ISTANBUL (AFP) - A Turkish court in Istanbul yesterday charged 22 suspects detained in a massive operation last week against an outlawed armed Turkish Marxist group both at home and in four other European countries, the Anatolia news agency reported. Of the 23 suspects who appeared before the state security court, 22 of the them were charged with “membership of an illegal organization” and sent to jail, the report said.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Six wartime Bosnian-Croat officials pleaded not guilty at the Hague war crimes tribunal yesterday to charges of ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia in the 1990s. Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic pleaded not guilty to 26 counts of crimes against humanity, violations of the laws or customs of war and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

Bulgarian and British experts warned yesterday of security risks posed by large stockpiles of weapons left without proper control in the wake of military reforms in this new NATO member country. As part of its integration into NATO, Bulgaria reduced its armed forces from some 100,000 to a troop strength of 45,000, which left between 300,000 and 350,000 small arms and light weapons in surplus stockpiles, said a report published by the Bulgarian Center for the Study of Democracy and the British Saferworld group. (AP)

A Kurdish organization complained yesterday that the EU had hurt democracy and human rights by placing the Kurdistan People’s Congress (KONGRA-GEL) on its list of terrorist groups. “The EU decision to place KONGRA-GEL on the list of terrorist organizations is a blow against democracy and human rights, as well as defamation of the Kurdish people,” the Kurdistan National Congress said in a statement in Berlin. (AFP)

Bulgaria’s military base at the holy Shiite city of Karbala in southern Iraq came under attack during the night, but there were no injured or wounded, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said yesterday. (AFP)