ANKARA (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad praised a decision by the Turkish president to go ahead with a visit to Damascus despite US qualms and said countries of the region had to stand together to resist Washington’s pressure. Turkey’s President Ahmet Necdet Sezer plans a state visit to Syria on April 13-14 in spite of US fears it could send the wrong signal at a time when Syria is being pressured to pull all its troops and security forces out of neighboring Lebanon. “Turkey, as a sovereign nation protecting its own interests, did not allow other countries to dictate its decision,” Assad told CNN Turk television yesterday.

BELGRADE (AFP) - The foreign minister of Serbia and Montenegro yesterday accused the country’s secret services of working against the interests of the state by doing nothing to find suspects wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal. Vuk Draskovic particularly blamed both civil and army secret services for having allowed General Nebojsa Pavkovic, accused of war crimes committed during the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo, to escape justice. “Until recently, we all knew where General Pavkovic was... Suddenly, he has become ‘invisible’ for security services. That is obstruction of state interests,” Draskovic said.

Romania has protested to Spain over a song that appeared there on the Internet, cursing Romanians and telling them to leave the country. The song, composed by little-known Spanish artist DJ Syto, has sparked outrage in Romania, where its lyrics are deemed offensive and xenophobic. There are believed to be more than 100,000 Romanians living in Spain. (AP)

Leading Kurdish activist Leyla Zana urged the Turkish government yesterday to grant a general amnesty to thousands of armed Kurdish rebels as a key step toward ending the Kurdish conflict in the country. “Disarming the youths in the mountains and ridding them of violence will create great synergy on the way to democracy,” Zana said in a statement. (AFP)

Six schoolchildren were injured yesterday after accidentally setting off military devices they picked up at an empty yard close to their school, Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah said. The children found 14 devices in a sack, half-buried in the ground at an empty yard some 300 meters from their school, Cerrah said. They picked it up to sell to a scrap metal shop, Cerrah said. (AP)

Romanian authorities late Tuesday rejected as “rumors” television reports that three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Iraq had been freed. “We would have no reason to keep such information secret if it was true,” a spokeswoman for the president’s office, Adriana Saftoiu, told AFP. (AFP)