ANKARA (Reuters) - The head of Turkey's ruling party, Tayyip Recep Erdogan, barred from a recent general election, will stand in a by-election next month, his deputy said yesterday, opening the way for him to become prime minister. Financial markets already jittery about prospects of a US-led war in neighboring Iraq want to see a swift resolution of Erdogan's role to prevent political uncertainty. Electoral officials annulled the November poll results in the southeastern Siirt province, leading to a March 9 by-election and Erdogan's first opportunity to run for Parliament, although he could face further legal challenges to his candidacy. «Our party chairman will be a parliamentary candidate for Siirt and will enter Parliament on March 10, God willing,» Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

ISTANBUL (AP) - A 5,085-ton (3,390-metric ton) Russian freighter sank off Turkey's Black Sea coast yesterday, killing at least five people, the Anatolia news agency reported. Anatolia said three of the Strelets's 14 crew members were rescued. Turkey's coast guard and several other ships were searching for the remaining six crew members. The 132-meter (435-foot) ship, which had departed from a Turkish port, sank around 65 miles (40 kilometers) off the shore of Turkey's Zonguldak region, Anatolia said. Anatolia said the ship began taking on water amid harsh winter weather. The ship was not carrying any cargo.

The World Court took a decisive step yesterday toward settling a decadelong legal battle between Yugoslavia and Bosnia by paving the way for a landmark genocide hearing on the Bosnian war. The United Nations' top court said it had rejected a Yugoslav challenge to its jurisdiction that would have prevented its judges from hearing a case brought by Bosnia against its neighbor in 1993, accusing it of genocide. The case has been mired in a series of legal challenges for the last 10 years. Bosnia plans to seek hefty compensation from Belgrade if the Hague-based court rules that Yugoslavia was responsible for genocide in the 1992-95 conflict. Around 200,000 people were killed or went missing in the war between Serbs, Croats and Muslims. (Reuters)

Croatia will lodge its application to join the European Union in Athens on February 18, Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said yesterday during a visit to Portugal. «I believe from the bottom of my heart that Croatia will be a member of the European Union before the end of the decade,» he said after a meeting with Portuguese counterpart Antonio Martins da Cruz. (AFP)

A former Serb mayor yesterday was found guilty in the deportation and forced labor of ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo war, a UN official said. In a retrial held at a local district court in the UN-run province, Andjelko Kolasinac was sentenced to eight years in prison, said Andrea Angeli, a spokesman for the UN mission in Kosovo. A panel of international judges convicted him on three counts, including deportation and registration of ethnic Albanians for forceful displacement, forced labor and failure to prevent subsequent looting in the southern town of Orahovac, Angeli said. (AP)