Nowruz, a joyful occasion marking the ending of winter and the reawakening of nature, is celebrated across a vast region from largely Kurdish areas of northern Iraq and Turkey to central Asian countries and western China.

It also marks the beginning of a new calendar year in Iran, and is the biggest holiday on the calendar. Schools close down for several weeks, people buy presents and special foods, observe specific rituals and visit family and friends.

The gloves are finally off. After years of sidestepping one of the most sensitive social issues in Turkey, the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) has moved to lift a ban on young women wearing headscarves at universities. The country's secularists, who see the headscarf as a symbol of political Islam, are up in arms over the proposed reform. The debate is the latest installment in the ongoing and increasingly bitter tug of war between the government and a militantly secularist establishment long used to getting its way.

Turkish officials will come to Germany to help with the investigation on the cause of the fire in an apartment building in the western German city of Ludwigshafen, which killed nine Turkish people Sunday, German police said. According to the TV News, there are five children among the victims, with ages between 1 and 16. According to the German investigators, the majority of them died from smoke inhalation. Dramatic scenes took place when parents desperately tried to save their children’s lives by throwing them from the third floor. The building was dwelled by more then 50 Turks. It is not clear how many of them were in the building when the fire broke out.

A powerful explosion sparked by an accident at an unlicenced fireworks plant killed at least 20 people, injured more than 70 and caused massive destruction Thursday at an industrial area in Istanbul, officials said.

 "The death toll has reached 20," Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said as he visited the wounded in a nearby hospital. Four of the 74 people hospitalised after the blast are in serious condition, he said.

A passenger train derailed in Kutahya early Sunday, killing at least 9 people and injuring 50, possibly due to ice on the tracks and weather condition. It was the Turkey`s 5th major rail accident in less than 4 years. It was not immediately clear how many passengers were aboard at the time of the accident. The bodies of nine passengers were recovered so far and at least 50 others were injured. Star and ATV television put the injury toll at 50. Railway authorities suspected that the train might have been derailed at a turn because of ice on the tracks.