MADRID (Reuters) - Spain plans to let Bulgarians and Romanians come to work freely two years after they join the European Union, as it did for EU members who joined in 2004, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said yesterday. Britain and Ireland have said they will restrict the influx of migrant workers from the two countries due to join the EU in January, a change from the open-door policy they adopted toward other Eastern Europeans. “Spain has had a very clear policy. For the first 10 members, we had a two-year period of limits and then, in a natural and normal way, lifted those restrictions to allow the free movement of people,” Moratinos told a breakfast meeting.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Poor hygiene and neglect led to the infection of hundreds of Libyan children with HIV, the defense said in closing remarks yesterday at the retrial of six foreign medics accused of deliberately infecting the children. Five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor Ashraf Alhajouj, who have been in custody since 1999, face a possible death sentence on charges they intentionally infected 426 Libyan children with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi. The hearing was adjourned until Saturday, November 4.

Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul has signaled Turkey’s intention to buy 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in a multibillion-dollar procurement project, Turkish newspapers reported yesterday. Gonul told Turkish reporters during an official visit to the USA that Turkey and eight other countries involved in the F-35 project would sign a memorandum of understanding by the end of November. The minister was speaking after talks with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Gordon England on topics ranging from combating terrorism to the Turkish military’s procurement projects. (AFP)

Bosnian Serbs will not give up their own police force even if it means an end of talks about EU membership for Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Bosnian-Serb prime minister said yesterday. “If we will have to choose between the European Union and the police of Republika Srpska, we will choose the police of Republika Srpska,” Bosnian-Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik told the Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje yesterday. (AP)

Seven members of a Turkish second-division soccer team were hospitalized, two in serious condition, after lightning struck their pitch during training in Alanya, a popular resort on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, yesterday. The injured were six players and a staff member responsible for equipment, said the manager of the Alanyaspor club, Mevluthan Cavusoglu. Two of the players lost consciousness and were in serious condition. (AFP)