ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer yesterday vetoed legislation that would have allowed thousands of students expelled from Turkish universities to return, including women who violated a ban on Islamic-style headscarves in schools. The legislation, pushed through Parliament last week by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governing party, would have allowed students who were dismissed from universities on academic or disciplinary grounds after June 29, 2000, to return to school.

PRISTINA (AP) - The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)’s prime minister said yesterday that a border dispute with Kosovo should be resolved before the start of any talks on the status of the UN-run province. Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski said resolution of the issue would ensure further stability for FYROM and also would benefit Kosovo, a province that remains disputed between Serbia-Montenegro and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians. Buckovski spoke following a meeting with Kosovo’s top UN official, Soren Jessen-Petersen. Buckovski also met with Kosovo’s prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj.

Nearly two-thirds of Turks are in favor of their country’s future membership in the European Union, while only 12 percent think joining the bloc would be a bad thing, an EU survey showed yesterday. The first Eurobarometer national survey of the country, which is due to start accession talks in October, showed Turks expect membership to bring economic prosperity and help fight unemployment, but know very little about the bloc. (Reuters)

The Romanian capital had the coldest night ever recorded in March, when temperatures dipped to -20C (-4F) overnight, weather officials said yesterday. (AP)

Turkish police yesterday confiscated more than 5,000 bottles of an illegally produced liquor that has been blamed for at least seven deaths in Istanbul, news reports said. More than 4,300 bottles of fake raki, a popular anise-flavored drink, were found in a truck in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported. Private NTV television quoted the driver as saying the liquor originated in Istanbul, where at least seven people died this week after drinking fake raki apparently made using methyl alcohol. (AP)

NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (KFOR) said yesterday it would deploy 600 more German troops to Kosovo next week as part of a reinforcement exercise. (AFP)