ISTANBUL (AP) - A Turkish prosecutor yesterday demanded life in prison for an alleged al-Qaida operative accused of serving as a key point man between the terrorist group and Turkish suicide bombers, court officials said. Loa’i Muhammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, a Syrian national, is accused of being a senior al-Qaida member and serving as the link between the terror network and homegrown militants in the 2003 bombings. Al-Saqa, 32, was captured in Turkey in August after an alleged failed plot to attack Israeli cruise ships in the Mediterranean.

BELGRADE (AP) - Top Serbian ultra-nationalist leader said yesterday that if UN-run Kosovo gains independence at upcoming talks, Belgrade will declare it an occupied territory. Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party, spoke after a meeting with conservative Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. “If someone declares an independent Kosovo... we will declare that an occupation and use all means to revoke that state of occupation,” Nikolic said.

Turkey has submitted a proposal to the United States to drill jointly for oil and natural gas in neighboring Iraq, Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said yesterday. Speaking after flying in from the US, Guler said he had discussed the issue with US officials in Washington. “We have informed them of our proposal to work jointly in Iraq,” he told reporters at the airport. “They will evaluate this proposal.” He did not give other details. (AFP)

Serbian police said yesterday they have arrested seven people suspected of trafficking women from Ukraine and Moldova. The seven suspects — three Serbian citizens, three Ukrainians and a woman from Moldova — were members of an “international organized criminal group,” the police said in a statement. Police said the suspects published advertisements in Ukraine and Moldova about jobs in Western Europe to lure girls into leaving their countries. (AP)

Romania confirmed the presence of the H5 bird flu virus in poultry in a village in the south of the country close to the border with Bulgaria, officials said yesterday. Samples will be sent to a British laboratory to establish whether the birds had caught the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu that can infect people. “Tests made on samples from three hens from the village of Cetate in Dolj county confirm the H5 type,” head of the Animal Health and Diagnosis Institute Nicolae Stefan told Reuters. (Reuters)

The Turkish police confirmed yesterday that a blast in Istanbul, which killed one person and injured 15 others, claimed by Kurdish rebels was caused by a bomb, and said they were stepping up security measures against possible attacks by Kurdish separatists. (AFP)