ISTANBUL (AFP) – Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said yesterday that a planned referendum over the future of Iraq’s ethnically disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk could fuel more turmoil in the country because the Kurds have upset Kirkuk’s demographics. “Because of the population that has been shifted to Kirkuk, the referendum foreseen under constitutional provisions for the end of 2007 will create controversy and render the problem even more difficult,” Sezer said. “We believe the status of Kirkuk should be determined not by a forced referendum but through a formula to which all Iraqi groups will agree without the pressure of a deadline,” he said.

BELGRADE (AP) – A deputy of slain Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was aware of the plan to assassinate him, a witness testified yesterday at the trial of those accused in the 2003 killing. Nebojsa Covic, a moderate politician who served as Djindjic’s deputy, quickly denied the claim as “abominable lies, slander and manipulation” meant to raise political tensions before January elections. The claim came from one of the 12 gangsters and veterans of the 1990s Balkan wars on trial in the killing. The suspect, Dejan Milenkovic, was testifying for the prosecution after striking an unspecified deal.

A jeep stolen from former England skipper David Beckham has been found in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and will be sold at an auction, FYROM television reported yesterday. The vehicle, worth around –100,000 ($130,000), had been confiscated from a FYROM citizen in November 2005, the private Channel 5 TV station said. It was stolen in the Spanish capital, where Beckham plays for Spanish giants Real Madrid, before being transferred to Greece then FYROM, said the report, quoting police sources. (AFP)

Romania’s President Traian Basescu yesterday approved the prime minister’s request to sack Farm Minister Gheorghe Flutur after he sided with a group of dissident politicians within the ruling Liberal party. The dismissal reflects a growing rift in the party, one of the two main groupings in Romania’s centrist coalition, as its ratings deteriorate and centrist politicians jostle for position ahead of potential early elections. (Reuters)