A French court on Tuesday sentenced two Kurds to five years in prison and seven others to lesser terms in an extortion case linked to the Kurdish armed group PKK.

Investigators probed an extortion racket linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) campaign to raise funds among the Kurdish diaspora through a so-called revolutionary tax.

A family of suspected Uighur Muslims, among hundreds detained in Thailand since last year, will Friday learn their fate in a court case that has sparked a diplomatic wrangle between Turkey and China.

Both countries are seeking the repatriation of the family, who use the surname Teklimakan and claim they are Turkish.

Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday launched an investigation into Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc and Ankara mayor Melih Gokcek after the two traded angry accusations as a row within the ruling party widened.

Public prosecutors in Ankara launched the investigation into Arinc on charges of misconduct and covering up felony while they accused Gokcek of embezzlement and misconduct, private Dogan news agency reported.

Qatar's exerted efforts to release the abducted Lebanese servicemen, who were taken hostage by al-Qaida-affilaite al-Nusra Front, led to a significant progress as Doha called on Turkey to mediate the release of those taken captive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

As Safir newspaper reported on Tuesday that three Qatari officers are following up the case of the abducted servicemen with al-Nusra Front since August.

An unprecedented rift emerged Sunday between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the government over the handling of the peace process to end the decades-long armed struggle by Kurdish militants.

A senior minister told Erdogan to stop interfering and making "emotional" statements but the president snapped back that he had no intention of staying out of politics.

A group of British medical students of Sudanese origin who went missing after traveling to Turkey are feared to have crossed into Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) group as doctors, reports and sources said on Sunday.

The families of the students have traveled to the Turkey-Syria border in a desperate appeal for them to return home before it is too late, a Turkish opposition MP said.

ADDS barrel bomb attack, color, UPDATES regime death toll, CORRECTS background to show govt also in control of parts of Hasakeh city

Forty-five people, including five children, were killed in attacks on Syrian Kurds as they celebrated their new year, a monitor said Saturday, accusing the Islamic State group of responsibility.

Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday called for Kurds to hold a congress to bring an end to the decades-long armed struggle waged in Turkey by the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

"A congress should be organised to bring an end to the 40-year struggle against the Turkish Republic," Ocalan said in a message for Kurdish New Year celebrations in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. 

Turkey's parliament has approved legislation to tighten the government's control over the Internet by allowing it to block websites without prior judicial authorization, official media said Friday.

The Internet legislation is the most controversial article in a so-called omnibus bill containing legislation on vastly different topics that must be passed in full before the individual items become law.

Turkish prosecutors on Friday demanded life terms for 28 suspects accused of setting up bugs to eavesdrop on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other top officials.

The case is one of the key pillars in Erdogan's offensive against followers of U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who he accuses of setting up a parallel state aimed at ousting him from power.