Istanbul

Turks began voting on Sunday in a parliamentary election pitting the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party against nationalists who disagree strongly over the future path of the rigidly secular Muslim country. Opinion polls tip the pro-business AK Party to govern alone for five more years, but the size of their majority will be key.

An eight-storey building collapsed in Istanbul on Thursday, but authorities said they did not expect a great number of casualties as people ran away when they heard the building start to crack. It was not clear how many people were inside the building in the Sirinevler district on the European side of Istanbul, but most people had left the building before the collapse.

Australian Ducati rider Casey Stoner won the Turkish MotoGP on Sunday. Stoner — who leads the standings by 10 points heading towards the China GP — won his second race of the season to beat home Spaniard Tony Elias on a Honda while another Ducati rider, Loris Capirossi of Italy, was third.

Pope Benedict XVI left Turkey on Friday after a momentous visit in which he reached out to Muslims and Orthodox Christians. Coming a mere 10 weeks after the leader of the world’s 1,1-billion Catholics outraged Muslims by appearing to equate Islam with violence, the four-day trip — Pope Benedict’s first to a Muslim country — turned into a fence-mending mission.

Pope Benedict visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque on Thursday during his trip to predominantly Muslim Turkey, becoming only the second Roman Catholic pontiff to ever enter a mosque. The visit was seen as another gesture of reconciliation by the Pontiff after he infuriated much of the Muslim world with comments taken as indicating he believed Islam was violent and irrational.

An earthquake measuring 5,2 on the Richter scale hit north-western Turkey on Tuesday and was felt in Istanbul, just days after another quake of the same size in the area, Turkey’s earthquake monitoring centre said. No injuries or damages were reported. The quake’s epicentre was in the Sea of Marmara, which lies alongside Istanbul.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari won the Turkish grand prix on Sunday from the pole position, his first Formula One victory in his 67th race. ”It’s like a dream come true,” he said, choking back tears after an emotional win. Renault’s Fernando Alonso held off Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher in a duel over the last dozen laps to take second and increase his lead slightly over the German in the standings.

Turkish prosecutors are investigating an English artist for exhibiting a collage that depicts Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a dog receiving a prize in a pet show from United States President George Bush. Michael Dickinson, a long-time resident of Istanbul, displayed the collage in March without permission from the organisers of an Istanbul show.

Turkish authorities were on Thursday investigating a large fire that destroyed the cargo terminal at the country’s biggest airport, responsibility for which was claimed by radical Kurdish militants. The police sealed off the badly damaged building at the Atatürk International airport and were examining tapes from security cameras, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Italy’s Marco Melandri took the lead on the last lap to win the Turkish Motorcycling Grand Prix in Istanbul on Sunday for the second year in a row. Australian Casey Stoner looked all set to become the youngest MotoGP winner to date but lost the lead in the closing corners to take second ahead of American Nicky Hayden.

Italian Marco Melandri, riding a Honda, won the Turkish MotoGP in Istanbul on Sunday ahead of world champion Valentino Rossi, who failed in his bid to equal the season’s win record of legendary Australian Mick Doohan. American Nicky Hayden came third as Melandri took his first grand-prix victory at the inaugural Turkish MotoGP.

Kimi Raikkonen claimed a dominant victory for McLaren in the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul on Sunday to turn the heat up on championship leader Fernando Alonso. The Finn was the class act of the field as he coolly claimed his fifth win of the year, but he could only close the gap in the title race by two points.

Two Turkish prison inmates, who drilled a 9cm-wide aperture between their cells enabling them to have sexual relations in prison that produced a child, received four-month sentences for damaging public property, press reports said on Sunday. The pair managed to drive the hole through their concrete communal cell wall.

Ilker Yilmaz might just hold one of the world’s most bizarre world records. The Turkish construction worker on Wednesday poured milk into his hand, loudly snorted it up his nose and squirted it 2,795m out of his left eye in what he hopes will be recognised as a new world record.

Rescuers were on Tuesday working to save dozens of people stranded on rooftops or trapped in their houses in Istanbul as floods triggered by torrential rains left parts of Turkey’s largest city under water, media reported. Meteorological services say the rain was the heaviest to hit the city in a decade.

Six people were injured on Friday when an earthquake measuring 4,6 on the Richter scale shook the eastern Turkish town of Dogubeyazit close to the border with Iran, a local official said. The tremor, which caused minor damage, struck at 10.14am local time with an epicentre 18km north-east of the town.

An earthquake in a remote, mountainous part of eastern Turkey on Friday collapsed dozens of stone and mud-brick houses, killing 18 people including three sisters and their brother, and injuring 27 others. The earthquake destroyed 67 homes in the village of Yigincal, near the Iranian border.

A strong earthquake shook eastern Turkey on Sunday, days after another quake killed 10 people in the region. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage in Sunday’s quake. The quake, centred in Erzurum province, had a preliminary magnitude of 5,3, the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory said.