TIRANA (AP) - The Albanian government yesterday survived a vote of no confidence for its handling of last week's boat accident that killed 21 would-be illegal immigrants to Italy. With the governing Socialists controlling more than half of the 140-seat Parliament, the opposition failed to get the needed support for the vote. Of those present, 50 parliamentarians voted in favor, 76 against, and one abstained. With emotions high in the wake of Jan. 9 tragedy, the session spilled into early yesterday, ending only at 2 a.m. local time, after some legislators agreed to withdraw scheduled speeches. The opposition Democratic Party said the Socialists failed to prevent the accident and suggested Prime Minister Fatos Nano personally bears fault for the boat tragedy, accusing him of poor leadership for not interrupting a vacation abroad immediately after the accident.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US moved Friday to temper Turkey's concerns about Iraqi Kurds forming an ethnic-based federation in post-war Iraq after a senior Turkish military official warned the creation of such an enclave would lead to bloodshed. The State Department allowed that a decision on the political makeup of the country would be made by the Iraqis themselves. «We've always been quite clear that we support Iraq's territorial integrity and political unity,» spokesman Richard Boucher added.

The wife of Bosnia's top war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, whom NATO troops again recently failed to capture, told a Croatian daily yesterday that she had not heard from her fugitive husband for over two years. «Those who are following us constantly know very well that we have not had any contact with Radovan for more than two years,» Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic said in an interview with the Jutarnji List daily, referring to NATO-led peacekeepers. (AFP)

Rescuers yesterday located the wreck of a Turkish fighter plane that crashed in the west of the country while on a training flight in bad weather, but the pilot was dead, Anatolia news agency reported. The F-16 plane had taken off from an air base in the province of Balikesir on Friday and disappeared from radars while it was flying near the small town of Tavsanli, some 300 kilometers (190 miles) west of the capital Ankara. (AFP)