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All of the passengers and crew from a Turkish plane hijacked earlier on Saturday have been released and the two hijackers have given themselves up, private television NTV reported.
The plane was hijacked as it headed to Istanbul from northern Cyprus and was forced to land in Antalya in southern Turkey.

Earlier reports said the Turkish passenger plane heading for Istanbul from northern Cyprus was hijacked and forced to land in Turkey where most of the 136 passengers were freed but six hostages left behind.

The pilots at that time had left the plane, the Transport Ministry said, and private broadcaster CNN Turk reported that the hijackers were demanding a pilot back on the plane.

It now appears that the four passengers and two crew members that were held hostage have been released.

The plane was forced to land in Antalya on the south coast of Turkey, as it did not have enough fuel to go to Iran as the hijackers wanted.

Doganer told private broadcaster NTV that the earlier release of passengers were freely given by the hijackers or had escaped through the emergency exits.

TV footage showed passengers running from the plane's side and back doors. NTV quoted one witness as saying the hijackers had said they were members of al Qaeda and another as saying they spoke Arabic and wanted to go to Syria. Some witnesses said there was a bomb.

Cyprus, a major tourist destination, is divided between the internationally recognised government in the south and an enclave in the north recognised only by Ankara.

Plane hijacks and bomb threats are not uncommon in Turkey, where a number of radical groups ranging from Kurdish separatists to far-left militants operate. In the last year or so several incidents have been resolved without any passengers being harmed.

Family members of kidnapped South Koreans in Afghanistan make a statement during a news conference in Seoul asking for the safe return of the hostages. (Internet Photo Association)

Nearly 100 people have drowned in floods in Sudan, where rivers have burst their banks, inundating villages and farm lands, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Thursday.

The toll over the past month was reported by the Sudanese Red Crescent, which has been leading the humanitarian response to the worst flooding in a generation.

"The (deaths) figure is a direct results of floods -- people who have drowned," Federation spokesman Matthew Cochrane said.

The floods are worse than those of 1988, when tens of thousands of homes were destroyed and a million people forced to flee their homes, according to the humanitarian agency.

"Whole communities have been devastated ... farms, livestock, roads, bridges, latrines, hospitals and schools have been damaged or swept away," John English, head of the Federation's team in Sudan, said in a statement.

Some 60,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed by the flooding, which has struck 16 of Sudan's 26 states, it said.

The United Nations on Monday reported 64 dead and 335 injured in the flooding, which it said had affected 500,000 people in the past four weeks.

The Federation -- the world's largest disaster relief network -- said it was doubling its appeal to donors to 5.5 million Swiss francs ($4.6 million) for Sudan.

Niels Scott, the Federation's operations coordinator for Africa, said the floods have damaged Sudan's fragile water and sanitation systems, leaving many without access to clean water.

"This is increasing the incidence of water-borne diseases such as acute watery diarrhoea," Scott said.

Sudanese Red Crescent workers have distributed chlorine tablets to purify water, mosquito nets and soap to more than 49,000 people. Tents, plastic sheeting and blankets have also been handed out, according to the Federation.

Heavy precipitation and soaring temperatures are expected to continue until the end of the rainy season in October.

Taliban militants have freed two female South Korean hostages on Monday, after much confusion over whether the two Christian aid workers had already been released.

According to Reuters news agency, officials in Seoul confirmed that the women had been freed and handed over the Red Crescent.

Witnesses said that the women were driven in a saloon car by two tribal elders to the village of Arzoo, near the city of Ghazni, where they were released.

Their release is the first good news for anxious family and friends of the hostages in South Korea since two male members of the 23-strong group were shot dead last month, after the government in Afghanistan refused to meet Taliban deadlines to free some of their militant prisoners.

The Christian aid workers were in Afghanistan as medical volunteers with the Saemmul Community Church in Bundang when they were abducted from a bus in Ghazni province more than three months ago.

The Afghan Government has so far refused to meet Taliban demands to free some of their prisoners in exchange for the Korean hostages.

Nineteen South Korean hostages remain in the hands of the Taliban, including 16 women.

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Members of the worldwide ecumenical family have expressed support and solidarity to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople - today's Istanbul - is facing growing hardships imposed by the Turkish judiciary.

On 26 June a ruling by Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals contested the ecumenical standing of the Patriarchate, stating that it is a religious body only authorised to perform religious functions for the Greek Orthodox minority in the country.

The court also ruled that the Patriarchate does not have any legal personality and that the Patriarch is not allowed to bear the title "ecumenical".

The ruling stated that the Patriarch as well as the Patriarchate officers are subject to Turkish law regarding their titles and activities. On 21 August, Bartholomew was summoned to testify before a prosecuting authority in Istanbul on his use of the title "Ecumenical" at a world conference of Orthodox youth that took place in the city a few weeks earlier.

In the face of these developments, on 27 August the Conference of European Churches (CEC) expressed its "strong support" for the right of the Patriarch to use of the title "Ecumenical".

