MUNICH (Reuters) – The United States led a chorus of encouragement on Saturday for the aspirations of Croatia, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to join NATO, with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates giving explicit backing to their bids. “I think that our view is that the three are ready for membership and we would like to see that happen,” Gates told reporters at a security conference in Munich. Earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer gave overt encouragement to the Balkan trio, saying he hoped for new entry invitations at an April summit of the alliance in Bucharest. “It is... important that we create a new dynamic in the region,” he told the same conference.

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht on Saturday rejected as “unacceptable” Turkish criticism suggesting a Belgian court encouraged terrorism by acquitting seven Turkish terror suspects. “Statements saying that Belgian justice authorities helped terrorism are totally unacceptable,” De Gucht said in a statement. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the court’s ruling had “met with reaction in the Turkish public opinion” and that “such rulings will undoubtedly encourage terrorist organizations.”

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against Romania in a dozen lawsuits relating to the restitution of property confiscated by the communist regime, the government said on Saturday. Eleven cases related to the unlawful sale or misappropriation of property, depriving the original owners of the property or of material compensation, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. (AP)

One of Croatia’s main newspapers apologized yesterday to Prime Minister Ivo Sanader after publishing an interview with him which turned out to be a fake. “Although we had no reason to question the authenticity of the published interview, we apologize to readers and the prime minister,” the Jutarnji List independent daily said. (AFP)