ANKARA (AP) - A Turkish court accepted controversial testimony against jailed Kurdish politician Leyla Zana yesterday that accuses her of spending days at a Kurdish rebel camp in Lebanon. The court also refused a defense request for the release of Zana and three other former Kurdish lawmakers — Selim Sadak, Hatip Dicle and Orhan Dogan — pending the outcome of the trial. Judge Orhan Karadeniz said evidence against the four barred the court from releasing them. The refusal sparked criticism by European lawmakers and other observers who are closely watching the case as a test of improvements in Turkey’s human rights record.

THE HAGUE (AP) - Judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal convicted three Bosnian Serbs of persecuting non-Serbs during the Bosnian war — in several cases pulling out the teeth of prisoners — and rendered sentences ranging from six to 17 years. The toughest sentence was given to doctor Blagoje Simic, 43, for participating in a “joint criminal enterprise” that displaced thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croats from the northern Bosnian municipality of Bosanski Samac. Miroslav Tadic, 66, and Simo Zaric, 54, were also convicted of one count of crimes against humanity, and received sentences of eight and six years.

A regional media watchdog organization yesterday condemned an Albanian government minister’s alleged attack on a journalist and asked authorities for justice. The Vienna-based Southeast Europe Media Organization, a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, sent a letter to Prime Minister Fatos Nano urging him “to bring to justice those responsible for this incident.” Ilir Babaramo of the private Vizion+ television station allegedly was attacked Tuesday by Public Order Minister Luan Rama and his bodyguards because of a comment critical of Rama two months ago. (AP)

German authorities have arrested a veteran intelligence agent on suspicion of betraying secrets to a female Bulgarian spy, sources close to the case said yesterday. They said the 64-year-old agent, a Balkan specialist with Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency, was arrested at his home in Munich on October 9. The federal prosecutors’ office in Karlsruhe said in a statement that the unnamed man was suspected of passing secret documents to the woman spy between late 1999 and last month. A source told Reuters the country was Bulgaria. (Reuters)

High-level talks between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders may happen in 2004 but the province’s status can only be dealt with after progress is made tackling practical issues, the UN governor for Kosovo said yesterday. “There are no high-level meetings scheduled... (but) I guess some kind of meeting reviewing the situation could take place next year,” governor Harri Holkeri said. (Reuters)

Croatia’s Parliament was dissolved yesterday as a formality ahead of general elections on November 23. (AP)