ANKARA (AP) - Turkey's top court says it will begin deliberating on whether to shut down the Islamic-rooted ruling party on Monday. Turkey's chief prosecutor wants Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party banned and 71 party members barred from party politics for five years on charges of undermining the country's secular system. The Constitutional Court is expected to deliver a verdict days after its deliberations begin. A court adviser last week recommended that the party not be disbanded.

BERLIN(AFP) - Police have arrested a suspected leader of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) at Detmold in the west of the country, German federal prosecutors said yesterday. The 47-year-old man, who was not identified, is thought to have been the leader of the PKK in Germany up until June, said a statement. He had also been accused of having forced a 21-year-old woman in August 2007 to have an abortion after she had an affair with another PKK leader in Germany. (AFP)

TIRANA (AP) - Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha reshuffled his cabinet yesterday, filling the post of his deputy, left vacant in the aftermath of a deadly arms depot explosions in March. Berisha also named new ministers of health and education. Outgoing Education Minister Genc Pollo becomes the new deputy prime minister. The position was left vacant in March when Gazmend Oketa moved to the defense minister's post. Berisha fired the previous defense minister, Fatmir Mediu, following a massive series of explosions on March 15 at an ammunition disposal factory near the capital, Tirana. The blasts killed at least 26 people and injured more than 300.

Turkey allowed Iraq to restart around a fifth of its oil exports yesterday after halting the flow for a day pending the payment of a $100 million debt. Iraq pumps around 430,000 barrels per day (bpd) of its nearly 2 million bpd of oil exports through its northern pipeline to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Turkish state pipeline operator Botas ordered the restart to loadings from Ceyhan yesterday after Iraq paid half the debt, a senior Botas source said. «Iraq has an outstanding debt to Turkey long overdue,» the Botas source said. «Yesterday Botas notified Iraq officially that if the debt is not repaid, all loadings will be stopped, and Botas stopped loadings yesterday. After this payment, Botas ordered loadings to start again.» (Reuters)

The European Commission proposed yesterday lifting European Union restrictions on Bulgarian airlines, on the eve of a report due to condemn corruption and mismanagement of European funds in the country. Bulgaria joined the EU in January 2007 but is subject to air traffic restrictions because of safety and staff problems with its Civil Aviation Authority. The Commission said it had sent EU member states «a proposal to lift the safeguard clauses imposed on Bulgaria in the area of aviation» to be considered at a meeting of justice ministers on July 25. (AFP)

The United States wants the international community to regain control over Kosovo's «lawless» northern, Serb-dominated region, a senior US diplomat said yesterday. «The north of Kosovo is now a lawless area,» US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs Daniel Fried told AFP. «There has to be a presence in the north.» «We can't allow the situation in Kosovo to drift. Things will start to deteriorate. We can't wait,» said Fried, who was in Brussels for talks with EU and NATO officials. Fried said the «reconfiguration» of the roles played by the UN peacekeeping mission in Kosovo known as UNMIK and the European Union's EULEX police and justice operation, in which the US plays a role, «has to happen.» (AFP)

Romania striker Adrian Mutu says he will always be haunted by the penalty he missed against Italy in the European Championship. The Fiorentina player's penalty kick was acrobatically saved by goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, salvaging a 1-1 draw that eventually led to Italy reaching the quarterfinals while Romania was eliminated. «I can see (the missed penalty) now. I don't think I will ever forget it,» Mutu was quoted as saying yesterday in the weekly Fanatik. «I was in a crisis for two weeks after it. That kick kept playing in my mind in an obsessive way.» (AP)