FIERI (AFP) – After threatening to burn themselves, at least 10 Albanian women working in an oil refinery said yesterday they would divorce as the management decided that only one family member could be employed by the company. “Choosing between my husband and my work, I choose my job,” one of the women, Hasije Nure, told AFP. Nure, a 39-year-old employee of the refinery in Ballsh, near the southern town of Fieri, 110 kilometers (65 miles) from the capital Tirana, together with her nine colleagues filed for divorce in a local court yesterday. The management of Ballsh refinery earlier this month decided it would cut its work force as only one family member could be employed. Protesting against the company’s decision, many workers threatened to commit suicide last week. Several women have even walked around the refinery with bottles full of petrol, threatening to burn themselves.

PODGORICA (AFP) – Almost three-quarters of the people in the former Yugoslav republic of Montenegro support their country’s bid to become a member of the European Union, a survey showed yesterday. “This process is positively supported by 73 percent of citizens who fully agree that Montenegro should aspire to full membership in the EU,” said Zlatko Vujovic of the CEMI pollster agency. Only 5 percent out of the 1,020 polled were “partially or fully against the European integration,” Vujovic told reporters. Vujovic said that 51 percent of Montenegrin citizens consider that membership of NATO would be “useful” for the Balkan state. “Some 45 percent consider that Montenegro should become a full NATO member, while 31 percent are partially or fully against this move,” Vujovic said.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Romanian food producers and main supermarkets agreed yesterday to make retail pricing more transparent in a bid to lower prices and shield consumers from the global rise in food costs. Under an agreement put forward by the government, producers will have more flexibility in setting prices, now largely dictated by big retailers, Agriculture Ministry officials said. “The new rules are aimed at boosting competition in the market, eventually leading to lower food prices,” said Georgiana Tanase, media adviser at the Ministry. Like other countries in Eastern Europe, Romania is struggling to ease poverty while combating pressures from global price rises and rampant consumer spending, which have pushed inflation as high as 8.6 percent this year.

Roger Federer moved to within two victories of a record sixth successive Wimbledon title yesterday when he crushed Croatia’s Mario Ancic 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in a brutally one-sided quarterfinal. Top seed Federer, who will face either Spain’s Feliciano Lopez or former world No 1 Marat Safin for a place in the final, moved into an impressive 17th consecutive Grand Slam semifinal, a run stretching back over four years. Ancic, a former top 10 player who’s still feeling his way back after battling glandular fever and injury, was the last man to beat Federer on grass here in 2002. He’s paid a heavy price, losing all six subsequent meetings. (AFP)

Serbia’s state JAT Airways will open its first scheduled service with neighboring Croatia since a war ended commercial flights between the two Balkan states in the early 1990s. A JAT statement issued yesterday said that Serbia’s flag carrier will start flying from Belgrade to Pula on Croatia’s northern Adriatic coast today. The twice-a-week service will continue throughout the summer tourist season until August 31. (AP)

The chief executive of Bulgaria’s farming agency announced his resignation yesterday after the European Commission suspended 93.5 million euros (150 million dollars) in EU agricultural subsidies. Dimitar Tadarakov, the head of the agency which oversees subsidy payments to farmers, told a press conference that he did not feel personally responsible for “the tough situation that Bulgarian farmers were facing...” (AFP)