ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey’s foreign minister warned the leader of the Kurdish region in the north of Iraq yesterday that his decision to replace the Iraqi flag with the Kurdish one was “dangerous.” Abdullah Gul also said the Iraqi government had to take action against the order given by Massoud Barzani, which was interpreted by many as a symbolic step toward the separation of the Kurdish region from the rest of the country. “Those who are doing this must see how dangerous this course is,” Gul said in an interview with private NTV television. “If Iraq is willing to accept a flag that is not its own to fly on its own territory, it’s over.”

TIRANA (AP) - The Albanian Parliament yesterday was expected to give more time to a committee that is amending the country’s electoral law, following a deal between the government and opposition. The committee’s mandate had expired in mid-August. Yesterday’s move - on the first day following the monthlong summer parliamentary break - comes after a political compromise over a dispute that had threatened to delay municipal elections. The governing Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and opposition Socialist Party of Tirana Mayor Edi Rama agreed last week to increase the number of central election committee members, extend terms in office for elected local government officials from three to four years, not to use a disputed voters list that the government has resisted updating and to add two new members to the National Council of Radio and Television to give more voice to the opposition.

Six Spanish women who swam in the buff and embraced each other at a beach in Croatia were attacked by two local men apparently offended by their behavior, police said yesterday. The women face charges stemming from their nudity and behavior in a public place, while the two men, aged 41 and 63, will be charged for violating public order, police said. The women would be charged with “violating the moral feelings of other people in a public place” for which they can be either fined or jailed for up to 30 days. Their passports were seized until they appear before a local court. (AFP)

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said yesterday that Croatia’s future membership of the EU and NATO could help to stabilize the Balkan region. “Croatia’s membership of NATO and the EU could be a valuable contribution to stabilizing the situation in the whole region,” said Rasmussen. (AFP)