BELGRADE (AFP) – A woman in her 50s pictured smiling at the fake Dr Dragan Dabic has denied being the mistress of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, a Serbian newspaper reported yesterday. “I did not hide Radovan Karadzic. I was not his mistress,” Mila Cicak told the Vecernje Novosti. Some Serb newspapers had speculated about a relationship between Cicak and Karadzic. “I did not know Radovan Karadzic, I knew Dragan Dabic, a doctor who introduced me to the world of alternative medicine,” she said. Cicak said she was shocked to learn that Dabic was Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader wanted for war crimes since 1995. “I want to get out of this hell as soon as possible,” Cicak told the newspaper, which said she had locked herself in her apartment with the blinds shut.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s military said yesterday its fighter jets hit 12 Kurdish separatist targets in northern Iraq’s Qandil region in an operation that started at midnight. The army general staff said in a statement on its website that all the planes had returned safely to their bases and that it was working to confirm “terrorist casualties.”

Three people, including a Defense Ministry employee, were charged with murder in Albania on Friday regarding an accident that caused massive explosions at an ammunition disposal factory that killed 26 people and injured 300, the prosecutor general’s office said. The series of massive explosions at the depot near the capital, Tirana, in March also left about 5,500 homes destroyed or damaged. On Friday, Ylli Pinari of the Defense Ministry’s Meico arms sale company was charged with murder, along with Mihal Delijorgji, owner of the Alb Demil ammunition disposal company, and his manager, Dritan Minxholli. (AP)

A Romanian immigrant has given birth to her 18th child in British Columbia, making her the province’s most prolific mother in 20 years. Proud dad Alexandru Ionce said Saturday that his 44-year-old wife, Livia, gave birth on Tuesday. Their daughter Abigail weighs in at seven pounds, 12 ounces (3.5 kilograms). The Abbotsford couple’s 17 other children range in age from 20 months to 23 years old. (AP)