Ankara - Six teenagers who took part in violent protests last month in the predominantly Kurdish-populated city of Diyarbakir face up to 23 years imprisonment each, the Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday.

Prosecutors are seeking the lengthy jail terms for the six 13-to- 14 year-old boys, claiming that they threw rocks and molotov cocktails at police during demonstrations in October to protest a visit to the city by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ankara - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is due to arrive in Turkey on Wednesday where he will take part in an intergovernmental summit. The topic of Turkey's European Union accession process is expected to top the agenda.

"Our goal is to reiterate Italy's support for Turkey's EU membership and to commit to helping Turkey to overcome whatever obstacles it faces," Italian ambassador to Turkey Carlo Marsili told the Anadolu news agency ahead of the visit.

The half-day intergovernmental summit is to take place in the Aegean city of Izmir.

Ankara - Four men who kidnapped an Assyrian-Christian priest in south-east Turkey last year were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment on Tuesday by a court in the city of Diyarbakir, the Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.

Father Daniel Savci (56) was taken hostage in November 2007 by the four men who stopped his car as he was travelling to the Mor Yakup Monastery, in a village near the town of Midyat in south-eastern Turkey's Mardin province.

In evidence read to the court, Savci said that he had been handcuffed and a hood was placed over his head when he was kidnapped.

Ankara - More than 12 years after a traffic accident in western Turkey exposed links between the Turkish mafia, police and politicians, the trial of the then interior minister was set to get underway in Ankara on Tuesday, but the court decided that another court should try the case, the Anadolu news agency reported.

Former Interior Minister Mehmet Agar was implicated in ties with Turkish mafia boss Abdullah Catli with prosecutors claiming that Agar had protected Catli, a figure wanted by the police for a number of murders, and had even signed Catli's gun licence.

Ankara - The last surviving Turkish soldier from the Turkish War of Independence died in Istanbul on Tuesday aged 105, the Anadolu news agency reported.