ANKARA (AP) - A teenager was charged yesterday with the murder of a Roman Catholic priest in Turkey, a report said. The 16-year-old boy, identified only by the initials O.A., was brought before a court and formally charged with murder, the Anatolia news agency reported. Reverend Andrea Santoro, a 60-year-old Italian, was killed on Sunday at his church along the Black Sea coast. Police said they seized a 9mm handgun from the boy’s home which ballistics tests confirmed had been used in the shooting. The teen’s father, meanwhile, said his son claimed he was ordered to carry out the shooting, a report said yesterday.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict XVI has formally accepted Turkey’s invitation to make an historic visit this year to the predominantly Muslim country which wants to become part of Europe, the Vatican said yesterday. A statement said the trip would take place on November 28-30. The pope had hoped to be able to visit Turkey last year but the government failed to invite him due to lingering suspicions over comments he made before he was elected in which he questioned Turkey’s credentials to join Europe.

Serbia-Montenegro’s defense minister said yesterday that over 50 people have been identified in a top army intelligence report as helping leading war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic to evade justice. Most of those named as Mladic’s accomplices were retired army officers, but the list — presented at the Balkan country’s defense council last week — also included Serb military security officers who were dismissed from duty only last November, said Zoran Stankovic. “They will all be thoroughly investigated and interrogated, and some have already given their statements,” Stankovic told reporters. (AP)

Kosovo is to formally elect a successor to late President Ibrahim Rugova at a Parliament session today, Nexhat Daci, the parliamentary president, said. Daci made the announcement after a meeting of ethnic Albanian parliamentary leaders to discuss a new date for the session, brought forward from Monday at the request of the head of the UN mission in Kosovo, Soren Jessen-Petersen. The only candidate to become the new leader of Kosovo so far is Fatmir Sejdiu, a moderate from Rugova’s Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) party. (AFP)