BELGRADE (AP) - Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica yesterday told a coalition member to back the government or leave the ruling coalition, days after the party refused to support important legislation. Threatening the stability of his government, Kostunica demanded that all officials from the Social Democratic Party resign from posts they hold in state institutions and that the party formally leave the ruling coalition. The Social Democrats refused and challenged Kostunica to test whether his government would still have majority support in Parliament without the small party’s two lawmakers. In a statement, Kostunica lashed out at the rebellious coalition partner, which earlier this week refused to back a law on restructuring and privatization of the state oil company. “One cannot be both in power and in opposition,” he said.

ISTANBUL (AFP) - A conference questioning the official line on the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, aborted after Turkey’s justice minister branded it an act of treason, will go ahead in September, organizers said yesterday. The event, baptized “Ottoman Armenians of an Empire in Decline,” has been scheduled for September 23-25 at Istanbul’s Bogazici University. Featuring academics and intellectuals who dispute Ankara’s version of the 1915-1917 killings, the conference was postponed in May after Justice Minister Cemil Cicek condemned the initiative as “treason” and a “stab in the back of the Turkish nation.” The outburst raised eyebrows in European diplomatic circles about Ankara’s commitment to EU-oriented reforms. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has now agreed to address the conference, reports said yesterday.

Albania’s governing Socialist Party acknowledged for the first time yesterday that it had lost the July 3 parliamentary elections, while its government fired two top officials whose parties joined ranks with the vote’s winners. The opposition Democratic Party and its new allies will control 80 seats in the next 140-member Parliament, according to results announced this week after three last by-elections. Final results are expected by September 2, opening the way for a Democrat-led coalition to form a new government. The Socialists admitted to losing with a front-page headline in their party paper that read: “Yes, we Socialists lost the election.” (AP)

Seven people died and eight were reported missing after heavy rains battered central areas of Romania overnight, the Interior Ministry said yesterday. The latest casualties brought the death toll over the past week to 25, with nine missing. The seven latest victims were all elderly people who were swept away by the raging waters. The flood waters inundated 1,400 houses, mostly in the departments of Harghita and Mures in central Romania, forcing the evacuations of dozens of families. (AFP)