TENS of thousands of Syrian government supporters poured into the streets to protest an Arab League vote to suspend the country’s membership, as Turkey sent planes to evacuate diplomatic staff and their families after a night of attacks on embassies.

Searchers today ended efforts to find anyone else alive in the rubble of an earthquake-shattered hotel in eastern Turkey.

A 13-YEAR-OLD boy was pulled from a collapsed building without injury five days after Turkey’s powerful earthquake struck, and state-run TV said he survived by drinking rain water that seeped through cracks in the wreckage around him.

Rescuers working under floodlights, pulled a 13-year-old boy alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building today, more than 100 hours after a massive earthquake levelled buildings in eastern Turkey, killing at least 550 people.

An 18-year-old university student was pulled out injured, but alive from the ruins of an apartment building early today, 61 hours after the devastating Turkey earthquake.

FOUR people were pulled alive from the rubble yesterday when one managed to call for help on his mobile phone after a 7.2-magnitude quake levelled buildings and killed 279 people in eastern Turkey.

A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey today, collapsing dozens of buildings into piles of twisted steel and chunks of concrete. Desperate survivors dug into the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and injured.

A powerful earthquake has collapsed some buildings in the centre of eastern Turkish city of Van, according to the country’s state-run news agency.

Five prisoners were burned to death when a prison van caught fire in a town in central Turkey.

TURKEY’S prime minister said yesterday that Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last year was “cause for war”, but added that his country showed “patience” and refrained from taking any action.

The prime and only suspect over the murders of two Irish women in Turkey is a teenage waiter who had been in relationship with the daughter of one of the victims, sources said today.

The stabbing to death of two Irish women in Turkey may have happened after one of the dead women refused to allow the teenage murder suspect marry her daughter, local reports have said.

THE chiefs of staff of Turkey’s military stepped down yesterday as tensions dramatically increased over the arrest of dozens of officers accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government.

Syrian tanks and elite troops were today heading to a northern area ahead of a possible attack on a town where soldiers reportedly joined an anti-government uprising.

Two people have been injured in a bomb explosion near a police station in southern Turkey, the state-run Anatolia news agency said today.

Hundreds of Americans and other foreigners are spending a third day stuck unable to leave strife-torn Libya due to rough seas.

Hezbollah supporters gathered in the streets of Beirut early today after a UN tribunal filed indictments over the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, prompting several schools to close as nervous parents withdrew their children from class.

About 200 serving and retired Turkish military officers have gone on trial accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government in 2003.

A suicide bomber blew himself up near police watching over Istanbul’s main square today, wounding 22 people, including 10 policemen, officials said.

Three people were killed and 50 others injured when an Iranian passenger bus overturned in south-eastern Turkey today, the state-run news agency said.

A roadside bomb attack killed nine people travelling on a minibus today, authorities said, in the latest violence to shake Turkey's turbulent south-east, where Kurdish guerrillas have been fighting for autonomy for decades.

TURKISH voters yesterday approved constitutional reforms that the government says will strengthen the Muslim nation’s democracy and help its candidacy for the European Union.

LANDSLIDES and floods triggered by torrential rains swept through a town in northern Turkey, killing at least 12 people, officials said.

A Palestinian took hostages in the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv today after shots were fired outside in an incident that appeared to have only an indirect link to recent tensions between the two countries.

THE Turkish state-run news agency says a court has indicted 196 people on charges of plotting to bring down the Islamic-oriented government.

Turkish police have detained 27 people for questioning over a bomb attack in Istanbul in which five people were killed, the state-run news agency said today.

Kurdish rebels have killed seven soldiers in an attack on an outpost near the Iraqi border, Turkey’s state-run news agency said today.

A Catholic bishop was stabbed to death in Turkey today, a day before he was due to meet the pope.

SEVEN suspects were remanded in custody yesterday over an alleged coup plot against Turkey’s Islamist-rooted government in 2003, as part of a probe that has fanned tensions in the polarised country.

Two passengers trains collided in north western Turkey today, killing one of the engine drivers and injuring two rail personnel and at least two passengers, officials and media reports said.

Police clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators across the country’s predominantly Kurdish south- east today during protests marking the 10th anniversary of a separatist rebel leader’s capture, state-run media said.

Turkey’s social services have called for the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson to be prosecuted for secretly filming orphanages in the country.

Turkish authorities said a truck packed with illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Burma overturned in western Turkey, killing 18 people and injuring 23.

Turkish authorities were today trying to establish the identity of bombers who killed 17 people in blasts at a crowded Istanbul square.

TURKISH investigators found the body of an Italian artist, last seen in March hitchhiking in a wedding gown, and detained a man suspected of murdering her, officials said on Saturday.

Police have found the body of an Italian artist who went missing while hitchhiking in Turkey dressed in a wedding gown to appeal for peace, officials said today.

A TURKISH nationalist party leader, a veteran journalist and an academic have been arrested over an alleged plan to kill author Orhan Pamuk, the country’s first Nobel laureate, media reported yesterday.

Turkish police have detained four people following a bomb attack yesterday in which five people were killed, a prosecutor said today.

A car bomb aimed at the Turkish military killed five people and wounded 68 - including 30 troops – in the Kurdish-dominated Turkish city of Diyarbakir.

A boat carrying some 70 illegal immigrants sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast and at least 20 bodies washed up on the shore, the Anatolia news agency reported today.

TURKEY paraded its military muscle yesterday, amid stern warnings from Baghdad that any large-scale Turkish incursion against Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq would have “disastrous” results.

Turkish troops killed 15 separatist Kurdish rebels today in a clash in south-eastern Turkey, the private Dogan news agency reported.

Separatist Kurdish rebels attacked a military unit near Turkey’s border with Iraq and Iran today, killing nine Turkish soldiers, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Separatist Kurdish rebels attacked a military unit near Turkey’s border with Iraq and Iran today, killing nine Turkish soldiers, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.