ANKARA (AFP) – Turkish rescue teams were yesterday looking for traces of a private aircraft that went missing while flying from northeastern Turkey to neighboring Iran, officials said. The British-registered Sky Arrow 650T light aircraft took off from the Black Sea city of Trabzon on Sunday with a British pilot and a Pakistani national on board, the Turkish Transport Ministry said in a statement. A land-and-air rescue operation was launched after the aircraft failed to land in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz as intended.

SARAJEVO (AFP) – Human rights groups yesterday urged Bosnia not to deport ex-Islamic fighters, whose citizenship it has revoked, to countries where they might be exposed to torture. “Any procedure that puts a person at risk of deportation, extradition or other removal, including any arising from the citizenship review process, should safeguard their human rights,” they said in a letter to the Bosnian government. The letter was signed by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Bosnian branch of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.

Turkish customs officials have seized 98.5 kilos (about 218 pounds) of heroin destined for Europe in an operation in Istanbul, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. The haul was discovered on a truck waiting in a customs area which was due to go to the Netherlands, the report said. The heroin had an estimated street value of about 5 million lira ($3.7 million, –2.7 million). Police were looking for the truck’s driver and a second suspect, Anatolia said. (AFP)

The man who stabbed former Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh to death in 2003 has withdrawn his appeal to serve the remainder of his life sentence in Serbia, his lawyer said yesterday. Mijailo Mijailovic applied in 2005 to be moved to Serbia, saying he had received threats in prison. His parents were from Serbia, though he was born in Sweden. (Reuters)

Motorists in Bosnia were surprised on the weekend when they were pulled over by police only to be presented with music CDs as a reward for good driving, a Sarajevo daily said yesterday. Police in the eastern town of Gorazde handed out CDs with popular local music to conscientious drivers for obeying rules, such as speed limits and using seat belts, said the Dnevni Avaz newspaper. Bad driving habits and poor roads make driving in Bosnia one of the most dangerous experiences in Europe. (AFP)