DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AFP) – Suspected Kurdish rebels shot dead four civilians and wounded seven others on Saturday in a village in eastern Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported. The attack happened at 1630 GMT in a village in the province of Bingol, said the report. The agency said the attack appeared to have been carried out by the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), but provincial governor Irfan Balkanlioglu did not rule out a vendetta between rival families. The Turkish army killed four PKK rebels in Bingol and the southeast province of Hakkari and two Kurdish rebels and two soldiers were killed the previous night in fighting, security sources said.

BELGRADE (AFP) – Serbian police have arrested a man suspected of having threatened to kill the country’s deputy prime minister, said a police statement quoted by Tanjug news on Saturday. The suspect, identified only by the initials P. M., was arrested Friday after making a threat against Ivica Dacic, said police, Tanjug reported. The suspect had been transferred to Belgrade’s public prosecutor’s office for interrogation, the statement added. It gave no details as to the precise nature of the threat. Dacic, as well as being deputy prime minister, serves as interior minister in the new coalition government. He is also president of the Socialist Party, the party founded by the country’s former president, the late Slobodan Milosevic.

Serbia’s pro-Western foreign minister announced plans yesterday to reinstate the country’s ambassadors to EU countries that have recognized Kosovo’s independence. The aim is to improve relations between Serbia’s pro-Western government and the EU, because Belgrade hopes to eventually join the 27-nation bloc, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said. Twenty EU countries, including Britain, France, Germany and Italy, recognized Kosovo’s statehood after it declared independence from Serbia on February 17. Serbia’s government responded by recalling its envoys from those countries. Jeremic said he will make a formal proposal to the government at a session next week to reinstate them. He said he expected a “unanimous positive decision” on the issue. (AP)

Several thousand protesters thronged Istanbul on Saturday to demonstrate against government prosecution of a hardline secularist network uniting military, media and business figures, local media reported. The Ergenekon nationalist network is accused by the ruling Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) of seeking to overthrow the government, with charges against 86 people being laid this week. The rally – which occurred without any reported incidents – was called by the Ataturk Thought Association (ATA) and held on the Asian shore of the Bosporus. Protesters held aloft the Turkish flag and chanted slogans denouncing the AKP. “With this investigation, they are trying to put pressure on the Kemalists,” ATA Vice-President Sina Aksin told the Anatolia news agency, referring to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern, secular Turkey. (AFP)