Ankara - A police officer was killed Thursday afternoon in a suspected bomb explosion outside a police station in western Turkey, NTV private television reported.

Ankara - Turkish police on Thursday confirmed they were searching for a 29-year-old man

Ankara - Police in Turkey on Thursday arrested and charged a man they believe was the alleged mastermind behind the 2007 torture- murders of three Christian missionaries in the city of Malatya, the Anadolu news agency reported.

Varol Bulent Aral was taken into custody early Thursday morning and was later charged at a court in Malatya with "leading a terrorist organization" and "organizing the murder of more than one person."

Some of the seven people already on trial for the murders have given evidence that Aral was behind the murders. Anadolu reported that Aral on Thursday denied the charges.

Ankara - A 15-year-old boy was sentenced on Wednesday to three years behind bars for throwing rocks at police during a November protest in support of imprisoned Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan, the Anadolu news agency reported.

Prosecutors alleged that the child, identified only as Y G, had taken part in a pro-Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) demonstration in the southern Turkey city of Adana and that police cameras had filmed the boy throwing rocks.

Ankara - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday repeated his harsh criticism of Israel's military operations in Gaza following his dramatic walk out at a World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday night.

Erdogan denied that his walking out during a debate with Israeli President Shimon Peres was a diplomatic mistake, instead complaining of the way he, as the prime minister of Turkey, was treated during the debate.

Ankara - Almost 30 people were taken into custody Thursday in the latest wave of arrests connected to a shadowy nationalist gang that prosecutors claim was conspiring to overthrow Turkey's moderate Islamic government, the Anadolu news agency reported.

Those taken into custody in operations in 13 provinces across Turkey included a number of serving police officers and the head of the Turk Metalworkers Union.