DIYARBAKIR (AFP) - The mayor of the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast risks up to six months in jail for using the letter “W” on New Year’s greeting cards, his lawyer Muharrem Erbey said yesterday. The lawsuit came after Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir, one of Turkey’s leading Kurdish politicians, sent New Year’s cards last year to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, cabinet ministers and members of parliament, in which he used the Kurdish expression for “Happy New Year.” Since the phrase includes the letter “W,” which exists in the Kurdish alphabet but not the Turkish one, prosecutors accused Baydemir of violating a law that obliges state agencies, civic groups and private institutions to use Turkish letters.

SARAJEVO (AP) - A United Nations agency said yesterday it has organized a lottery offering the possibility of prizes such as DVD players or refrigerators when illegal weapons left over from the Bosnian war are turned in to authorities. “The aim is to increase the security of citizens and raise the public’s awareness of the danger of illegal possession of small arms,” The UN Development Program said in a statement.

Bosnia’s war crimes court issued its longest jail sentence yesterday, sending a Serb wartime military commander to prison for 26 years for the murder of 144 Muslims during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war. The court convicted Marko Samardzija, 70, of ordering a systematic attack on civilians in the northwestern Kljuc region on July 10, 1992, in which at least 144 Muslim men were killed. Judge Zorica Gogala also sentenced another Serb, Nikola Kovacevic, to 12 years in prison for war crimes against Muslims and Croats in the neighboring Sanski Most region. (Reuters)

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said yesterday that an Albanian army unit would soon join the UN force in Lebanon. Speaking in front of 1,400 army officers after a training exercise, the premier said an army unit would soon join Italian forces in Lebanon. (AP)