Ankara  - The Turkish parliament on Tuesday passed a memorandum that will allow Turkey to send naval forces to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Last week the government sent to parliament the memorandum to allow Turkish ships to join the international operation. The navy immediately started preparations in anticipation of Tuesday's parliamentary vote.

General Metin Durak of the Turkish General Staff told reporters on Friday that the vessel would be ready to embark within a month.

Wuppertal, Germany  - Three Kurdish men were remanded in custody in Germany Monday on attempted murder charges, accused of throwing a petrol bomb at Turkish club-rooms the previous day.

Police in the western city of Wuppertal said they were checking if the trio, aged 19, 23 and 27, were behind similar arson attacks on ethnic Turkish clubs and offices in the nearby cities of Dusseldorf and Dortmund.

Istanbul/Ankara  - Strolling through the the beautiful streets of Istanbul's Beyoglu quarter on the European side of the ancient city, few would know that just a few hundred metres away lies a district that where prostitution and the drug trade flower.

Somewhat conveniently separated by the multi-laned Tarlabasi Boulevard is the Beyoglu that foreign tourists rarely see, a district where live many Kurdish people forced to flee there homes in south- east Turkey, either because of poverty or because they left their villages through direct force or out of fear for their lives.

Istanbul/Ankara  - Turkish police are on high alert in the predominantly Kurdish-populated south-east, anticipating public demonstrations ahead of the 10th anniversary of the capture of a man few, if any, of the potential protesters will have ever met in person - Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan.

With an upsurge in PKK guerrilla activity in the south-east and allegations, strenuously denied by the authorities, that Ocalan has been mistreated in prison, the south-east is on tenterhooks.

Ankara - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed for the quick dispatch of aid to people suffering in the Gaza Strip saying that Israel was holding up the vast majority of aid sent to the region.

Speaking after talks in Ankara with President Abdullah Gul, Abbas asked rhetorically what will the world do if Israel refuses to allow aid into the devastated region.

"We want the Palestinian people to be allowed to live an honourable way, just like the rest of the world," Abbas said with Gul agreeing.

Ankara  - The Turkish government has sent a delegation to Damascus to meet exiled Hamas leaders in an attempt to secure the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, CNN-Turk reported on Friday.

CNN-Turk said the delegation had hopes Shalit would be released in the shortest possible time.

Shalit was captured near Gaza in a cross-border raid by Hamas militants in June 2006. Israel has insisted that it will not agree to any long-term truce in the Gaza Strip if Shalit is not released.

Turkish officials have been in contact with Hamas leaders for a number of years and have played an active role in trying to organize a long-term truce in Gaza.