ISTANBUL (AFP) – The spiritual leader of Turkey’s tiny Armenian community said yesterday he was opposed to a US congressional bill branding the Ottoman massacres of Armenians as genocide. “This bill will harm relations both between Turkey and Armenia and between Armenians and Turks in Turkey,” the Istanbul-based Patriarch Mesrob II told the Anatolia news agency in Erzurum, eastern Turkey. He said he made contacts with US State Department officials on the issue and could also speak to US congressmen. “It is impossible to deny the painful history... (but) now it’s time to consider forward-looking policies,” Mesrob II said.

BRUSSELS (AP) – NATO warned Albania yesterday that it must push through more reforms of its justice and political system to win early membership in the Western military alliance. “The invitation tickets are not punched yet; further reform is necessary,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after a meeting with Albanian’s President Bamir Topi. “A lot of work will still have to be done and no guarantees can be given.” Albania, along with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Croatia, hopes to be invited to join NATO at a meeting of allied leaders next April in Bucharest, Romania.

Kosovo’s negotiating team in talks on the future status of the disputed Serbian territory said yesterday that the dialogue will end after a December deadline. “The negotiations will be over on December 10,” said Skender Hyseni, spokesman for the Kosovo Albanian “Team of Unity” involved in the internationally mediated talks. “The Team of Unity is resolute that there will be no talks after December 10,” said Hyseni. Russia, which has backed Serbia’s opposition to the possible independence of Kosovo, said on Wednesday that the December 10 deadline did not signal the end for talks. (AFP)

Serbian police have arrested four former paramilitary fighters suspected of taking part in war crimes against ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo in 1999, a prosecutor said yesterday. The four former members of the notorious Scorpions unit, were arrested Thursday in Sremska Mitrovica, about 80 kilometers (55 miles) northwest of Belgrade, said Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic. The ex-paramilitaries were suspected of participating in the massacre of civilians in Podujevo, northern Kosovo, in March 1999, Vukcevic said. Fourteen ethnic Albanians, including women and children, were gunned down, allegedly by the Scorpions. (AP)

Two people were killed after their helicopter crashed yesterday in a forest in southeastern Romania, authorities said. The helicopter was on its way to the Black Sea resort of Mamaia when it crashed in a forest in Ialomita county and burst into flames. Police and prosecutors were on site to investigate the causes of the accident and identify the victims. (AFP)