TURKEY:At least a million people took to the streets in Turkey's third city yesterday for the fourth major rally in a month against the Islamist-rooted government ahead of elections due to be held in July.
Organisers, who accuse the government of trying to undermine the separation of religion and state in the overwhelmingly Muslim country, hoped that the protest would unite the fragmented opposition. Buildings, including army barracks, were covered in a sea of red Turkish flags and portraits of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey. "Turkey is secular and will remain secular," chanted the protesters, who were mostly from the urban middle class. "No to sharia (Islamic) law."
Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan's government has been forced to call the July 22nd vote months ahead of schedule to defuse a deepening conflict with Turkey's secularists. - (Reuters)