PARIS (AFP) - The leader of Germany’s opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party Angela Merkel raised new doubts over Turkish membership of the European Union yesterday, promising “intense discussions” if she is elected chancellor later this year as widely predicted. “If the CDU wins the elections, we will have intense discussions on Turkey,” she said after talks in Paris with President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. “After the failures of the referendums (on the EU constitution) in France and the Netherlands, we need to start worrying about Europe’s future. We need to talk about the limits of future enlargement. We need borders,” she said.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A former Bosnian-Croat soldier yesterday changed his plea to guilty on charges including murder, rape and torture during the 1993 Muslim-Croat war in central Bosnia. “I’m guilty and I’m honestly sorry,” Miroslav Bralo told the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague when he was asked how he pleaded to eight counts of war crimes and human rights abuses in an amended indictment. Prosecutors say Bralo, 37, belonged to a Bosnian-Croat force known as the Jokers, who attacked Muslim villages in central Bosnia in 1993. He is accused of repeatedly raping a Muslim woman and torturing captives.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul yesterday condemned comments by US Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado that the United States could “take out” Islamic holy sites if there were a nuclear attack on the US by Muslim fundamentalists. Gul said that he didn’t think the people or government of the United States shared Tancredo’s view. “The United States has a Muslim population,” the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying. Tancredo said later that he was “just throwing out some ideas.” (AP)

A small plane crashed into the sea off Turkey’s Aegean coast near the town of Kusadasi yesterday, private CNN-Turk television reported. The plane was seen diving toward the sea by fishermen and fire tower personnel working for the forestry directorate, the report said. There have been no reports of casualties or survivors, but ambulances were sent to the region and security officials have been put on alert, it said. (AP)