BELGRADE (Combined reports) - Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica will head Belgrade's delegation to a UN Security Council session next week to focus on the future status of disputed Kosovo, his adviser said yesterday. The session had «extreme importance... as it will open a new phase in solving problems» over Kosovo, said Kostunica's adviser Aleksandar Simic, as quoted by the private Beta news agency. Also, Albania's prime minister suggested yesterday that Serbia-Montenegro's contested province of Kosovo should gain independence. «The status issue should be solved in accordance with the will of the people and they have opted for independence many times,» Sali Berisha said after meeting with his Montenegrin counterpart Milo Djukanovic. (AFP, AP)

PARIS (AFP) - French police yesterday found at least five babies sold by a Bulgarian ring and arrested several French couples who lied to adopt them. The infants, all aged about 18 months, were discovered in the Paris area and other parts of France. Officers said they busted the baby-trafficking network after a long investigation with Bulgarian authorities started in July last year, when a Bulgarian woman lodged a criminal complaint in her country for kidnapping.

A moderate earthquake shook southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, causing cracks in some buildings in a village, authorities said. There were no injuries. The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 4.2 Richter, had an epicenter in the village of Hidirbaba in the province of Elazig, the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory said. (AP)

A Serbian publisher has launched a collection of lyrical poems by Radovan Karadzic, the fifth book allegedly written by the Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect in his eight years on the run. Karadzic was Bosnian Serb leader during the 1992-95 Bosnia war. The book, titled «Under the Century's Left Teat,» includes previously published verses and some 20 new poems. «The poems are mostly patriotic, contemplative. There are a few love poems,» the publisher told Reuters. (Reuters)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit quake-hit Pakistan this week after his country took a leading role in rescue efforts, officials said yesterday. «He is coming here to sympathize and visit earthquake-affected areas,» Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP. (AFP)