ANKARA (AFP) – Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will pay a two-day visit to Turkey next week, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said on Sunday. Mottaki, who is to arrive today, will meet with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. He will also attend talks aimed at boosting bilateral economic cooperation. After years of animosity, Turkey and Iran have markedly improved relations in recent years. Turkey has noted Tehran’s enhanced cooperation in combating Kurdish separatists, who are also active on Iranian soil. The turmoil in Iraq, a neighbor to both countries, has also brought them closer.

PRISTINA (AFP) – The United Nations yesterday appointed a new interim international police chief in Kosovo, while a search for a permanent replacement to his sacked predecessor continued. Deputy Commissioner of Crime Trygve Kalleberg took up the post from Germany’s Uwe Marquardt. Marquardt had replaced Briton Stephen Curtis after he was dismissed from the post last week. Curtis was sacked after an autopsy showed two ethnic Albanians died of head wounds from rubber bullets fired by international police during a protest on February 10. The demonstration was organized by the “Self-Determination” youth movement, which supports independence for Kosovo without negotiations involving Serbia.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul traveled to Saudi Arabia on Saturday for talks aimed at advancing efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gul was received by King Abdullah, the SPA news agency reported, in a follow-up on talks in Ankara between Turkish officials and Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal in January and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf earlier this month. At the same time, the Saudi monarch spoke with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan by telephone. “Peace in Palestine will have a positive impact on all problems in the Middle East,” Gul told reporters before his departure. (AFP)

Turkish authorities yesterday detained two Irish women at Istanbul airport for possession of about 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) of heroin, the Anatolia news agency has reported. The women, named by the semiofficial news agency as Maureen Gregory and Margaret Vuyelwa Khaka, were to take a Turkish Airlines flight to London when they were stopped by security at the X-ray machines, Anatolia said. After a search, customs officials found the drugs strapped to Maureen Gregory’s groin, the report said. Both women were detained. (AFP)