● <B> SLOVAKIA. </B>Plane crash kills three Croats. Three Croats died when their small plane crashed near the Slovak capital Bratislava yesterday, police said. The Cessna aircraft was flying to have a regular mechanical service inspection in Slovakia, Pavel Brath, Bratislava region police chief, told the news television channel TA3. The three dead men were the 53-year-old pilot, a 35-year-old flight engineer and a 19-year-old flight student, Brath said, adding they were all from Croatia. In Croatia, the transport ministry said the plane crashed about 1 km (0.6 miles) from the airport. The plane was owned by Croatia?s retail company Getro.

● <B>TURKEY. </B>Shipwreck off coast kills 40 migrants. At least 40 illegal migrants were killed when a boat carrying about 70 people capsized off the Turkish Aegean coast on Saturday, CNN Turk said yesterday. Six people, including two Palestinians, have been rescued, Orhan Sefik Guldibi, a district governor in the coastal Izmir province told state-run Anatolian news agency. Guldibi said strong winds had made the rescue operation more difficult. Rescued migrants said there had been about 70 people in the boat when it sank shortly after setting sail for Greece from the Turkish coast on Saturday.

● <B>SAUDI ARABIA. </B>Car makers target women despite driving ban. Saudi Arabia, which imposes a strict version of Islamic law, is the only country in the world where women are banned from driving. Religious authorities say allowing women to drive would lead to gender-mixing and take women away from their role as child-rearers. But industry figures at the Riyadh Motor Show 2008 this week said they are already reaping the benefits from women owning cars, even if they need chauffeurs to drive them. Some residents believe the rising sales could create more pressure on the authorities to sanction women driving. King Abdullah has said such a change could happen when society is ready to accept it. The ban on women?s driving has been a hot topic of debate since the king came to power in 2005 promising reforms.