ANKARA (AP) – A clash between troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey’s southeast border with Iraq left 10 rebels and two soldiers dead, the military said on Saturday. The fighting erupted on Friday near Uludere, a town in Sirnak province, when the troops called for the rebels to surrender but were met with gunfire, the military said in a statement on its website. It left the highest number of casualties in a single clash in recent months. The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, have been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people. Kurdish rebels have killed about 80 soldiers since January, most in roadside bomb attacks on military vehicles. Turkey has threatened to invade northern Iraq to eradicate rebel bases there if US or Iraqi forces do not crack down on the PKK. During a visit by Iraq’s prime minister to Ankara last week, Turkey and Iraq agreed to try to root out the rebels.

BLED, Solvenia (Reuters) – The prime ministers of Slovenia and Croatia pledged yesterday to end squabbling over borders, fishing and property which has marred relations since their independence in 1991. Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told reporters after meeting with his Croatian counterpart Ivo Sanader that the two had reached an informal agreement to resolve an argument over their border at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. “We will continue to try and solve all the other unsolved issues ourselves,” he said. “We think we should have some results by the end of this year.” Sanader said the countries had also agreed to deal with each issue separately instead of treating them as a package, which has often blocked progress in the past. European Union member Slovenia and Croatia, which hopes to join the bloc around 2010, were partners in the rebellion that destroyed communist Yugoslavia in 1990s, but have since been unable to solve their bilateral problems.

Two people were killed and five others injured late on Friday in a train accident in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, police said. The accident occurred when a freight train and a locomotive collided near the town of Novi Sad, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital Belgrade. (AFP)