PRISTINA (Reuters) – United Nations police in Kosovo are investigating the possible involvement of the province’s own police force in a bomb blast last week that killed two people, a spokesman for the Kosovo police said. Veton Elshani said UN police had seized seven police vehicles from a station in the southern town of Urosevac for examination, after witnesses reported seeing police vehicles at the scene before the blast in the early hours of September 24. Elshani said he could not rule out the possibility that the explosion, which tore through shops and cafes in the capital Pristina, killing two people and injuring nine, was linked to the murder in August of Kosovo police officer Triumf Riza. “We will return the vehicles soon, and we might take other cars from other stations,” said Elshani. “It could be linked to the Riza murder. We do not exclude any link.”

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s planned new constitution should boost democracy, human rights and secularism in the EU applicant nation, President Abdullah Gul told parliament yesterday. “The new constitution must confirm our democratic, secular and social state and guarantee basic rights and freedoms,” Gul told the opening session of parliament. “I am sure a perfect constitution will be achieved through the contributions of parliament, political parties and all sections of society,” said Gul, stressing the need for consensus and inclusiveness in drawing up the text.

A 7-year-old boy initially thought to have been among those killed in an attack on a Turkish van blamed on Kurdish rebels in fact escaped death because he stayed behind with relatives, Turkish media reported yesterday. The decision by his father – the driver of the van who died with the other occupants of the vehicle when it was shot up by gunmen on a rural road in the southeastern province of Sirnak on Saturday – saved the boy’s life, they said. The Sirnak governor’s office said on its website yesterday that the death toll from the attack was revised down from 13 to 12. (AFP)

Romanian President Traian Basescu, in a speech to students yesterday, condemned the corrupt practices pervading the country’s universities, where bribes to pass exams have become commonplace. Basescu called on students at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in northeastern Iasi to say “no to illegal practices.” “Plagiarism on the part of certain students, as well as professors, the sale of theses and bribes to pass exams, unfortunately, define parts of the Romanian education system,” he added. (AFP)