In a letter addressed to Bartholomew, CEC's general secretary, the Venerable Colin Williams, wrote: "We could think of no other church leader in Europe who is so naturally recognised as a key figure in the ecumenical aspirations of the [continent's] churches."

On 29 August a similar letter addressed to Bartholomew by the World Council of Churches (WCC) General Secretary, the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, expressed the Council's "whole-hearted appreciation of the authenticity and importance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as an institution and the Ecumenical Patriarch as an office within the wider church world".

In his letter, Kobia conveyed to the Patriarch the WCC's "firm support" and reaffirmed Bartholomew's "ecumenical standing" while cherishing his "leadership in the global ecumenical movement".

The incident, which occurred at 3:15 am was recorded on a security camera installed by the church several months ago, in the wake of the gruesome stabbing deaths of three Protestant Christians in Malatya. Sahin walked up to the door of the church, laid down a box and some other flammable materials, poured liquid over the pile and lit it while smoking a cigarette. He then walked off, returning shortly to find the pile burning brightly on the stone steps. Stepping away down the street, he proceeded to shoot off his pistol loaded with blanks into the air several times. Police arrived within several minutes and were soon joined by 10 people from the neighborhood, but the fire was not put out until the fire department came minutes later.

The suspect was apprehended on a nearby street shortly after the incident still carrying the pistol. The church pastor said that police authorities called him at 8 a.m. to inform him of the incident.

Although the fire blackened the entrance and steps to the church, there was no structural damage to the building.

The pastor has been provided with an armed government security guard since the last week of April, when he returned home with his family after his brother-in-law's funeral. On May 20, the testimony of one of the Malatya murder suspects was leaked to the Turkish press, stating that he had planned to murder the Izmit pastor next. The pastor was again targeted in the Turkish media on July 14, when police authorities in Izmit's Kocaeli province reported the round-up of a mafia-style gang of 23 suspects involved in assassinations of businessmen and a rash of other illegal activities in the region. After his capture, gang leader Ismail Halil was interrogated about the group's alleged plans to murder the Izmit pastor in the near future, for which they were to receive $1 million, according to Sabah newspaper. Halil reportedly claimed his legal right to remain silent on this question.

In a previous incident this summer, a group of neighborhood boys plastered the front of the church building with raw eggs on the morning of July 30, just as the church began a week-long English club for its young people.

Police identified the culprits after viewing the security camera footage, bringing them from their homes to clean up the mess.

"The Protestant community is negatively affected by contemptuous, disinformative media coverage which also has the effect of showing Christians – and in particular persons who have converted to Christianity – as targets for acts of violence," noted a new report released Saturday (September 1) by Turkish Protestants.

Issued by the Legal Committee of the Alliance of Protestant Churches of Turkey, the "summary of concerns" called for the Turkish authorities to create a "culture of tolerance" toward its minorities.

"In the last year, there have been scores of threats or attacks on congregations and church buildings," the report said. "The perpetrators have not been found."

The report concluded, "The State should be guaranteeing freedom of religion and the security of individuals and property."

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New Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a pro-EU reformist cabinet on Wednesday which reflected Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's aim to push ahead with stalled political and economic reforms needed to join the bloc.

Gul, who as foreign minister helped Turkey win EU accession talks status in 2005, is the first politician with a background in political Islam to become president in mainly Muslim but constitutionally secular Turkey, over the army's opposition.

After meeting Gul at the presidential palace, Erdogan named Ali Babacan as Gul's successor as foreign minister. Babacan will remain in his role as chief negotiator in the membership talks.

Kemal Unakitan remains in the post of finance minister, while former banker Nazim Ekren was named minister in charge of coordinating economic issues, an important position as the government pushes for further economic reforms.

"I prepared the new cabinet as a team who have the skills to realise our goals for the coming period ... I believe we formed a strong team," Erdogan told reporters.

The ruling AK Party won a sweeping victory in parliamentary polls in July but was unable to form a new government because of objections by Gul's secularist predecessor Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Turks will closely follow the military's reaction to Gul after its top brass snubbed his swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday. The military elite fears his presidency will lead to a creeping subversion of the secular order.

Turkey's military considers itself the ultimate guardian of the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and has ousted four governments in the past 60 years. Its last such move was as recently as 1997, against a government it considered too Islamist, in which Gul was a minister.

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ISTANBUL– Police in Izmit have arrested a man who set a fire early morning of 3rd September at the entrance of Izmit Protestant church and then shot off his pistol several times. The church's pastor is the brother-in-law of murdered in Malatya in April and has been targeted by Islamic extremists.

Semih Sahin, the man who set fire to the church entrance reportedly told interrogators that he had been "bothered" by what he heard and read in the newspapers about the Izmit Protestant Church, so he wanted to "make a scene" to arouse public attention against it. According to police, who described the apprehended suspect as a "psychopath," Sahin has a previous criminal and prison record. He was brought before a local prosecutor, formally charged and jailed yesterday afternoon.