ISTANBUL (AP) - Attorneys for suspected members of a Turkish Al Qaeda cell accused in last year’s suicide bombings in Istanbul acknowledged yesterday that several of their clients traveled to Afghanistan and Chechnya, but denied they were linked to Al Qaeda or the Istanbul attacks. Yesterday, 12 suspects in the case appeared before an Istanbul court as part of preliminary hearings in the trial of 69 suspects accused in the bombings. The 12 are being charged with belonging to an armed group and are not key figures in the case. “Their purpose in going (to Pakistan and Afghanistan) was humanitarian,” said attorney Ersin Alakesen, representing suspects Mustafa Atlihan, Ahmet Demir and Nurettin Gunduz. “They didn’t have anything to do with the bombings or with Al Qaeda.”

ANKARA (AFP) - The Iraqi Kurds will not allow Turkish Kurd rebels hiding in northern Iraq to use the enclave as a launchpad for attacks on neighboring Turkey, a senior Iraqi Kurdish officials said here yesterday. “We are adamant and we are committed that Iraqi territory, and Iraqi Kurdistan as well, will not be used in any way... as a base of operations to endanger the security of our neighbors,” Barham Saleh, a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told reporters after talks with Turkish diplomats.

Bulgarian police yesterday arrested 13 people suspected of belonging to a euro-counterfeiting ring, in a large-scale operation in southern Bulgaria backed by the US Secret Service and Europol, Interior Minister Georgi Petkanov said. More than 360 special police raided dozens of houses in five cities and seized 45,000 euros ($55,200) in false bills, thousands of forged traveler’s checks, materials to print visas and some drugs. “The operation is still under way in Sofia, Plovdiv, Pazardzhik, Haskovo and Stara Zagora, and the number of arrests and the amount of seized money is expected to rise,” the minister said. (AP)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay an official visit this month to the Netherlands, which is to assume the rotating presidency of the European Union next month. Erdogan will be accompanied during his visit, set for June 15-17, by a delegation of Turkish business leaders, his press office said yesterday. (AFP)

Romania said yesterday it would pass a new law next week which effectively bans foreigners from adopting Romanian babies; the law comes 20 days later than planned, because lawmakers were busy with municipal elections. (Reuters)