ISTANBUL (AP) - A young child was killed yesterday after picking up and playing with an explosive left on the side of the road near the southeastern Turkish town of Siirt, the state-owned Anatolia news agency reported. It was not clear what the explosive material was or whether it had been left by Kurdish guerrillas who are active in the region and frequently use bombs and mines to attack Turkish military patrols.The device exploded in the hands of the child, killing him instantly and injuring his younger brother and another child, Anatolia said. Meanwhile,Turkish police said Kurdish separatist rebels appeared to be behind a bomb attack late on Saturday that left 17 injured in eastern Turkey.

GENEVA (AFP) - Protesters forced their way into two local radio stations in the Swiss capital of Bern on Saturday to protest against the deportation to Turkey of Kurdish activist Erdogan Elmas. Around 10 protesters entered the studios of German-language radio station DRS, suspending a banner on the building and demanding their message be read on the air. The station declined. The protesters were calm and polite, Swiss news agency ATS said, adding that an agency official told the activists that their request would be examined by the station’s management next week. The militants then headed to the offices of local Bern station RaBe, where they said they succeeded in getting their message broadcast.

Turkey is going to provide electricity for Lebanon to make up for the damage to its infrastructure caused by the conflict between the Hezbollah militia and Israeli forces, the Anatolia news agency reported on Saturday. The Turkish energy authorities decided to supply for a year up to 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to Lebanon from a system established with Syria with whom Ankara already has an agreement, the agency said. The decision will take effect “in the next few” days, Anatolia said. (AFP)

Kurdish guerrillas set off a remote-controlled bomb, derailing a freight train in southeastern Turkey, officials said on Saturday. No injuries were reported. The attack occurred in the province of Elazig. Seven train carriages derailed and a total of eight were damaged. (AP)