Major Turkey-Syria quake

Turkish security forces have subjected suspects arrested on suspicion of looting in the aftermath of the devastating February earthquake to torture and other forms of ill treatment, rights groups say.

In a joint report, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Turkish police and the armed forces of using the state of emergency declared by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the earthquake as a "licence to torture".

In a response before the report was published, the Turkish justice ministry said Ankara had "zero tolerance" for torture but dismissed the findings without responding specifically to them, Amnesty and HRW said.

The report said one person died in custody after being tortured. 

It said all the incidents occurred in the 10 provinces covered by the state of emergency but mostly concentrated in Antakya city, Hatay province, one of the areas worst hit by the February 6 quake. — AFP

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will head to Turkey and Syria Monday morning, his office said, for the first such visit in a decade of tense relations with both countries.

The trip aims to show "solidarity with the two countries and their brotherly peoples" after the devastating earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey earlier this month, a foreign ministry statement said.

Shoukry's visit is the latest example of Arab outreach to the internationally isolated Syrian government. — AFP

Germany will double its relief aid in Turkey and Syria with an additional 50 million euros ($53 million) for victims of the deadly earthquake, two ministers announce.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says Germany wants "to make it clear that we, as a global community, see this catastrophe and we support the population".

Baerbock was speaking during a visit Tuesday to Pazarcik, in southern Turkey, along with German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. 

Of the new aid, 33 million euros will go to Turkey and 17 million to northern Syria, bringing Germany's contribution to 108 million euros in the region hit by a deadly earthquake which has killed nearly 46,000. — AFP

Turkey says rescue efforts following last week's devastating earthquake had ended in all but two provinces as visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $100 million in fresh humanitarian aid.

The 7.8-magnitude tremor that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6 has killed more than 44,000 people, with the likelihood of finding survivors two weeks on extremely remote.

The head of Turkey's disaster agency Yunus Sezer says search and rescue efforts had been completed in all provinces apart from Hatay and Kahramanmaras, the earthquake's epicentre.

They were continuing at around 40 buildings in the provinces on the 14th day, says Sezer, but he expected the number to fall by late Sunday. — AFP

The remains of former Ghana international footballer Christian Atsu who died in a devastating earthquake in Turkey were being flown home on Sunday, the country's foreign ministry says.

Atsu, 31, was caught up in a 7.8-magnitude quake that rocked Turkey and Syria on February 6, killing more than 44,000 people in both countries.

There were initial reports the former Chelsea and Newcastle player had been rescued a day after the quake, but these turned out to be false and his body was found on Saturday.

"The remains will be accompanied by his family and Ghana's ambassador to Turkey on a Turkish airlines flight and will arrive in Accra (Ghana's capital) at 7:40 p.m. Sunday," the foreign ministry says. — AFP

Turkey rescuers find three people alive 13 days after quake, according to TV reports. — AFP

Turkish rescuers pulled a 14-year-old boy and two men nearly 11 days after the huge earthquake, a minister says, as rescue efforts wind down.

Osman, 14, was rescued 260 hours after the 7.8-magnitude tremor struck Turkey's southeast and Syria, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca says on Twitter.

He shared an image of the adolescent with his eyes open on a stretcher and said Osman had been taken to a hospital in Antakya in the quake-devastated Hatay province.

Rescuers found Osman after hearing sounds in the rubble, Anadolu state news agency reported.

One hour later, rescuers elsewhere saved two men aged 26 and 33 in Antakya, Koca said, also sharing images of the men receiving treatment from health workers.

THe DHA news agency named the men as Mehmet Ali Sakiroglu, 26, and Mustafa Avci, 33, and said they had been rescued from the same building's rubble. — AFP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel Sunday to Turkey to discuss support after a massive earthquake, his first trip to the NATO ally which has had turbulent relations with Washington.

Blinken will visit Incirlik air base, through which the United States has shipped aid, and then hold talks in the capital Ankara on "continued US support," State Department spokesman Ned Price says.

The top US diplomat will also take part in the Munich Security Conference, where the Ukraine war and tensions with China will take center-stage, and will visit Turkey's historic rival Greece, a fellow NATO ally. — AFP

The United Nations launches an appeal for $397 million on Tuesday to help earthquake victims in Syria, where the disaster has killed thousands of people and left millions more in desperate need of aid.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, announcing the appeal at the UN headquarters in New York, says the funds would bring "life-saving relief" for nearly five million Syrians and would cover a period of three months.

He adds that the world body was in the final stages of a similar appeal for Turkey.

"One week after the devastating earthquakes, millions of people across the region are struggling for survival, homeless and in freezing temperatures. We are doing all we can to change this. But much more is needed," Guterres pleads. — AFP

The UN chief says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to open two more border crossings to allow in aid to help victims of the earthquake that has left more than 35,000 dead in the region.

Before the earthquake struck, almost all of the crucial humanitarian aid for the more than four million people living in rebel-controlled areas of northwestern Syria was being delivered from Turkey through one conduit -- the Bab al-Hawa crossing.

