TURKEY struggled to provide shelter yesterday to tens of thousands left homeless by an earthquake that killed nearly 500, and rescue teams began taking painful decisions to call off searches for those buried alive.

A TWO-WEEK-OLD girl has been rescued from the rubble of the Turkish earthquake after being trapped for two days.

Rescue workers have pulled three members of the same family from the rubble of Turkey's earthquake which has killed at least 370 people.

A two-week-old baby girl has been pulled alive from the rubble of an apartment building that collapsed in the Turkish 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.

Iran's president says there will be no room for Israel in the region after the formation of a Palestinian state.

IT will cost an Iranian man convicted of throwing acid in the face of a fellow student €2 million to escape a court-ordered blinding, the Arman newspaper quoted his victim as saying.

Iran today warned it was "reconsidering" its relationship with Britain.

Five sailors including an Irish journalist detained after their yacht apparently strayed into Iranian waters have been released, the British Foreign Office confirmed today.

Five sailors including an Irish journalist who were detained after apparently straying into Iranian waters have been released, it was reported today.

CAPTURED Irish sailor David Bloomer is mentally strong and will be helping his fellow yachtsmen during their ordeal in Iran, a friend has said.

Captured Irish sailor David Bloomer is mentally strong and will be helping his fellow yachtsmen during their ordeal in Iran, a friend said today.

Three people were killed when a training helicopter crashed near the Iranian capital, Tehran, state television reported today.

TEHRAN’S police chief said that few arrests were made in opposition protests that erupted a day earlier in the Iranian capital in an opposition attempt to revive street demonstrations over the country’s disputed election.

The spokesman for Iran’s Guardian Council said today it was ready to recount specific ballot boxes in last week’s disputed presidential elections.

The US-led coalition today accused the Taliban of using children as human shields during a battle in southern Afghanistan, while Nato said it was investigating a shipment of weapons intercepted near the border with Iran.

Tehran has agreed to a formal request from the US to talk about security in Iraq during meetings in Baghdad, it was disclosed today.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has told Iran’s foreign minister that Britain wants Tehran to return the boats and military equipment taken when Iranian naval units seized 15 British sailors and marines in late March.

Iran hit back at claims by the captured British Navy crew of constant psychological pressure during their 13 days of detention by releasing more video clips showing them playing chess and watching television.

Iran’s state television said the British military “dictated” to its sailors what to say in a press conference today, in which they said they were pressured while in custody to admit to being in Iranian waters.

The 15 British personnel captured by Iran were blindfolded, bound and subjected to 'constant psychological pressure', they said today in a statement.

Iran probably released the 15 British Navy personnel because it realised it could make no further political capital from holding them, a military expert said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said it "welcomed" today's announcement that the Iranian government would release the 15 detained British sailors and marines.

Crude oil prices plunged more than 1 dollar a barrel today as tensions eased in the stand-off between Britain and Iran over captive British military personnel.

Oil prices dropped today as tensions in the Britain-Iran stand-off eased.

Iran and Britain have signalled possible movement toward ending the stand-off over 15 detained British sailors and Marines.

Iran said tonight it hoped to resolve the seized British Navy personnel crisis using diplomacy and without putting the captives on trial.

Two of the 15 captured British sailors pointed to a map of the Persian Gulf and identified where they had been arrested 10 days ago on video clips aired by Iranian state-run television channels.

Iran’s official Arabic-language television channel today aired short video clips of what it said were two of the 15 captured British sailors who in the footage pointed to a map of the Persian Gulf.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted today that 15 captured British sailors trespassed in Iranian waters and called world powers “arrogant” for failing to apologise, the country’s official news agency reported.

A British military serviceman appeared on Iran’s official Arabic-language TV today and apologised for entering Iranian waters “without permission”.

An alleged ’confession’ by one of 15 British sailors and Marines held captive in Iran is to be broadcast on an Arabic-language TV channel today.

The reported release comes hours after Iranian state television broadcast a few seconds of footage it claimed was of the operation that seized 15 British soldiers in Iranian territorial waters last week.

Iran today rolled back on a pledge to soon free a British woman sailor, delaying her release because of Britain’s threat to freeze relations and refer the issue to the UN Security Council.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has held talks with Iran’s foreign minister over the detention of 15 British sailors and Marines.

Iran’s foreign minister said Britain must admit that its 15 sailors and marines entered Iranian waters in order to resolve a standoff over their capture.

Iran’s state television quoted an unnamed Iranian official today as saying the first, technical phase of an investigation into the detentions of 15 British sailors was complete.

The Foreign Affairs Committee in the US House of Representatives is demanding that Iran release 15 British service personnel captured last week in contested Persian Gulf waters.

Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Tehran last night of a “different phase” if it did not free 15 British military personnel captured in the Gulf four days ago.

The US Navy today began its largest demonstration of force in the Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying two aircraft carriers and conducting simulated aerial attacks.

Fifteen detained British sailors and marines held by Iran are healthy and are being treated in a humane fashion, officials said today.

Iran is not aiming to swap the 15 British sailors it detained for the five Iranians arrested in northern Iraq, the deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying on state television today.

Iraq’s foreign minister has demanded that Iran release 15 British sailors and marines, saying they had been detained in Iraqi waters and were operating with government consent.

IRAN and Britain stepped up the pressure over 15 detained British soldiers yesterday, with Iranian state TV reporting the Foreign Ministry had protested their ‘illegal’ incursion to the British ambassador.