PARIS (Reuters) – France wants some parts of Turkey’s accession talks with the European Union to go ahead before others, with those that assume Ankara will join the bloc waiting until later, a government spokesman said yesterday. “There are 35 packages, 35 subjects, to be debated – 30 that are only on the subject of Turkey’s association, and five that have to do with membership,” government spokesman Laurent Wauquiez told a news conference after a cabinet meeting. “France’s request is that we first discuss the 30 packages concerning association.” French President Nicolas Sarkozy was still opposed to Turkey joining the EU, Wauquiez said, but did not want to “break” the 27-nation bloc over the issue.

BELGRADE (AFP) – At least 17,000 people are still missing from the wars that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, the International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday. More than 13,400 of those missing were from Bosnia’s war, some 2,300 from Croatia’s conflict and 2,047 from strife in Kosovo, the ICRC said in a statement. The figures showing a total of 17,882 open missing persons cases were released the ahead of International Day of the Disappeared today.

A small opposition party in Turkey asked prosecutors yesterday to launch a probe into new President Abdullah Gul over a funding scandal in a now-defunct Islamist party to which he belonged, a report said. The Labor Party argued that Gul, who was elected president Tuesday, is no longer a parliament member with judicial immunity and should be investigated over the scandal that dates back to the 1990s when Gul was deputy chairman of the Welfare Party, the Anatolia news agency reported. “The investigation which was on hold because of his immunity, should start immediately,” Labor Deputy Chairman Mehmet Cengiz told reporters. (AFP)

A fire broke out yesterday in the western part of the Croatian island of Hvar, prompting the evacuation of tourists from a camp, authorities said. A 50-year-old firefighter fell ill and died at the scene, said local police spokeswoman Marina Kraljevic Gudelj. An autopsy will determine the cause of his death, she said. At one point, the fire threatened a camp and houses in the villages of Sveta Nedjelja and Ivan Dolac, and authorities decided to move tourists to a safer location, said chief firefighter Mate Jelic. Strong winds spread the fire through the pine woods above the villages but firefighters managed to keep the fire at bay, he said. (AP)

The corpse of an elderly Croatian man has been discovered in his Zagreb flat more than eight years after his disappearance, a daily reported yesterday. The remains are believed to be those of Ivan Bosanac, reported missing by his nephew in February 1999, but were only found by his neighbor on Monday, the Vecernji List reported. (AFP)