Adana

Incidents of armed violence have slightly increased last year compared to previous years across the country, according to a report released by a prominent Turkish non-governmental organization dedicated to reducing personal gun ownership.

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck in the Mediterranean Sea off Cyprus on Feb. 3, Turkey's disaster management agency AFAD reported.

The quake took place at 00:03 a.m. local time (2103 GMT) about 136 kilometers (84.5 miles) off Antalya province, according to AFAD.

It occurred at a depth of 13.20 kilometers (8.20 miles) below the surface, it added.

The Sarıoğlan district of the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri was hit by a magnitude 4.9 earthquake early on Jan. 19.

"The earthquake occurred at a depth of 23.7 kilometers at 02.28 a.m.," the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) announced.

Turkey's southern provinces have recorded the sharpest increase in weekly COVID-19 cases, data given by a top senior official has shown.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca disclosed the weekly figures of COVID-19 cases throughout the country recorded between Nov. 20 and 26.

With the booming popularity of the Eastern Express that runs from the capital Ankara to the eastern province of Kars, authorities are encouraged to put new trains into service to meet the soaring demand of people trying to get to know the Anatolian hinterland.

At least 34 irregular migrants have been apprehended during security checks and operations conducted in Turkish provinces, security sources said.

Turkish police teams in the northwestern province of Kocaeli's Gebze district were tipped off that a group of foreign nationals would be dispatched to the country's western provinces by a minibus.

Turkish police last year launched a total of 176 operations against 101 organized crime rings, detaining nearly 2,400 suspects.

Those operations carried out by the police force's smuggling and organized crime unit in 46 province, targeted mafia-like groups.

In excavations at Tatarlı Höyük, which served as an uninterrupted settlement in the southern province of Adana from the Neolithic Age to the Early Roman period, an area used for the storage of food in the Middle Iron Age has been unearthed.

Security units have detained a 21-year-old young man who admitted having started wildfires in the southern province of Adana following an outburst of anger against his parents.

"I left home after an argument with my parents. I live on the streets. I started fires due to anger against them," Ali K. said in his first testimony after getting caught.

Some 996 billion Turkish Liras ($112 million) have been raised in donations in the wake of the deadly flooding in the Black Sea region and the wildfires that hit scores of provinces this summer, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has said.