NORTHERN IRAQ - Turkish troops pushed deeper than ever into northern Iraq yesterday, the ninth day of a drive against Kurdish separatist guerrillas which Baghdad has dismissed as a pointless pursuit of "ghosts". The Turkish military claimed 49 rebels had been killed.
Meanwhile in Geneva, some 200 Kurds held a five-hour occupation of part of the UN European headquarters in protest at the Turkish army's incursion into Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. They agreed to go after negotiations with UN officials during which they were promised a statement by the Secretary- General, Mr Kofi Annan, condemning Turkey's cross-border incursion, a spokesman for the protesters said.
In Ankara, Turkey's ruling Islamists said they would take action against the country's top prosecutor for attempting to close the offices of the Prime Minister, Mr Necmettin Erbakan's Welfare Party as a threat to the secular order.