BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union is planning to take over the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, its biggest military operation yet, on Dec. 2, an EU official said yesterday. EU foreign ministers meeting Monday in Luxembourg are to approve the operational plan for the mission, which includes the date for the transfer of power and how the US contingent within the force of 7,000 soldiers will be replaced, the official, who asked not to be identified, said. “We are mainly planning for the EU headquarters to assume responsibility,” the official said. More than 1,000 US troops will be replaced by EU personnel, with the biggest contingent coming from Finland.

ANKARA (AP) - British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday that Turkey has made major progress toward meeting EU requirements for membership and predicted that momentum gained as Turkey opens entry talks should help erase skeptics’ doubts. In a press conference at Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s residence, Straw praised the “extraordinary achievement that has been made in a very short period” in Turkey. "After a while everybody will say, ‘What’s the argument? Of course Turkey should be here. Turkey is a great European country.’”

The European Union’s top envoy to Romania said yesterday the country has recently developed new, “unacceptable” problems concerning press freedom, including journalists being beaten. Jonathan Scheele, who heads the EU Commission office in Bucharest, said physical assaults on journalists have increased in the last year, during which about a dozen journalists were beaten in connection with their work. Scheele called on authorities to thoroughly investigate the attacks, saying that in some cases the perpetrators have not yet been caught. Most of the journalists who were beaten last year were investigating cases of official corruption. (AP)

Lawmakers yesterday overwhelmingly re-elected Bulent Arinc as the speaker of Turkey’s Parliament. Arinc, considered a staunchly conservative member of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, has served as speaker since the Islamic-rooted party came to power in 2002 general elections. (AP)

Serbia’s state anti-corruption body launched a campaign yesterday to root out graft in the Balkan republic. The Anti-Corruption Council, founded two years ago, announced plans to establish a hotline for citizens to report any wrongdoing by state bureaucrats. “Our idea is to have the citizens complain to us, without any fear, rather than go to the police, whom they still don’t trust,” a statement from the council said. (AP)