Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Istanbul Sunday to protest the government's plan to reduce the time limit for abortions.

Women chanted slogans and unfurled banners reading "Abortion is a right" and "It is our body" during the rally in the city's Kadikoy district, which was also attended by men.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati highlighted on Thursday Lebanon’s diversity, saying that it is an “example of the convergence of civilizations.”

He said: “The international community must help Lebanon preserve its diversity.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Thursday held three-hour talks in Istanbul with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging Ankara to carry on with its “satisfactory and ongoing” efforts to secure the release of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria’s Aleppo on May 22.

“Mr. Erdogan stressed that Turkey will continue to exert intensified efforts to rescue the Lebanese citizens held in Syria,” Miqati’s press office said in a statement issued after the meeting.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a "new era" in Franco-Turkish relations in a congratulatory phone call to president-elect Francois Hollande, officials said Friday.

In the call late on Thursday, Erdogan said he hoped "Turko-French relations will from now on be free from artificial questions currently affecting them," an official in Erdogan's entourage said.

A Turkish court Thursday placed in custody six active and five retired generals as part of a widening probe into the 1997 bloodless coup that toppled the country's first Islamist-led government, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Among the latest senior military officers swept up in the investigation is General Berkay Turgut, the Third Army's chief of staff, it said.

Heated debate has gripped Turkey over the redrafting of a military-era constitution and a related question -- whether Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to cling to power as president.

Parliament has started work to rewrite the 30-year-old national charter to replace a text passed two years after a 1980 military coup, reflecting deep changes in a country now ruled by a moderate Islamist government.

Seventeen serving and former Turkish military officers were held and transferred to an Ankara court Wednesday in a long-running probe into a 1997 bloodless coup.

The detainees were due to testify in court over their alleged involvement in the overthrow of Turkey's first Islamist head of government, Necmettin Erbakan, reported the Anatolia news agency.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated a pledge to give shelter to those fleeing a deadly crackdown in neighboring Syria, in his first meeting with Syrian refugees on Sunday.

"You always have a place with us, as long as you want to be here," Erdogan told refugees at the Kilis refugee camp in southern Anatolia, which borders strife-hit Syria.

The foreign ministry on Saturday accused Turkey of provocation with its talk of asking NATO to help protect its border with Syria, saying such action went against the U.N.-backed peace plan.

"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu continue to make provocative statements aimed at aggravating the situation in Syria and harming bilateral ties," foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi said.

Turkey on Friday urged the leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region for tougher action against a drawn-out insurgency waged by Kurdish militants, a Turkish diplomat told Agence France Presse.