PRAGUE (AP) - British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday the European Union should open membership talks with Turkey to promote the “universal values of liberal democracy, human rights and tolerance.” “There would be no better signal of Europe’s wish to support the spread of those universal values than a positive decision to open accession negotiations with Turkey this December,” Straw told an annual gathering of Czech diplomats in Prague yesterday.

DIYARBAKIR (AFP) - Eleven Kurdish rebels and two Turkish soldiers were killed yesterday in clashes in the country’s southeastern corner, local security sources said. The fighting took place in a rural area in the province of Hakkari, near the Iranian border, where security forces launched an operation on the weekend against a group of suspected Kurdish rebels. The operation was continuing, the sources said.

Croatia arrested FYROM’s former interior minister yesterday for allegedly ordering the killing of a group of South Asian immigrants in a bid to appear active in the US-led war on terrorism. Ljube Boskovski was arrested in the village of Bale in northwestern Croatia, where he had lived for the past few months, said Croatian Interior Ministry spokesman Igor Stefanac. Croatian law prevents extradition of its citizens for trials abroad, and FYROM on Monday asked Croatia to take over Boskovski’s case. (AP)

The head of Bosnia’s Muslim community yesterday condemned the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq and appealed for their release. “It is not possible to ensure a better position for Muslims in Europe with violence against the two French journalists,” Reis-ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric said in a statement. “Violence against European journalists in Iraq can only make the situation worse for European Muslims.” Ceric said that Bosnian Muslims should “raise their voice,” against such kidnappings and urged that all victims of abductions be “immediately and unconditionally released.” (AP)

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which stands for Islamic values, will submit a bill next month to make adultery a criminal offense, eight years after it was struck from the statute book, a parliamentary source said yesterday. The AKP, which won 363 of the 550 national assembly seats in elections held two years ago, wants to outlaw adultery as part of a major reform of the penal code, the source said. (AFP)

Two Turkish engineers taken hostage in neighboring Iraq returned to Turkey on Monday, a day after being freed by Iraqi militants, Turkish television reported. (AP)