ISTANBUL - A senior Turkish general said yesterday that his country’s efforts to join the European Union were doomed to fail, and called for closer ties with Russia and Iran instead. Gen. Tuncer Kilinc, head of the powerful National Security Council, which groups military and political leaders and has a strong hand in national policy, spoke at a conference on Turkish foreign relations organized by the military. “Turkey hasn’t seen the slightest assistance from the EU. The EU has a negative view on the problems that concern Turkey,” Kilinc said. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit yesterday ruled out the idea of a referendum on EU membership. “No sterile debates, no early election, no referendum,” he said. “Let’s get on with the job.” (AP)

MOSCOW - Yevgeny Primakov, Russia’s prime minister at the time of NATO’s air campaign against Yugoslavia, said yesterday he would be prepared to give evidence in support of Slobodan Milosevic at the Hague war crimes trial. Primakov, now chairman of the Russian Chamber of Commerce, told reporters he was ready to testify on the role the former Yugoslav leader played in the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts in the 1990s. “I am not testifying in defense of anybody. I am speaking out against the court becoming a political kangaroo court. I can testify to what role Milosevic played in those episodes in which I took a direct part,” he said. (Reuters)

President Ion Iliescu said yesterday that Romania’s high inflation and often-changing legislation were stifling foreign and domestic investments. Inflation has been double-digit for the past decade, and was about 30 percent last year. It is expected to drop to about 22 percent this year. “This is a positive trend,” Iliescu said, but made clear inflation was still way too high. Iliescu urged the government to simplify legislation and reduce bureaucracy to stimulate investment. (AP)

Investigators of the UN war crimes tribunal yesterday began a weeklong probe of the 1991 slaughter of dozens of Croat civilians in the central village of Dubica during Croatia’s war with rebel Serbs. Officials from the tribunal, located in The Hague, the Netherlands, will look into the execution of 50 mostly elderly civilians in the village, allegedly carried out by Serb rebels. (AP)

Bosnian forensic experts have uncovered the remains of seven German soldiers from World War II near Sarajevo, the head of the investigation team said yesterday. Several identity tags, German mark coins minted in 1931 and Nazi swastikas were also found with the bodies in the village of Svrake, just north of Sarajevo. (AFP)