Ankara

Dubai plans to raise spending by 12 percent next year, balancing that out with identical growth in revenue, on a budget of 46.1 billion dirhams ($12.6 billion), the government said yesterday.

Three soldiers were killed while another soldier and a policeman were wounded in an attack by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the southeastern province of ??rnak, the Turkish Armed Forces has announced on its website. 

A Chinese coastguard vessel with what appeared to be gun turrets entered territorial waters claimed by Japan in the East China Sea, Japan's coastguard said on Dec. 26, adding that it was the first such incursion by an armed Chinese vessel in the disputed area. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has said the higher education body should do whatever needed following a brawl between two groups of students at Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) after one group attempted to perform prayers on a basketball court in protest at the alleged lack of places to worship on the site. 

Ruins of a Roman-era bath and a floor mosaic have been discovered while drilling at a third degree archaeological site in the central Anatolian Osmaniye's district of Kadirli. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an is set to visit Saudi Arabia on Dec. 29-30 and meet King Salman bin Abdülaziz al-Saud, a written statement from the presidential office has said. 

Some 978 people have been captured ahead of illegal crossings through Turkish borders, the Turkish General Staff has said.

The general staff said in a written statement that 978 people were captured before illegally crossing Turkey's borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Syria, Iraq and Iran on Dec. 26.

Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has asked Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov to side with Lyutvi Mestan after the latter was expelled as leader of predominantly ethnic Turk DPS party, the Bulgarian National Television has said, citing its own sources from the cabinet.

Former rector of Çanakkale OnsekizMart University Sedat Laçiner has been detained in northwesternTurkey's Çanakkale province in connection with a probe into the"parallel state" group, police sources said Dec. 26.

According to the sources, policelaunched an operation at different addresses in the province earlymorning and detained Laçiner and many other businessmen.

Both the current leadership of predominantly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party and its expelled chair Lyutvi Mestan are attending a second day of commemorations of the tragic events for Bulgaria's Turkish minority in Saturday.