ANKARA (AFP) – Twenty militants of the outlawed Islamist group Turkish Hezbullah were sentenced to life in jail yesterday for a series of murders the court said aimed to undermine Turkey’s secular system. The court in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, ruled that the defendants sought “to forcefully and violently overthrow the constitutional regime.” Five others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six years to 16 years and eight months; four were acquitted and charges against five others were dropped under the statute of limitations on the case, opened in 1994.

SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria must rein in construction of hotels and resorts for its booming tourist industry to protect endangered nature reserves, conservation group WWF said yesterday. The new EU member’s sandy Black Sea beaches and sparsely populated mountains attract millions of euros’ worth of investment every year in the rush to build up resorts little developed over decades of communist rule. Critics say rampant corruption and weak public administration mean the construction boom threatens the habitats of many rare and endangered species of birds and plants. “Bulgaria has some of the most precious nature zones in Europe, but these are being demolished... We urge you to... take steps to protect the natural treasures of Bulgaria,” WWF said in a letter to Bulgarian authorities.

An elderly man suspected of a series of murders in the USA, Belgium and Albania was discreet, pleasant and always obliging, neighbors in his homeland of Montenegro said. Smail Tulja, 67, lived in Masline, a quiet suburb of the capital Podgorica, for years without giving any indication of his alleged dark past, until local police acted on an FBI tip-off last week. “Since he arrived in the district, ‘Smajo’ was an exemplary neighbor – pleasant, discreet and at pains to help everyone,” said one local resident. Tulja was detained in Podgorica on February 17 on suspicion of having carried out at least seven gruesome murders in the 1990s, five of them in Belgium, and one each in the USA and Albania. DNA tests late last week linked him to the murder of his former wife, Mary Beal, whose mutilated body was found in New York, where he was working as a taxi driver at the time in 1990. (AFP)

The post of Bosnia’s peace overseer is likely to be extended for a year from July, delaying plans to hand the reins to local officials, a spokesman for the current office holder said yesterday. The extension of the mandate of the Office of the High Representative is expected to be agreed upon today, said the spokesman for German Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who is due to step down on June 30. “There appears to be a consensus that the mandate will be extended for a year,” Chris Bennett said. (Reuters)