Pious Turks find their place in the sun
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ALANYA, Turkey  - By day the Turkish women strip down to bikinis and belly-dance by the swimming pool. But at night they swathe their new suntans in headscarves and join their menfolk for dinner.
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When the sun sets, the villagers of Russin get a light show as the rays sparkle across the spires and rooftops of Geneva up the Rhone Valley.
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On any other day but this one, the village of Ahmad al-Hamadi, on the green banks of the Euphrates, would be an idyllic place. In the rich agricultural gardens along the great river, it is easy to understand
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SILOPI, Turkey, July 19 -- Soldiers guarding the heights of Turkey's Kurdish southeast have long used their vantage point to deliver messages to the restive population below, plopping whitewashed stones onto the hillsides to form terse admonitions, such as: "Motherland above all."
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Yeliz Bakir sees herself as the personification of Turkey's European future &#151; a Muslim woman of 25 who grew up in rural conservative surroundings but now wears trendy clothes and works in a posh neighborhood of Istanbul.
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Its foes like to accuse  Turkey&#39;s ruling AK Party of plotting to create an Iranian-style  Islamic state, but many among the country&#39;s Christian minority  seem to prefer the alleged Islamists to more secular parties.
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Images from south-eastern Europe where people are experiencing a heat wave.
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Turks on Friday welcomed the European Union's historic decision to open membership talks with their country next year, but some worried about the compromises Turkey will need to make to become the first Muslim nation in the bloc.
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The sun slipped behind the rolling hills, and the temperature went down with it, but the line of would-be voters outside the Daharia Girls School on Thursday wasn&#39;t getting any shorter.
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Turkey is navigating between the forces pulling it closer to Islam and the institutions that safeguard its secularism.
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EFES, Turkey  - Turkey on Wednesday praised the conciliatory tone of Pope Benedict during his visit to the predominantly Muslim country and his apparent new support for Ankara's bid to join the European Union.
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CAIRO, Dec. 21 -- Night and day, the farmers of the island in the Nile keep watch at the lapping brown edge of the river for the return of the Egyptian army. When the island's mosques call the Muslims to prayer, Christian farmers take the watch.
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One was an athletic teenager who had grown into a devout young man, another a soccer-loving convert to Islam. The youngest was 17, the oldest 35. Many were born in Britain and all were reared here.
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It has become popular among men to have a circle of callused skin on the forehead, which emerges when worshipers press their heads to the ground for prayer.
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Each year during the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims abstain from food, drink, and sensual pleasures from dawn to dusk as they focus on prayer for Godâs blessings and mercy.
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The European Commission's cautious recommendation that Turkey begin membership negotiations puts the country a step closer to realizing its dream of joining Europe &#151; but also sets tough conditions that underscore the gaping divide between this mostly poor and Muslim nation and the wealthy, largely Christian club it yearns to join.
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ISTANBUL -- Under a bright morning sun near the Aegean Sea coast, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass yesterday outside the ancient stones that some believe were once the home of the Virgin Mary.