BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Turkey must improve its record on human rights and the rule of law before EU member states start talks with Ankara on adopting EU laws, the European Parliament said yesterday. The entry of any new member state requires the approval of Parliament, but the assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee made clear Ankara had a long way to go — even though the EU is committed to its eventual membership. Deputies “criticized the continuing influence of the army in politics, business, culture and education, continuing torture practices and mistreatment, the intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders, the discrimination of religious minorities and the fact that trade union freedom is not fully secured,” they said in a statement.

ISTANBUL (AP) - A homemade pipe bomb exploded prematurely outside an Istanbul police station, maiming the man allegedly trying to plant it, news reports said yesterday. Police detained 21-year-old Lokman Aslan after finding three dismembered fingers outside the police station in the city’s Beyoglu district late Tuesday, the Anatolia news agency reported. There were no other injuries. Officers searching hospitals found Aslan four hours after the explosion at a private hospital, a few kilometers away. He also suffered neck injuries, Anatolia said.

Romania’s government offered compensation yesterday to the families of 14 people killed in the terrorist attacks in Spain only hours after mourning relatives took the bodies of the victims home for burial. Romania promised 300 million lei ($9,200) for burial costs the morning after a pair of military aircraft brought the bodies of some of the victims home from Madrid, Spain. About 80 Romanians were also injured in the attacks. (AP)

A Ukrainian woman got a nasty shock when she was barred from a gym in mainly Muslim Turkey for being a Christian, a Turkish newspaper reported yesterday. Olena Aratemur, married to a Turk since 1996, was perplexed when fellow clients avoided her on her first day at an Istanbul gym where she turned up wearing a cross pendant, the mass-circulation Hurriyet newspaper reported. “I asked the women what was wrong. They said: ‘Your are Christian. For us, you are no different than a man. How did they let you in?’,” Aratemur told the newspaper. On leaving the gym, she was told her membership had been canceled. (AFP)