The conflict between Turkey's government and its Kurdish population will only get worse if no agreement is reached. A ceasefire might last this time

Genel Energy, the Kurdistan-focused oil producer backed by the financier Nat Rothschild, has announced plans to step up exports next year.

Suicide bombers killed at least 16 people outside the police headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk today in the third such attack in the region in recent weeks.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the Turkish city of Diyarbakır today for the funerals of three female Kurdish activists shot dead in Paris last week.

Baghdad is preparing to sue Genel Energy, the oil company run by the former BP chief executive Tony Hayward, for "illegally" exporting some of the oil it produced in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Attack had the hallmarks of al-Qa'ida in Mesopotamia and is aimed at fuelling tensions

A £1bn High Court fight over an oil group focused on northern Iraq, which involves a former Green Beret and a tycoon who entertains contacts at strip clubs, starts on Wednesday.

A 12-year-old girl became the ninth victim today of a bomb blast in Turkey's southeast, which has highlighted fears that Kurdish rebels seeking self-rule are becoming emboldened by moves toward autonomy by the Kurdish minority in war-torn Syria.

At least seven people were killed and dozens wounded when a car bomb, believed to have been planted by Kurdish separatists, exploded in the south-eastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, yesterday.

A suicide bomber driving a truck attacked a Shi'ite mosque near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul as Friday prayers ended, killing at least five people and wounding 70, police and health officials said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been accused of arming Kurdish separatists who have stepped up attacks against the Turkish government - meddling that has the potential to lead to a major inflammation of the conflict outside war-ravaged Syria. 

Kurdish rebels have released a British tourist unharmed a day after his abduction in Turkey's south east, officials said today.

Turkey's state-run news agency says Turkish troops have killed five Kurdish rebels in an overnight clash in southeast Turkey.

Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr visited the president of the autonomous northern Kurdistan region yesterday seeking to ease tensions between Baghdad and the Kurds that have threatened the coalition government.