Turkey amnesty as prison standoff continues

The Turkish parliament has approved for the second time a prison amnesty law which could halve the number of prison inmates.

The move comes as armed prisoners continue for a third day to hold-off Turkish security forces trying to regain control of two jails Umraniye and Canakkale.

Seventeen prisoners and two soldiers have been killed in violence so far.

Prisoners throughout the country have been resisting efforts by the authorities to end a hunger strike by left-wing prisoners demanding the scrapping of plans to move them to smaller cells.

The limited amnesty, which does not include political prisoners, was vetoed last week by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, on grounds that it was unjust and divisive.

The president will now have to sign the draft law which is central to the government's plans to reform the overcrowded prison system.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service