The Turkish government’s spokesman said today that the dispute over the divided island of Cyprus should not “torpedo” the country’s European Union membership talks, after European efforts to reach a compromise failed to resolve the issue.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon today, a day after Italy and Turkey moved to join the international force there.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and British prime minister Tony Blair today discussed the possibility of deploying a peacekeeping force along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

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.

Turkish prosecutors today ruled that the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 must stay in prison until the beginning of 2010, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 returned to prison after an appeals court ruled that he should serve more time for the killing of a Turkish journalist and other crimes.

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 Turkish military hospital today said the Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 was not fit for obligatory military service, his lawyer said.

Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II, might have been released from prison by mistake and might return to his cell to serve at least 11 more months, a newspaper said today, quoting the country’s justice minister.

THE Turkish gunman who spent 25 years behind bars for shooting Pope John Paul II in 1981 was released yesterday but may soon be returned to jail.

Turkey’s justice minister today said authorities would review the release from prison of the Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981.

Turkey’s Justice Minister Cemil Cicek criticised EU officials today for pressuring Turkey to stop a freedom of expression case against renowned author Orhan Pamuk, but hinted that a court could drop the case.

A judge halted the trial of Turkey’s best-known novelist today, saying the Justice Ministry must first approve the explosive legal case that raises questions about Turkey’s commitment to free speech.

HUNDREDS of Turkish nationalists chanting slogans and waving flags protested over the weekend against a controversial academic conference devoted to the WWI massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.

TURKISH police shot and killed a suspected leftist suicide bomber who tried to detonate his bomb inside the Justice Ministry yesterday and then fled.

Turkish police shot and killed a suspected leftist suicide bomber who tried to detonate his bomb inside the Justice Ministry today and then fled.

KURDISH rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan did not receive a fair trial in Turkey, Europe's top human rights court ruled yesterday in a decision that will put pressure on Ankara as it prepares for membership negotiations with the EU.

Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan did not receive a fair trial in Turkey, Europe’s top human rights court ruled today in a decision that will put pressure on Ankara as it prepares for membership negotiations with the European Union.

TURKEY'S Islamic-rooted ruling party will press ahead with its plan to criminalise adultery despite earlier statements the controversial measure had been shelved, a party member said yesterday.

Amid protests from women’s groups and warnings from the EU, Turkey’s government agreed to measures that would appear to scuttle its plans to introduce legislation making adultery a crime.

With Saddam Hussein defying the American demand to quit his homeland, thousands of US and British troops, armoured vehicles and trucks advanced toward the Iraqi border today, positioning themselves to invade on short notice.