Provinces of Turkey

One British and two Dutch students have been found safe and sound, three days after they were lost during a trek in southern Turkey.

A large number of historical artifacts, including the head of a 2,000-year-old Hermes statue, have been seized during an operation by the Sivas Police Department Directorate of Anti-smuggling and Organized Crime Branch.

This columnist?s first of a few encounters with Melih Gökçek, the unchallenged mayor of the Turkish capital since 1994, was through a press release from the municipality, sent by fax to this newspaper, in the mid-1990s. It was grotesquely (but cutely) signed: Melih Gökçek, Lord Mayor of Ankara. It caused laughter in the newsroom.

The mining company responsible for the operation of the disaster-struck mine in the Aegean coal capital of Soma, where 301 workers lost their lives in Turkey's worst mining accident last May, has obtained authorization to build a new plant in the northern province of Amasya, daily Cumhuriyet has reported.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala has defended the controversial new security draft, saying it does not restrain citizens? rights.

The government and the main opposition party?s portrayals of a draft security bill have been in stark contrast, with the latter arguing that it marks a return to the infamous Sept. 12 military coup d?état regime.

At least one worker died and four others went missing in an avalanche in Turkey's northeastern Trabzon province on Jan. 10.
      
The avalanche hit a hydroelectric power plant in Çaykara district, local official Mustafa Gül told Anadolu Agency.

Always at odds ideologically, Turkish leftists and nationalists have dared each other once more to start a new war, but instead of the hot conflicts of the 1970s, the two sides have launched hostilities in a new "cold war," as they make the best of the current wintry weather.

A Turkish administrative court has requested an environment impact assessment report (ÇED) for the construction of a five-star hotel near the ancient city of Phaselis along the Mediterranean coast, invalidating a previous decision by the Environment Ministry to exempt the project from the mandatory assessment process.

The number of tourists visiting the ancient city of Sardis in ?zmir's Salihli district has increased three fold over the last five years, thanks to promotional work. The ancient city was the capital of Lydia, the civilization that invented money.

A site in the Central Anatolian province of Yozgat's Sorgun district, which the ancient Hittites had used as a sculpture atelier, will be reorganized as an open-air museum by Turkey's Culture and Tourism Ministry.