Baghdad - Top US Commander in Iraq General Ray Odierno has pledged to work with the Iraqi and Turkish governments to halt any attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) against Turkey, a US military statement said Saturday.

Odierno met in Turkey Saturday with General Hasan Igsiz, deputy chief of Turkish General Staff, to discuss military cooperation and "US forces' ongoing assistance to Turkey in its effort to defeat the Kurdish rebel group known as the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK," according to the statement.

A spate of PKK attacks killed dozens of Turkish soldiers and civilians, sparking public outcry and pledges from Turkish leaders to deal with the group, the statement noted.

Frankfurt - Turkey's ban on wearing headscarves in public institutions such as universities is a form of oppression over women, according to an Islamic feminist novelist Cihan Aktas, 48.

An intellectual who is both a feminist and a devout Muslim is a combination so startling in Turkey that Aktas said reviewers and the media had initially refused to take her seriously.

In an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, Aktas set out the views she has developed in a 25-year career writing about the difficulties of being an observant Muslim woman today.

Aktas wore a loose scarf draped over her head and a colourful ankle-length dress to the interview at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Ankara  - A court in south-east Turkey on Friday banned Turkish internet users from accessing Blogger, the world's largest free blog hosting service.

Internet users in Turkey discovered Friday afternoon that the site, which hosts millions of blogs, or web logs, had been blocked. When users tried to view a blogger's page they were redirected to a message which said: "Access to this website has been suspended in accordance with decision no. 2008/2761 of the TR Diyarbakir First Criminal Court of Peace."

No reason for the ban was given.

Ankara - The Turkish military on Friday claimed to have killed 25 Kurdish rebels and wounded several others in airstrikes last week on Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq.

General Staff spokesman Metin Gurak told reporters that Turkish war planes hit the PKK positions in the Qandil mountains near the Iraqi border with Iran on October 17.

The PKK uses mountainous northern Iraq as a base from which to launch attacks inside Turkey.

Ankara blames the separatist group for the deaths of more than 35,000 people since the early 1980s when the PKK began its fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish-populated south-east of Turkey.

Istanbul, Oct 23: An archaeological dig at the Augustus Temple in the Ulus area in Turkey is re-examining historical evidence that was uncovered almost a century ago, in an attempt to bring a wealth of new history to light.

According to a report in Today’s Zaman, the dig was sparked by the need for certain factors at the historical site: a new detailed plan of the site, refurbishment of broken or damaged pieces of the building and restoration of the site.

Within this framework, the archeological dig at Augustus will allow experts to examine historical evidence that was uncovered almost a century ago.

Athens/Nicosia - Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders met on Wednesday to discuss power-sharing and governance in the latest round of talks on ending their decades-old conflict and reuniting the island.

It was the sixth meeting between Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat since they launched a new round of peace talks on September 3. The two leaders are scheduled to meet again on November 3.