Anatolia during World War I, has premiered in theaters across the United States. The Turkish-American co-produced Hollywood film has reached U.S. audiences in some 300 cinemas across more than 200 regions of the country. Telling the story of an American nurse named Lillie during the first years of World War I, the film incorporates striking décor and staging to create a modern version of an old fashioned picture.

High-profile New York prosecutor Preet Bharara -- who was among the federal attorneys asked to resign by the White House -- said Saturday that has been fired. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Friday demanded the resignations of 46 U.S. prosecutors -- including Bharara -- appointed during the two terms of his predecessor Barack Obama. The federal attorney's firing capped a standoff with the Trump administration that started when Bharara refused the White House order to resign.