BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian President Traian Basescu said yesterday that snap elections by September would grant the new centrist government a stronger mandate to fight graft and bring the country into the EU in 2007. The outspoken former sea captain said he would discuss this with Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu but would not force his view. «I think immediately after we sign the accession treaty, in May, June, no later than September, we must organize early elections,» Basescu told Reuters in an interview.

PRISTINA (AP) - The head of the British Army said yesterday the length of time his country's small contingent of troops will stay in Kosovo will depend on events in the disputed province. Gen. Mike Jackson, who arrived in the UN-run province late Monday, was visiting British soldiers and inspecting the situation in Kosovo ahead of planned discussions on the final status of the province later this year. «I think it's clear that there is a sense in the international community that Kosovo's current status... cannot go on indefinitely,» Jackson said.

Police acting on an international arrest warrant have traced a Turkish father and son who are wanted in a massive business fraud case, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said in an interview in the daily newspaper Hurriyet yesterday. Cicek did not specify in which country Kemal Uzan and his son Hakan had been uncovered by Interpol, but newspapers have in the past said the two were likely in Jordan. The minister said that Turkey was seeking their return «through legal and political means.» (AFP)

Indicted Serb general Sreten Lukic's health is not an obstacle to his possible transfer to the United Nations war crimes tribunal according to UN doctors who examined him, Belgrade radio B-92 reported yesterday. There was no official confirmation of the report. (Reuters)

At least four people died and more than a dozen others were hospitalized after being poisoned by an illegally produced liquor that they drank at an Istanbul restaurant, officials said yesterday. Police yesterday raided a makeshift distillery for raki, an anise-flavored drink very similar to Greece's ouzo, and detained nine people. (AP)