INSTABUL (Reuters) - Turkey's education minister on Tuesday launched a public debate on university reform that could set his ruling party at odds with the country's powerful military over the strict rules separating state and religion. Minister Erkan Mumcu began with a gentle opening gambit by creating an Internet forum on his ministry's website to take the temperature of Turkey's student and teaching population. Mumcu avoided any mention of headscarves and said he wanted a «higher education system offering autonomy, transparency and freedom of opportunity.»

jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli, US and Turkish forces were early yesterday staging air and naval maneuvers off the coast of Israel in the eastern Mediterranean, Israeli public radio said. Helicopters, reconnaissance aircraft and warships, including three Israeli missile boats, as well as two Turkish and one US frigates, were taking part, Israeli media reported. The maneuvers included mainly maritime rescue exercises and were aimed also at enhancing the coordination between the military command centers of the three countries.

Outgoing Serbian President Milan Milutinovic will not face war crimes charges until after the local New Year holidays in mid-January, Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said on Tuesday. Svilanovic told B92 Radio that he expected Milutinovic to be arrested and extradited if he failed to surrender to the Netherlands-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). But he added that there was little chance of anything happening until after the Slav Orthodox Christmas and New Year holidays, despite fresh UN calls for his immediate surrender or arrest. (Reuters)

Two reactors at a nuclear power station at Kozloduy in Bulgaria shut down on Tuesday as part of conditions for Sofia's future European Union membership, because the EU considers them unsafe, management said. The two 440-megawatt, Soviet-made water pressure reactors, in operation since 1974 and 1975, ended their working lives as a precondition for a start to EU membership negotiations. (AFP)

A 19-year-old girl was killed and two young men were reported missing in Romania when a raging river swept away a chalet, authorities in the northeast region of Neamt said yesterday. The girl's body was found several hours later, they added. The three had been celebrating the new year with other people in the chalet when the Bistrita River, running high after several days of heavy rains, swept the house away. (AFP)