SKOPJE (AP) – The president of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) backed a UN blueprint on the future status of Kosovo yesterday, saying it would ensure political stability in the UN-administered province. Branko Crvenkovski said the proposal by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari complies with FYROM’s views in a border dispute with neighboring Kosovo – nominally still part of Serbia. He said the blueprint “does not jeopardize the national interests of Macedonia.” “Our position on demarcation of the border with Kosovo is well incorporated in the proposal,” Crvenkovski said. Kosovo claims more than 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) of land in FYROM. “It is our interest to have political stability, efficient institutions and standards which will be respected in Kosovo,” Crvenkovski said.

PARIS (Reuters) – French police have arrested 13 people believed to be members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on suspicion of money laundering and “financing terrorism,” police said yesterday. Twelve Turks and one Australian, all of Kurdish origin, were arrested in various suburbs of Paris yesterday morning on suspicion of “association with wrongdoers in relation to a terrorist undertaking, financing terrorism and money laundering in an organized group with a view to financing terrorism.” “These are people we suspect of funding the PKK,” a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutors’ office said. The arrests were part of an investigation that began last July when two Turks were arrested after trying to change –200,000 into dollars in a Paris bureau de change, police said.

The World Bank said yesterday it has granted Kosovo $3 million (–2.3 million) to prevent bird flu in the province. The grant is aimed at helping Kosovo’s institutions to prevent the spread of avian flu among poultry, its transmission to other animals and humans, as well as to prepare for a potential pandemic among humans, a statement from the World Bank said. “It is critical that Kosovo’s young institutions are provided assistance to scale up their capacity to prevent, identify, contain and eradicate avian influenza,” said Kanthan Shankar, the organization’s official in Kosovo. The World Bank said that Kosovo’s chances of exposure to infection from infected poultry were high, given that the great majority of Kosovo’s population lives in rural areas and half of rural households own poultry. The grant will support a public awareness campaign, control programs, increase healthcare response and help in implementing the government’s strategy, it said. (AP)

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) representative on freedom of the media, Miklos Haraszti, arrived in Sarajevo yesterday for a three-day visit, the European security body said. Haraszti will meet the top international administrator in this Balkan country, Christian Schwartz-Schilling, as well as top local officials, the OSCE said in a statement. (AP)