ISTANBUL (AFP) - A radiation leak detected after a fire destroyed a cargo terminal at Turkey’s biggest airport has been contained with no threat to people or the environment, officials said Saturday. The blaze at Ataturk Airport, on Istanbul’s European side, damaged containers holding medical equipment which included the radioactive isotope iodine-131, the Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK) said in a statement. “The radioactive sources were covered in cement in order to prevent a possible contamination,” the statement said. The head of TAEK, Okay Cakiroglu, told the Anatolia news agency that cement acted as a shield against radiation and that there was no indication of any danger. “We have no findings that point to a threat to our people or the environment,” he said.

ISTANBUL (AP) - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni began a visit to Turkey yesterday with a tour of an Istanbul synagogue attacked in 2003 by al-Qaida-linked suicide bombers who killed more than 60 people. Livni arrived in Turkey yesterday for a two-day visit that is expected to include discussions on bilateral ties, the Hamas-led Palestinian government and Iran’s nuclear program. The visit is the first time that Turkish and Israeli ministers will meet since a brief rift between Israel and Turkey sparked by Ankara’s hosting of Khaled Mashaal, the exiled political leader of Hamas. Livni is scheduled to travel to Ankara today for meetings with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.

Bulgarian police charged two men on Saturday for illegally distributing music and films in what officials called one of Europe’s largest Internet pirate groups. They arrested an administrator and systems operator for putting download links to 20 million songs — or roughly 3 million albums — and hundreds of films on the website www.arenabg.com, one of Bulgaria’s most popular pages. Users could download as many of the songs and films as they liked after paying a 4-lev (2-euro) monthly fee. Authorities estimate the damage to the entertainment industry at around $30 million. (Reuters)

Bosnian and French officials and soldiers came to Sarajevo on Saturday to honor two French soldiers killed here 11 years ago in a clash that was a turning point in French policy over the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. The Muslim chairman of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, Sulejman Tihic, and French Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Hamlaoui Mekachera attended the ceremony on a bridge in downtown Sarajevo where French soldiers serving with UN peacekeepers clashed with Bosnian-Serb soldiers. (AFP)