ANKARA (AP) - Turkish forces have killed four Kurdish rebels in two days of clashes in southeastern Turkey, officials said yesterday. One other rebel was captured in the fighting. The clashes, near the town of Besiri, in Batman province, erupted when a group of some 20 rebels ignored calls for their surrender and opened fire on the troops, a local official said, on condition of anonymity. Fighting in the region was continuing, the official said, but he did not elaborate. The clashes come a week after the rebels declared a month-long unilateral ceasefire to seek indirect dialogue with the government.

BELGRADE (AP) - A ruling coalition party called for Serbia-Montenegro’s defense minister to be sacked yesterday, accusing him of doing a poor job in running the military. The G17 Plus party said in a statement that appointing Prvoslav Davinic, himself a top G17 Plus party official, had been a mistake and that he should be removed from the post. The call followed Davinic’s clash with G17 Plus deputy leader and Serbia’s finance minister, Mladjan Dinkic, who has accused the defense minister of failing to control the military budget.

A Turkish computer hacker sought by the FBI on suspicion of attacking the websites of several well-known companies and media outlets was charged with cyber fraud yesterday. Police captured the 23-year-old suspected hacker, identified as Atilla E., in the southern city of Adana on Thursday, nearly a month after the FBI asked for help from Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported. The companies whose websites he is accused of attacking include Microsoft, CNN International, ABC television and The New York Times, according to officials. (AP)

The mayor of Albania’s capital Tirana yesterday called on Prime Minister Fatos Nano to quit as Socialist Party leader after his leftist coalition lost parliamentary elections. The opposition Democratic Party and its allies will control 80 seats in the next 140-member Parliament, according to results announced this week after three recent by-elections. Final results are expected September 2, opening the way for a Democrat-led coalition to form a new government. In an interview published yesterday, Socialist mayor Edi Rama told the party newspaper Zeri i Popullit: “(Nano) should leave such a post looking ahead and not behind.” Nano was blamed for internal rifts after a new leftist party took many votes from the ruling Socialist coalition. (AP)