The EU said Monday it will launch anti-terror projects with Muslim nations and boost intelligence sharing following the Paris attacks, as anger over the Charlie Hebdo cartoons fed fresh protests and violence.

Foreign ministers meeting in the shadow of the Islamist attacks and a wave of arrests across Europe agreed on the need to work with Arab nations and Turkey in particular to counter the growing threat.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday chaired a cabinet meeting for the first time as head of state, in a move aimed at cementing his role as Turkey's undisputed number one.

Erdogan, who took over the presidency in August elections after more than a decade as premier, hosted the cabinet at his own hugely controversial presidential palace on the outskirts of Ankara.

Thousands of people marched though central Istanbul on Monday calling for justice over the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who was shot dead in broad daylight eight years ago.

Holding signs in Turkish, Armenian and English reading "Justice for Hrant", they rallied around the offices of the Agos newspaper, a bilingual Turkish and Armenian weekly, which he edited.

The Turkish coastguard intercepted in Mediterranean waters a ship carrying 333 mainly Syrian migrants bound for the European Union, the official Anatolia news agency said Monday.

In an operation employing over 300 coastguard personnel, the coastguard captured the commercial vessel in open water off the Turkish port of Mersin in the northeastern Mediterranean close to Syria.

A top anti-government composer's works removed from the repertoire. Sexual references expunged from a play. A new bill that would increase the government's influence on performances.

Cultural figures are complaining of increased political intervention that could undermine the quality of Western-inspired arts such as classical music, drama and ballet in Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was chairing a cabinet meeting on Monday for the first time as head of state, in a move aimed at cementing his role as Turkey's undisputed number one.

Erdogan, who took over the presidency in August elections after more than a decade as premier, hosted the cabinet meeting at his own hugely controversial presidential palace on the outskirts of Ankara.

A hand grenade exploded on a busy street in Istanbul on Sunday without causing any casualties, state media said, almost two weeks after a suicide bombing in Turkey's largest city.

The megacity remains on high security alert following the attack by a female suicide bomber on January 6 in the heart of Istanbul's tourist district that killed a Turkish policeman. 

Around 3,000 people in Turkey are believed to be linked to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, a Turkish intelligence report said on Saturday, warning of possible attacks by extremists.

The report called for enhanced surveillance of the 3,000 people, including identifying their rank within the extremist group or whether they were active within it, the Hurriyet newspaper reported on Saturday.

A South Korean has gone missing in Turkey near the border with Syria, a foreign ministry official said Saturday, following reports that the man had joined the Islamic State militant group.

"The man disappeared on January 10 after he left a hotel" in the southern Turkish town of Kilis near the border with Syria, the official told Agence France Presse.

The U.S. military will send more than 400 troops to train Syrian rebel forces as part of a long-planned effort to build up a moderate opposition to take on the Islamist State group, the Pentagon said Friday.