Dozens of people have drowned after a fishing boat carrying migrants that smugglers had promised refuge in Europe sank after hitting rocks off the coast of western Turkey.

A Turkish military jet disappeared today while flying over the Mediterranean near Syria.

Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of five more victims of Turkey’s latest earthquake, increasing the death toll to at least 17, including a Japanese aid worker who came after last month’s devastating quake.

Christians in Turkey have today expressed fear that growing nationalism and intolerance could lead to more violence against them.

Thousands gathered outside the bilingual Turkish and Armenian newspaper Agos early today to mourn its editor, murdered in an attack that has shocked Turkey.

Turks were sharply divided today over the government’s surprise proposal to open a major port and airport to long-time foe Cyprus and save the country’s troubled EU membership talks.

Turkish officials have signalled that they are prepared to send their army into northern Iraq if US and Iraqi forces do not take steps to combat Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there.

A Turkish man dragged his teenage sister into the street and shot her in the head after learning that she was raped, Turkish press reported today.

The Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II offered in 2000 to capture al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and planed to kill the late Syrian President Hafez Assad, a Turkish newspaper reported today, printing what it said were letters the gunman wrote.

A military hospital that pronounced the Turk who shot Pope John Paul II unfit for military service determined that he had an “anti-social” personality, a newspaper reported today.

THE Turkish Football Federation has condemned the treatment of its national side in Saturday’s World Cup playoff against Switzerland, fuelling tensions for the return leg in Istanbul tomorrow night.

The Turkish government was under fire today for ignoring warnings about a new express train that derailed in northwestern Turkey killing 36 people and injuring 81 in one of the country’s worst train disasters.

Railways investigators today began a massive inquiry into Turkey’s worst rail disaster.

The wife of an alleged ringleader of a Turkish al-Qaida cell believed to have plotted last year’s deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul told a court that her husband was a murderer and she wanted a divorce.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, ahead of a visit to Turkey today, said the European Union would start membership talks with the country if it met requirements on human rights and democracy by the end of the year, a newspaper reported in Ankara.

A suicide bomb attack by two suspected Islamic militants on an Istanbul Masonic lodge which killed one person and wounded five others was not believed to be the work of al-Qaida, blamed for a series of suicide bombings in the city last year, authorities said.

A Turk was today charged with treason after authorities said he acted as a link between al-Qaida and suicide bombers who killed 62 people in Istanbul last month.

Two key suspects in the Istanbul suicide bombings, in which 61 people died, took instructions from Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, newspapers reported today.

Syria has handed over 22 people suspected of involvement in Turkey’s quadruple suicide bombings, authorities said.

Syria today handed over 22 people suspected of involvement in Turkey’s quadruple suicide bombings, authorities said.

A Turkish court charged three more alleged accomplices in the Istanbul suicide bombings with membership in an illegal organisation and aiding an illegal organisation.

A Turkish court today charged three more alleged accomplices in the Istanbul suicide bombings with membership in an illegal organisation and aiding an illegal organisation.

Turkey’s prime minister has vowed to hunt down any accomplices of the militants who carried out a string of suicide bombings that killed 57 people and injured hundreds.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush said last night Turkey had become a battleground in the “war on terror” as police made their first arrests in the deadly truck bomb attacks on British targets in Istanbul.

Turkish police have arrested number of men who are suspected of involvement in the deadly suicide bombings on the British consulate and a London-based bank that were blamed on al-Qaida.

Turkish investigators arrested an undisclosed number of suspects in Istanbul today in the deadly suicide bombings on the British consulate and a London-based bank in which 27 people died and more than 450 were injured.

Rescue workers and investigators were today sifting through the wreckage of the British consulate and a London-based bank blasted by suspected al-Qaida suicide bombers who killed at least 27 people in Istanbul.

Seven people were being questioned over the British consulate and HSBC bombings, a leading Turkish newspaper said today

TURKISH officials investigated claims that the al-Qaida terrorist network was responsible for the truck bombings that devastated two Istanbul synagogues and killed 23 people, the prime minister said early yesterday.

Turkey has plans to send tens of thousands of soldiers into northern Iraq if the United States attacks through the north, senior intelligence and military sources said today.