PRISTINA (AFP) - Ethnic Albanian lawmakers in Kosovo have launched an initiative to declare the province’s independence from Serbia, a deputy said yesterday. The deputies have handed over the declaration of independence to the assembly for approval, wanting it discussed on February 13. So far, the initiative has been supported by 42 of 120 legislators in the multiethnic assembly, enough to put the contentious issue on the agenda. “This is a step toward determining the will of the people,” Bujar Dugolli, the deputy who launched the initiative, told AFP.

BELGRADE (AP) - An ultranationalist Serbian leader and ally of former President Slobodan Milosevic is planning to travel to The Hague, claiming that he has been indicted by the UN war crimes court there, his party said yesterday. Vojislav Seselj plans fly to The Hague on Feb. 24, the Serbian Radical Party’s press office told AP. Seselj recently claimed he had been informed that the UN war crimes court had prepared an indictment against him which will soon be sent to Yugoslav authorities, demanding his extradition.

A man was killed by border guards of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as he tried to cross the border illegally from Albania, the Defense Ministry said in a statement yesterday. It said the incident occurred Monday night when two civilians on horseback tried to enter FYROM near the western town of Debar. “Two civilians ignored warnings and the patrol opened fire, shooting dead one of them, while the other escaped,” the ministry said. (AFP)

Four former Kurdish members of Turkey’s Parliament, jailed for aiding armed rebels, applied yesterday for a retrial in line with recently adopted legislation, the Anatolia news agency reported. The four include Leyla Zana, to whom the European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Freedom of Thought Award when she was in prison in 1995. Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak have been serving 15-year prison terms since 1994 for carrying out “separatist activities” under orders from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). (AFP)

Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said Turkey must shift the status of its politically influential army closer to the standards required by the European Union. “I believe that the Turkish army should take on a more European role within the European Union in the future,” Lindh told the NTV news channel. (AFP)

Veterans in Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul said yesterday they were launching a hotline and a specialist bull-catching unit to round up rampaging animals during the Muslim Festival of the Sacrifice next week. Turkish cities fill with goats, sheep, bulls and sometimes even camels ahead of the annual festival, where many devout Muslims perform animal sacrifices. But fearful and enraged animals often escape the knife and lead their owners and police on dangerous chases over highways and train lines. The city’s veterinary service said specialist teams with tranquillizer guns would be on 24-hour call during the festival. (Reuters)