ANKARA (AP) - Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit denied yesterday that Chechen groups in Turkey were linked to gunmen who held hundreds hostage at a Moscow theater. “There’s definitely no connection with Turkey,” Ecevit told reporters, dismissing reports that the gunmen called groups in Turkey during the siege last week. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Yusuf Buluc confirmed yesterday that Russia had appealed to Turkey to close down Chechen associations and charities operating here.

ANKARA (AFP) - Three days before general elections, Turkey’s top prosecutor called on the country’s Communist Party to remove the word “communist” from its name or face legal sanctions, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. Prosecutor Sabih Kanadoglu’s move follows a constitutional court ruling in January which gave the tiny party six months to drop the “communist” reference, which it said was prohibited under the law on political parties. Kanadoglu asked the constitutional court yesterday to inform him within 24 hours as to whether the party had complied with the ruling.

A hand grenade exploded early yesterday in front of the Parliament in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), police said. The blast came just hours before a parliamentary vote on the country’s new government. No one was injured, but several cars were damaged. (AP)

Serbia’s prime minister yesterday praised police for cracking a gang network allegedly behind high-profile assassinations but said it had touched only the “tip of an iceberg” of criminal remnants from Slobodan Milosevic’s era. “We still have to uncover all the links between organized crime, police and political figures,” Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said. “Otherwise, all our efforts to battle organized crime would make no sense... we must see this action to its end and have all those responsible tried in the courts.” (AP)

Bulgaria said yesterday it had finished dismantling its Soviet-made missiles, meeting a key pledge to the USA as Sofia strives to join NATO. The Balkan state, which hopes to be invited to join the Western military alliance at a November summit in Prague, promised Washington it would destroy its arsenal of some 100 surface-to-surface SS-23, Scud and Frog missiles by the end of October. (Reuters)

The new nationalist presidency of Bosnia must stick to far-reaching reforms if it wants to count on EU support, External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten said yesterday. “What is essential is that BiH (Bosnia-Hercegovina) now move forward with reform with the urgency that the situation, especially BiH’s economic position, now demands,” Patten said in a congratulatory letter to the new presidency. “If you do that, you can count on the EU’s unstinting support,” he said. (AFP)