BELGRADE (AFP) - The man accused of masterminding the murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is on the run with a Serbian diplomatic passport as well as a fake Croat passport, Serb police said yesterday. Milorad Lukovic Legija “has a false Croatian passport in the name of Vlado Vukomanovic, and in 1996 (under the Milosevic regime) obtained (...) a diplomatic passport,” police said on radio B92. Legija — named after his time with the Foreign Legion — is suspected by police of masterminding Djindjic’s murder on March 12. He is also the former commander of the now-disbanded elite police Unit for Special Operations and the alleged leader of the Zemun criminal gang, which the authorities have cracked down on since Djindjic was killed.

ANKARA (AP) - Turkey is still plagued with serious human rights violations, including unlawful killings and torture, despite government pledges to eradicate the abuses and some improvements in the country’s record, the US State Department said yesterday. “Security forces continued to commit unlawful killings, including deaths due to excessive use of force and torture,” the State Department said in its annual human rights report. “Torture, beatings and other abuses by security forces remained widespread, although the number of reported cases declined.”

Turkish authorities have expelled a BBC television journalist from an area bordering Iraq, following the channel’s news reports on the Turkish military and the region’s Kurdish citizens. The BBC’s Turkey correspondent Johnny Dymond told Reuters paramilitary police had ordered him and his crew to leave the southeastern Sirnak province on Monday after the BBC broadcast pictures of restricted military facilities and convoys. “It’s my belief this was based on a misunderstanding regarding the nature of our coverage,” Dymond told Reuters. A Turkish official confirmed gendarme officers had ordered the BBC crew to leave Sirnak indefinitely. (Reuters)

Five firms have opened talks with the Bulgarian government over plans to build a nuclear power plant at Belene, on the Danube River, the Bulgarian Energy Ministry said yesterday. Russia’s Atomstroieksport, US firm Westinghouse, France’s Framatom, the Czech company Skoda and Atomic Energy of Canada have each briefed the ministry on which technology they propose to use. The ministry is due to decide on the basis of this information and to open a tender process for the nuclear power station, which would be Bulgaria’s second, before the end of the year. (AFP)

A moderate earthquake shook northwestern Turkey yesterday, forcing residents to flee their homes in a panic, the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory said. No injuries or damage were reported. The observatory said the quake, registering a preliminary magnitude of 3.7, struck the town of Akyazi at 10.51 a.m. (0751 GMT). (AP)