SAMARRA (Reuters) - Insurgents killed a Turkish driver when they opened fire on a convoy of trucks near the northern Iraqi city of Samarra yesterday, Iraqi police said. Major Mohammed Abdullah said the insurgents fired anti-tank weapons and rifles. He said the truck belonging to the Turkish driver was destroyed in the attack. Militants have embarked on a campaign of kidnapping and killings aimed at driving foreign workers and firms out of Iraq.

THE HAGUE (AFP) - Members of the European Union must reflect on the values they hope to uphold as they consider taking in additional countries, including Turkey, or risk seeing the bloc become a “spiritless machine,” Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said yesterday. Balkenende, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, was speaking at the opening of the first of a series of debates on European values. “It is important for us to reflect on that as we prepare for further rounds of enlargement and consider starting accession negotiations with Turkey,” he added.

The Dutch justice minister yesterday approved the extradition of an alleged Kurdish rebel leader wanted in Turkey for her alleged role in a series of bombings in the 1990s. Nuriye Kesbir has fought her transfer to Turkey since she was detained in the Netherlands three years ago while illegally entering the country. Her applications for asylum were rejected. She is allegedly a leading member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), now known as Kongra-Gel.(AP)

Serbian President Boris Tadic has been hospitalized due to a lung infection, his office said yesterday. An announcement from the president’s office said he was taken to the main Military Hospital in Belgrade on Sunday “because of an acute infection of respiratory organs.” “President Tadic, 46, requires hospitalization so that all necessary medical testing can be carried out,” the statement said, adding that the leader’s condition was not critical. (AP)

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is due to make a five-day trip starting today to the Baltic countries to bolster support for Ankara’s bid to join the EU, the Foreign Ministry said. Gul will first travel to Estonia for talks with top-ranking officials. From there, he will head to Latvia on Friday for two days. He is then due to go to Lithuania. (AFP)

Turkish Airport police found 70 baby crocodiles, dehydrated and dying, in the suitcase of a Turkish smuggler returning from Libya, the daily Sabah reported yesterday. Fifteen of the animals died but the others were turned over to a zoo in Turkey’s main city, Istanbul. An expert quoted by Sabah said the reptiles were a few weeks old and could have been sold for about 100 dollars each. (AFP)