"Opening these crossing points -- along with facilitating humanitarian access, accelerating visa approvals and easing travel between hubs -- will allow more aid to go in, faster," says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

He says Assad had agreed to open the two crossing points of Bab Al-Salam and Al Raee from Türkey to northwest Syria for an initial period of three months to allow for the timely delivery of humanitarian aid. — AFP

International aid is trickling into parts of Turkey and Syria on Saturday where rescuers toiled to pull children from rubble in areas devastated by a massive earthquake that has killed over 24,000 people.

A winter freeze in the affected areas has hurt rescue efforts and compounded the suffering of millions of people, many in desperate need of aid.

At least 870,000 people urgently needed food in the two countries after the quake, which has left up to 5.3 million people homeless in Syria alone, the UN warns. — AFP

The United Nations rights chief calls for an immediate ceasefire in Syria to facilitate the delivery of aid to all victims of the region's devastating earthquake.

"At this terrible time in Turkey and Syria, we call for urgent delivery of assistance to ALL in need," the UN rights office says in a tweet.

"UN human rights chief Volker Turk calls for immediate ceasefire in Syria, and full respect for human rights and humanitarian law obligations so help can reach everyone," it adds. — AFP

The United States announces an initial $85 million package for emergency relief after a devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

The US Agency for International Development says that the funding will go to partners on the ground "to deliver urgently needed aid for millions of people" including through food, shelter and emergency health services.

The funding will also support safe drinking water and sanitation to prevent the outbreak of disease, USAID says in a statement. — AFP

The Office of Civil Defense says the team the Philippine sent to help in rescue and relief operations in quake-hit Turkiye has landed in Istanbul at 12:08 p.m., Philippine Standard Time.

The team, composed of engineers and health workers, is expected to have with them winter clothing, blankets and equipment to help the affected people by the 7.8-magniture quake.

Official data show the death toll from a massive quake that struck Turkey and Syria rose to more than 9,500 on Wednesday, with rescuers racing to reach trapped survivors for a third day.

Officials and medics say 6,957 people had died in Turkey and 2,547 in Syria, bringing the total to 9,504. — AFP

Official data show the death toll from a massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria rose above 8,300 on Wednesday, with rescue workers still searching for trapped survivors. 

Officials and medics say 5,894 people have died in Turkey and 2,470 in Syria, bringing the total to 8,364. — AFP

The United States says it was working with partners to provide earthquake relief in Syria but would stand firm against working with the Damascus government.

The United States also says it expected to send further assistance to Turkey after sending two rescue teams to the NATO ally, which suffered heavily as well in Sunday's earthquake.

"In Syria itself we have US-funded humanitarian partners that are coordinating lifesaving assistance," Secretary of State Antony Blinken tells reporters as he meets his Austrian counterpart. — AFP

Rescuers in Turkey and Syria brave frigid weather, aftershocks and collapsing buildings Tuesday, as they dig for survivors buried by an earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people.

Disaster agencies say several thousand buildings were flattened in cities across a vast border region -- pouring misery on an area already plagued by war, insurgency, refugee crises and a recent cholera outbreak.

Through the night, survivors used their bare hands to pick over the twisted ruins of multi-storey apartment blocks -- trying to save family, friends and anyone else sleeping inside when the first massive 7.8-magnitude quake struck early Monday. — AFP

Globe says it is extending free call, text and data services to customers in Turkey after a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the southern part of the country and northern Syria.

This will allow Globe customers to use its roaming services to connect with and update their loved ones on their status in the wake of the deadly quake.

“We understand how connectivity is of utmost importance to our customers in the wake of the massive quake in Turkey.  We wish to provide them assistance so they could reach out and communicate with their loved ones back home at this difficult time,” says Coco Domingo, Globe VP for Postpaid and International Business.

A source in a northwestern Syria prison says prisoners mutinied following a deadly earthquake, with at least 20 escaping the jail holding mostly Islamic State group members.

The military police prison in the town of Rajo near the Turkish border holds about 2,000 inmates, with about 1,300 of them suspected to be IS fighters, said the source. 

The prison also holds fighters from Kurdish-led forces. — AFP 

The confirmed death toll across the two countries has soared above 4,300 after a swarm of strong tremors near the Turkey-Syria border -- the largest of which measured at a massive 7.8-magnitude.

Turkish and Syrian disaster response teams report more than 5,600 buildings have been flattened across several cities, including many multi-storey apartment blocks that were filled with sleeping residents when the first quake struck.

In the city of Kahramanmaras in southeastern Turkey, eyewitnesses struggled to comprehend the scale of the disaster. — AFP

War-torn Syria says that aid sent after the earthquake will reach all its population, even though Damascus does not control all of its territory. 

The 7.8-magnitude quake hit Turkey and Syria on Monday, killing thousands of people.

Asked if aid donated to Syria -- some areas are held by rebels -- would reach all of the population, Syria's UN envoy Bassam Sabbagh said it would. — AFP

Get the latest updates on the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that jolted Turkey and Syria, which toppled buildings and killed thousands.

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Photo by AFP / Omar Haj Kadour