STRASBOURG (AP) - The European Court of Human Rights rejected an appeal yesterday to overturn a ruling backing Turkey’s decision to ban a pro-Islamic party which was dissolved in 1998. The court’s Grand Chamber of 17 judges ruled unanimously that “there had been no violation” of the European Convention on Human Rights, which Turkey is bound to uphold as a signatory. The judges rejected all complaints, saying the Turkish measures were necessary to ensure the proper functioning of a democratic system. “The interference (by Turkish courts) could not be regarded as disproportionate in relation to the aims pursued,” the judges said, adding there were “convincing and compelling reasons” justifying the Welfare Party’s closure.

PRISTINA (AP) - Responding to concerns that violence in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) could escalate again, the country’s defense minister said yesterday that his army will cooperate with Kosovo’s UN officials and NATO-led peacekeepers. Vlado Buckovski said earlier this week that violence could escalate but ruled out a large-scale conflict similar to the ethnic Albanian uprising in 2001. Buckovski, who met with UN officials and leaders for the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, said any slack on the part of authorities could be used by extremists to “transform their criminal activity into some other aspirations.”

Turkish police yesterday clashed with demonstrators in Istanbul and detained 45 people protesting a possible US war on Iraq, the protesters said in a statement. Police forced the protesters into police buses after barring them from giving a news conference outside the Istanbul offices of the Justice and Development Party. The activists said officers had hit protesters and used pepper spray to disperse the crowd. (AP)

Dissenters who quit Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg’s party have predicted more defections that would endanger the government’s slim majority and hamper efforts to join the EU. The ex-king’s popularity has plummeted in recent months and five members of his National Movement for Simeon II (NMS) deserted this week, raising alarm in financial markets. “The wave will continue, it is irreversible,” Nikola Nikolov, one of the defectors, said yesterday. He told local media seven more deputies would leave the ruling party. (Reuters)

Kosovo’s lawmakers yesterday postponed discussion of a controversial initiative to proclaim the province independent from Serbia. “The harmonized declaration will be discussed in one of the coming sessions,” Hydajet Hyseni, vice president of Parliament announced. (AFP)

Croatia will submit its application for membership in the European Union on February 21, the government said yesterday. (AFP)