Ankara to close air space to northern Iraq, extend state of emergency - govt

Turkey’s cabinet agreed on Monday to close its air space to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, Reuters reports. The government said work had started to hand over the main land border crossing into the autonomous region to the Iraqi central government. The cabinet also approved a recommendation from the national security council, chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to extend the state of emergency imposed after last year’s failed coup by another three months, government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said.