ANKARA (AFP)– Turkey’s main opposition party yesterday asked the constitutional court to scrap a government-backed package of constitutional amendments that would see the president elected by popular vote, the Anatolia news agency reported. The legislation was rushed through parliament last week by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) after a political crisis deadlocked the election of Turkey’s next president by parliament, as the current law requires. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) argued that balloting rules were breached during the first and second readings of the bill last week. The party says all seven articles in the package should have garnered at least 367 votes, or a two-thirds majority, in order to be adopted. The first article received just 366 votes, while the others obtained more than 367.

PRISTINA (AP) – An international prosecutor indicted a leader of an ethnic Albanian group opposed to the UN administration in Kosovo, accusing him of having a role in organizing a violent protest in which two people were killed and dozens injured, officials said yesterday. Albin Kurti, the leader of Self-Determination, was also charged on Monday for leading a group that obstructed police officers’ duties. Kurti was arrested on February 10 following an anti-UN protest, when several thousand ethnic Albanians opposed a UN plan that recommended internationally supervised statehood for the province and envisaged broad rights for the Serb minority.

Bulgarian concerns. Bulgaria called upon NATO yesterday to ensure that it enjoys the same level of security as neighboring Central European states set to become part of an expanded US anti-missile shield. The appeal was made to reporters in Sofia by Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin, who said the issue would be raised when US President George W. Bush visits his country on Sunday and Monday. “The indivisibility of the security of NATO member countries is very important to us, (but) Bulgaria is one of the few members of the European Union and NATO that will not be covered by this shield,” he said. “The next steps regarding anti-missile defense should systematically take into account the principle of the indivisibility of NATO territory,” he added. (AFP)

Trafficker arrested. Bosnia has arrested a Turk suspected of leading a human-trafficking ring smuggling people from the Balkans and Turkey into Western Europe, the state prosecutor’s office said yesterday. The man was arrested as part of a joint operation by five Balkan countries to crack down on a trafficking ring that has smuggled some 600 people in recent months, most of them Albanians and Turks, the office said. The five countries, former Yugoslav republics, work together to cut off smuggling routes. (Reuters)