TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya’s Supreme Court upheld death sentences yesterday against six foreign medics for infecting Libyan children with HIV, but officials said they could win a reprieve next week. Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said the government-controlled High Judicial Council, which has the power to commute the sentence or even pardon the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor, will consider the case on Monday. European Union and Bulgarian leaders expressed regret at the court ruling.

ANKARA (Reuters) – A great majority of Turks back the government’s call for the president to be elected by a direct popular vote rather than through parliament, a poll published by Vatan newspaper showed yesterday. The ESTIMA poll in Vatan showed 74.2 percent of respondents would vote “yes” in a referendum to change the constitution to have a popular ballot for the top post, while 19.4 percent would oppose it.

Turkish police yesterday detained more than 400 illegal immigrants planning to sneak into Greece from Turkey’s western coast. The would-be immigrants – among them Turks, Iraqis, Palestinians and Mauritanians – were found hiding aboard five trucks police stopped near the town of Urla, just outside Izmir, on the Aegean coast. The drivers of the vehicles were also detained. (AFP)

A percussion bomb exploded in a parking lot in Istanbul early yesterday, injuring two people, Turkish television station NTV reported. The two were taken to hospital after the explosion and were in good condition, NTV said. Kurdish separatists, ultra-leftists and Islamists have all carried out bomb attacks in Turkey, which holds a parliamentary election on July 22. (Reuters)

A Romanian who sued God for “fraud” and “betrayal of trust” for failing to answer his prayers has had his case dismissed in court, a newspaper reported yesterday. Mircea Pavel, 40, who is serving 20 years in prison for murder, brought charges against “the defendant God, who lives in the heavens and is represented in Romania by the Orthodox Church,” the daily Evenimentul Zilei reported. He accused God of “fraud, betrayal of trust, corruption and influence peddling.” The court in Timisoara, western Romania, dismissed the case, ruling that “God is not subject to law and does not have an address.” (AFP)