BRUSSELS (AFP) – The EU cannot dispense much-needed aid to the isolated Turkish community in northern Cyprus due to the island’s political division, according to the European Commission. “The legal, diplomatic and political context within which the Commission is operating... poses a number of challenges and risks to the successful implementation” of the –259 million (US$367 million) of aid destined for the north of the island, the EU’s executive arm said in a report given to the EU Parliament and member states last week. One of the main obstacles, according to Brussels, is the lack of cooperation between the two sides of the island, divided since 1974. “Political issues not directly related to the aid program per se but rather to the overall political context on the island might induce both communities to block implementation of certain parts of the program,” the Commission said in a statement to the EU Parliament and member states.

ZAGREB (AP) – A retired Croatian medic testified yesterday that he saw the bodies of tortured elderly civilians among dozens of dead Serbs found after a Croatian military offensive in 1993. “Almost all of those liquidated were civilians; no one had weapons or documents,” Colonel Marko Jagetic said in testimony to the war crimes trial of two retired Croatian army generals, Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac. One female body appeared to have been impaled, said Jagetic. Most of the victims had gunshot wounds, but “many wounds also suggested they were tortured or massacred,” he said. Norac and Ademi are charged with responsibility for the killings of about 30 Serb civilians in September 1993, following Zagreb’s offensive to retake land seized by local Serbs during the 1991 war.

So many candidates are running in Bulgaria’s local polls next month that ballots stretch to 2 meters (6-1/2 ft) and won’t fit into the country’s largest envelopes. Authorities said yesterday they will have to import more than 11 million envelopes to accommodate the ballots of unprecedented length. Over 70 parties and coalitions will run for mayors and municipal councilors in some of the 264 constituencies, with one ballot for all candidates. (Reuters)