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Russia has opened up flights to Turkey's southern resort of Antalya following a ban imposed in the wake of the shooting down of a Russian warplane in November, Russian media reported on March 24.

The Russian civil aviation authority, Rosaviation, has given the go-ahead for Ural Airlines to fly to Antalya, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency said. 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid a visit to Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topba? on March 24, in the aftermath of the terror attacks that rocked Istanbul and Brussels in less than one week.

Turkish warplanes have conducted an air operation targeting bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, the Turkish General Staff has announced.

Three soldiers were killed on March 24 in an outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) attacks in the Nusaybin district of the southeastern province of Mardin.

Iraq's armed forces started an offensive against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on March 24 in the region around Mosul with air cover from the U.S.-led coalition, pushing the militants out of several villages, according to a military statement read on state TV. 

A Bulgarian border police patrol on March 23 found the dead bodies of two men -- presumed to be migrants -- in a region close to the country's border with Turkey, authorities said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on March 23 called for Europe to drop its "geopolitical games" and unite behind efforts to fight terrorism, a day after attacks in Brussels killed 31 people.  

The fifth penal chamber of Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals ruled on March 23 for an arrest warrant for a public prosecutor who conducted the major Dec. 17, 2013, graft probe and was later dismissed from the profession.

A Japanese man, who was bound to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, was captured on late March 22 in the Nizip district of the southeastern province of Gaziantep.

Gendarmerie teams captured the man identified as M.M. while searching a suspicious car.

The Netherlands Consulate General in Istanbul was closed on March 23 due to "terror threats," the Dutch Foreign Ministry has announced.

The announcement said the Consulate General would be closed due to "terror threats" until future notice.