Turkey extends troop deployment mandate, pressures Iraqi Kurds on vote

By Daren Butler and Raya JalabiISTANBUL/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament voted on Saturday to extend by a year a mandate authorizing the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq and Syria, stepping up pressure against an independence referendum in northern Iraq's Kurdish region in two days' time.Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would take security, economic and political steps in response to the referendum, which President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman described as a "terrible mistake"