BELGRADE (Reuters) - Just 12 percent of Serbs believe Serbia will hold on to its Kosovo province, according to the results of an opinion poll published yesterday that fly in the face of Belgrade’s official line. Fifty-eight percent said they wanted the UN-administered province to remain part of Serbia, but few believe it is a realistic expectation, said pollster Marko Blagojevic. According to the CeSID poll, conducted from August 26-September 5, 36 percent said they expected independence and 17 percent thought the territory would be split in two, with Serbia taking a thin slice of mainly Serb land in the north. Only 12 percent thought Kosovo would remain an autonomous region of Serbia, while 29 percent were unsure.

STRASBOURG (AFP) - A Bulgarian observer to the EU parliament in Strasbourg was embroiled in an embarrassing scandal yesterday over a racist and sexist e-mail insulting a Hungarian Euro MP. Hans-Gert Poettering, president of the European People’s Party (EPP), immediately called for the observer Dimitar Stoyanov to be kicked off his country’s delegation. In the e-mail sent to parliamentarians here on Thursday, Stoyanov complained that Livia Jaroka, a Hungarian European deputy of Roma origins, had been named “Best Parliamentarian 2006” by the parliament’s magazine. “In my country there are tens of thousand Gypsy girls way more beautiful than this honorable one... The best of them are very expensive - up to 5,000 euros a piece. Wow!” he wrote.

A 25-year-old Turkish man was sentenced to life imprisonment by a German court yesterday for murdering his sister in a so-called honor killing because she was in a relationship with a German. The man, named as Ali K., killed his 20-year-old sister Gonul in June last year with shots to the head and stomach after he found out she was romantically involved with a German man. (AFP)

The Bulgarian government said yesterday it had approved a proposal to send a 160-crew frigate to bolster the larger UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. The decision must still be approved by parliament. (AFP)