SOFIA (AFP) – Pensioners in Bulgaria, who traditionally take over babysitting duties when their children return to their jobs, will get paid the minimum wage to look after their grandchildren, starting January 1. Parliament passed an amendment to the country’s Employment Encouragement law on Thursday “to help young parents better combine their professional and family engagements.” In a bid to boost its falling birthrate, Bulgaria already introduced measures in 2006 allowing parents to take 315 days’ leave – the longest in all of Europe – while continuing to earn 90 percent of their salaries. The government also agreed to pay the minimum wage to previously unemployed women hired by parents to babysit for them during the first two years after birth. The amendment allows grandparents to look after a baby during its first three years in return for a 240-leva (123-euro) bonus to their pensions, which is equal to the minimum wage in Bulgaria.

BELGRADE (AP) – Serbian authorities say they have taken custody of the remains of four non-Serbs allegedly killed by ethnic Albanian rebels during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo. The Serbian government’s commission for missing persons says the handover took place yesterday at the border between Serbia and Kosovo in the presence of the victims’ families.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Kosovo’s foreign minister warned that the Serbian president’s idea of splitting Kosovo along ethnic lines was “very dangerous” and could lead to a new conflict. “Playing with borders in the Balkans has always been dangerous and continues to be dangerous,” Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni told a news conference Thursday. “In the Balkans... only a handful of crazy people are needed to start a war.” He was commenting on Serbian President Boris Tadic’s suggestion this week that he would consider dividing Kosovo by absorbing the small, Serb-dominated portions from ethnic Albanian areas if Belgrade can’t stop the territory from winning full independence.

Bulgaria has chosen German power giant RWE to help finance and run a new nuclear plant on the Danube River, Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov announced yesterday. The Bulgarian National Electricity Company’s directors “ranked the offers for a strategic investor in the Belene plant and RWE came first,” Dimitrov told a press conference. (AFP)

A lawyer for a Croatian general suspected of embezzling gems used in wartime arms deals says his client declined to defend himself before a judge, insisting the prosecution first prove its accusations. A judge questioned General Vladimir Zagorec yesterday, but lawyer Zvonimir Hodak says Zagorec used his right to remain silent. The judge will recommend to prosecutors whether there is enough evidence to bring the case to trial. Hodak says the claim that Zagorec, once a deputy defense minister, seized $5 million (3.5 million euros’) worth of jewels is “pure fiction.” The gems were allegedly used as collateral for the purchase of arms for Croatia in the 1990s. (AP)

Bulgarian authorities incinerated yesterday 638 kilos of illicit drugs, seized at border checkpoints and during police raids in recent years, the customs agency said in a statement. The load included 228 kilos of heroin, 186 kilos of amphetamines, 55 kilos of ecstasy and 168 kilos of marijuana, it added. (AFP)

Croatian police said yesterday that along with Canada they have dismantled a drug-smuggling ring, seizing 411 kilos of norephedrine, a chemical used to produce amphetamines. A shipment of 188 kilos was seized in June in the port of Rijeka, while a further 223 kg was seized in Montreal, Canada, two days later, but the information was kept secret due to an ongoing operation, a police spokeswoman told AFP. (AFP)