Ankara - A three-storey dormitory building collapsed in central Turkey early Friday morning killing 13 people and injuring 22, the NTV television station reported.

A gas cannister explosion was the most likely reason for the building to collapse at around 5 a. m. (0200 GMT) Friday morning, according to the mayor of the nearby town of Balcilar, Mehmet Demirgul.

Around 60 girls between the ages of 12 and 16 were staying at the dormitory in the Taskent region of Konya where they were attending summer Koran courses.

Ankara - The bodies of 13 refugees believed to have suffocated to death were found Wednesday morning near a village not far from Istanbul, the Dogan news agency reported.

Ankara  - Turkish police continued investigations Tuesday into a bomb blast on Sunday in Istanbul that killed 17 people and injured more than 150 with officials pointing the blame at the separatist Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), charges the PKK have denied.

As the families of the dead continued funeral preparations police were seeking a man in a black shirt who was captured by a mobile phone camera running down the street in Istanbul suburb of Gungoren just seconds before the second blast hit, Yenisafak newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Brussels - NATO's top official on Monday condemned the night's double bomb attack in Istanbul which left at least 16 people dead and over 150 injured.

"I condemn in the strongest terms the bombings that occurred in Istanbul yesterday (Sunday) evening. These appalling terrorist attacks targeted innocent civilians in a deliberate and brutal way," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in a statement.

"On behalf of the (NATO) allies, I express my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives, and my sympathies to those injured in the blasts. NATO will continue to stand firmly in solidarity with the Turkish people in the fight against terrorism," he said.

Ankara - Turkey's Constitutional Court began deliberations Monday on whether to close down the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) which is charged with undermining the secular system.

Turkey's chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, brought the case to close down the AKP earlier, telling the court that it was "clear and present danger that (the AKP) wants to impose shariah law."

The prosecutor has claimed that attempts by the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to allow women to wear Islamic- style headscarves at universities were proof that the party aims to impose Islamic-style law.

Ankara - Police experts on Monday were searching for clues as to who was behind a bomb attack in Istanbul Sunday night that left 16 people dead and 154 injured, the Anadolu news agency reported.

A first small bomb which had been placed in a rubbish bin on a crowded pedestrian street in the suburb of Gungoren on the European side of Istanbul exploded at around 9:45 pm (1645 GMT) and was followed by a much larger blast around 10 to 12 minutes later and around 50 metres down the street, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler told reporters at the scene of the blast.