WESTERN EUROPE

TURKEY PLEDGES TO PASS REFORMS

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Turkey assured the European Union yesterday it would pass critical penal code reforms this weekend, a move E.U. officials said would clear the way to opening membership talks with Ankara. The E.U. has said the reforms – which include laws against rape, pedophilia, and torture, and improvements in human rights standards – are essential for Turkey to meet entry requirements.

But the reform package was held up in Parliament earlier this month by government attempts to introduce a provision outlawing adultery – a move supported by conservative Islamic groups in Turkey. The E.U. threatened that a ban on adultery could jeopardize Turkey’s entry into the union and warned the government it was unlikely to start membership talks without the reform package being approved. The Turkish government then withdrew the entire reform package to reconsider. But yesterday, Prime Minister Erdogan met the E.U. enlargement chief, Guenter Verheugen, and the European Commission president, Romano Prodi, to assure them the Turkish Parliament will hold an emergency session Sunday to pass the reform package.

– Associated Press

BRAZIL DENIES INSPECTORS ACCESS TO FACILITIES

VIENNA, Austria – Brazil has emphasized that its commitment to an international treaty meant to stop the spread of nuclear weapons may not be open-ended, and it continues to resist giving U.N. inspectors access to facilities that can make such weapons, diplomats said yesterday. Brazil made the comments at the general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency this week, said the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Brazil signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1997 and said its own atomic program had peaceful objectives. But Eduardo Campos, Brazil’s minister of science and technology, told the IAEA session Wednesday that his country approved the treaty on condition of a “cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date, and to the complete elimination of all atomic weapons.”

The treaty calls on nuclear-armed nations to disarm as quickly as possible. This comes at a time when Brazil disagrees with the agency on how to inspect its uranium enrichment program – technology that can be used to make nuclear arms.

– Associated Press

WOMAN GIVES BIRTH AFTER OVARIAN TISSUE TRANSPLANT

LONDON – The first baby conceived after an ovarian tissue transplant was born yesterday in Belgium in a procedure that could one day allow women to delay motherhood beyond menopause.

The birth, announced by the Lancet medical journal, which is to publish the results of the procedure Friday, marks the first time fertility has been restored to a woman after doctors cut out and froze some of her ovarian tissue and transplanted it back into her body years later.

One pioneer in the field was cautious about the report, saying there is a small chance the baby came from the existing ovaries rather than the transplanted tissue. However, he said the doctors from Catholic University in Louvain, Belgium, made a strong case that the birth resulted from the transplant. The technique has worked in monkeys, but until now has not resulted in a successful pregnancy in humans.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

U.S. SOLDIER WOUNDED IN FIGHTING

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – American troops clashed with terrorists in southern Afghanistan, killing at least two fighters, and a rocket attack on the main American base in the country wounded an American soldier, officials said yesterday.

The shootout was sparked when two men on a motorcycle refused to stop when American troops confronted them near Poshakan village in the southern province of Uruzgan province, a hotspot for American troops battling Taliban terrorists, the local mayor said. The two men were killed in the fight Wednesday, said Mayor Haji Obaidullah, identifying one of the dead as the local Taliban commander Mullah Dur Mohammad. Mr. Obaidullah said Afghan forces arrested another Taliban commander, Mullah Usman, during a search operation on Tuesday in nearby Kalatak village. The American military said it was involved in a battle in Uruzgan on Wednesday that left one insurgent dead. It was unclear if it was the same incident.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

JAPAN: PYONGYANG MAY BE PREPARING MISSILE LAUNCH

TOKYO – Japan said yesterday it had obtained intelligence indicating that North Korea may be preparing to test fire a short-range missile that could reach most of the main Japanese islands, in what would be the latest provocation from the communist country. Government officials convened an emergency task-force team in the prime minister’s office after intelligence showed that North Korea appeared to be beefing up troops and equipment around missile launch bases, said Shigemi Terui, spokesman at the prime minister’s office. Prime Minister Koizumi downplayed the news upon his return from an overseas trip, however, saying he did not believe Pyongyang would conduct such a test.

South Korea said missile-related activities had been detected in the North by the American and South Korean militaries. “There is a high possibility that these were part of the annual, routine activities of North Korean missile units,” said the deputy unification minister, Rhee Bong-jo, in Seoul.

– Associated Press