Ankara - The number of dead in the dormitory collapse in central Turkey rose to 18 when the body of another schoolgirl was pulled from the rubble of the building early Saturday morning.

According to local media, rescue workers had already ceased operations, but began again when a family reported that one of their daughters was still missing.

In addition to the dead, 27 girls were injured when the three- storey dormitory building in the Taskent region of Konya collapsed early Friday morning.

Ankara - A three-storey dormitory building collapsed in central Turkey early Friday morning killing 13 people and injuring 22, the NTV television station reported.

A gas cannister explosion was the most likely reason for the building to collapse at around 5 a. m. (0200 GMT) Friday morning, according to the mayor of the nearby town of Balcilar, Mehmet Demirgul.

Around 60 girls between the ages of 12 and 16 were staying at the dormitory in the Taskent region of Konya where they were attending summer Koran courses.

Ankara - Turkey's Constitutional Court began deliberations Monday on whether to close down the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) which is charged with undermining the secular system.

Turkey's chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, brought the case to close down the AKP earlier, telling the court that it was "clear and present danger that (the AKP) wants to impose shariah law."

The prosecutor has claimed that attempts by the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to allow women to wear Islamic- style headscarves at universities were proof that the party aims to impose Islamic-style law.

Ankara - Police experts on Monday were searching for clues as to who was behind a bomb attack in Istanbul Sunday night that left 16 people dead and 154 injured, the Anadolu news agency reported.

A first small bomb which had been placed in a rubbish bin on a crowded pedestrian street in the suburb of Gungoren on the European side of Istanbul exploded at around 9:45 pm (1645 GMT) and was followed by a much larger blast around 10 to 12 minutes later and around 50 metres down the street, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler told reporters at the scene of the blast.

Ankara -

Ankara - Eleven Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels were killed by Turkish forces in an operation in the south-eastern province of Hakkari on Tuesday night, the Turkish General Staff reported on We