DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Police stepped up security in Turkey’s southeast yesterday amid heightened Kurdish guerrilla activity and the 21st anniversary of the start of a bloody insurgency there, security sources said. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels have increased attacks on military and official targets in recent months, rekindling a conflict that has cost more than 30,000 lives. A powerful bomb exploded outside a local government building overnight in Sirnak province near the Iraqi border. The bomb, triggered by a timer, caused considerable damage but no casualties, the sources said.

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Two Syrian men charged in Turkey for being members of the Al-Qaeda extremist network were transferred to a high-security prison over the weekend, Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. Louai Sakra, who has admitted to plotting attacks on Israeli cruise ships off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, and Hamed Obysi, believed to be a go-between for Al-Qaeda and its militants in Turkey, were put in one-man cells in a high-security prison in Kandira town, east of Istanbul. The two were charged by an Istanbul court last week with belonging to Al-Qaeda. Sakra shouted to reporters outside the courthouse that he had prepared a ton of explosives to attack Israeli ships.

Turkish forces have seized four suspected Kurdish rebels who were preparing bombs, the Anatolia news agency reported Sunday. The four suspected rebels were captured with 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) of explosives and other bomb-making materials in Batman, southeastern Turkey, Anatolia said. A news release from the local governor’s office said the rebels were planning an attack in the city center, and were captured with documents linking them to the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, Anatolia said. (AP)

Albanian police said yesterday they have arrested a suspect in the theft of US $51,000 from a branch of the American Bank of Albania earlier this month. Police arrested Kujtim Vokshi, 40, on Saturday and found some of the stolen money in his house, said spokeswoman Edlira Teferici. The robbery took place on August 6 in downtown Tirana, Albania’s capital. Four people broke into the bank branch and threatened staff and customers before escaping with the money though a back door. (AP)

Turkey’s prime minister on Monday offered his condolences to the people of Cyprus — a country Turkey does not formally recognize — a day after a plane from Cyprus crashed in Athens killing the 121 people on board. “Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan shares the sadness and grief of the Greek Cypriot people... He was deeply aggrieved and touched by the deplorable accident,” spokesman Akif Beki said in a statement. (AP)