ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s sports minister has poured cold water on race organisers’ hopes that the government would provide funds to secure the return of the Turkish Grand Prix to the Formula One calendar next season.

The sport’s governing body announced on Wednesday that an unidentified European race had been pencilled in for July 21, subject to the agreement of national bodies, to bring the calendar up to 20 races.

ISTANBUL, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki said he wanted to improve strained ties with
neighbouring Turkey, but warned Ankara in a newspaper interview
not to interfere in Iraq’s internal affairs.

In the latest sign of worsening relations between Iraq and
Turkey, the central government in Baghdad on Tuesday denied
permission to land for a plane carrying Turkey’s energy minister
to an energy conference in Iraqi Kurdistan.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey has lifted a ban on female students wearing headscarves in schools providing religious education, in a move drawing criticism from secularists who see it as fresh evidence of the government pushing an Islamic agenda.

Education has been one of the main battlegrounds between religious conservatives, who form the bedrock of support for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party, and secular opponents who accuse him of imposing Islamic values by stealth.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Galatasaray earned a 1-0 victory in a hard-fought battle with a young Manchester United side on Tuesday, snatching the win through a Burak Yilmaz header in their Group H Champions League game.

The victory boosted Galatasaray’s hopes of reaching the knockout stage, putting them in second place in the group, behind United who had already qualified after four wins in their first four matches.

ISTANBUL, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Galatasaray earned a 1-0 victory in a hard-fought battle with a young Manchester United side on Tuesday, snatching the win through a Burak Yilmaz header in their Group H Champions League game.

The victory boosted Galatasaray’s hopes of reaching the knockout stage, putting them in second place in the group, behind United who had already qualified after four wins in their first four matches.

ISTANBUL/DIYARBAKIR (Reuters) – Hundreds of Kurdish militants ended a hunger strike in jails across Turkey on Sunday in response to an appeal from their leader, fuelling hopes a deal had been struck that could revive talks to end a decades-old conflict.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his supporters to end their protest after holding a series of discussions with Turkish MIT intelligence agency officials, according to one media report.

ISTANBUL/DIYARBAKIR (Reuters) – Hundreds of Kurdish militants ended a hunger strike in jails across Turkey on Sunday after an appeal from their leader, fuelling hopes a deal had been struck that could revive talks to end a decades-old conflict.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his supporters to end their protest after holding a series of talks with Turkish MIT intelligence agency officials, according to one media report.

ISTANBUL/DIYARBAKIR (Reuters) – Jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan called for an end to a hunger strike by hundreds of his supporters in prisons across Turkey on Saturday, raising hopes of a push to end a decades-old conflict.

The hunger strike by at least 1,700 people to demand an end to Ocalan’s isolation is in its 67th day and doctors have said prisoners could soon die. The protest has posed a growing challenge to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and risked fuelling tension in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – When lawyers for Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan ask to visit him in an island prison south of Istanbul, they are usually told the boat that would ferry them there has broken down.

They have not seen him for more than 15 months, and have not been able to ask Ocalan what he thinks about the hunger strike by hundreds of his supporters in jails across Turkey. But they believe the PKK leader could play a role in ending the protest.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey should consider bringing back the death penalty, a decade after Ankara abolished capital punishment as part of reforms aimed at European Union membership.

Political commentators accused Erdogan of populism ahead of the 2014 presidential election in which he is widely expected to run.