ZAGREB (AFP) – Kosovo’s prime minister said yesterday that he hoped the Serbian province would gain independence in a matter of weeks, while ruling out a future union with neighboring Albania. “I sincerely hope that Kosovo will be independent very soon,” Agim Ceku told Croatian national television HRT, adding that it could come in a few weeks. As for the possibility of forming a union with Albania, Ceku said Kosovo was more interested in EU membership. “There is only one plan for a union, with the European Union,” he said.

TUNCELI (Reuters) – Two Turkish soldiers and two Kurdistan Workers’ Party guerrillas were killed late on Saturday in southeast Turkey, officials said yesterday. The governor of the province of Sirnak, which borders Iraq, said in a statement that two soldiers had been killed in clashes in the province, while a security official said two militants had been killed in Hatay, which borders Syria. The security official said yesterday fighting was most intense in the border areas.

A second person has died following a crash during the Gumball 3000 rally, and a British race driver blamed for the accident was stopped trying to leave the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Hospital officials in Skopje on Saturday said the wife of a man killed in Wednesday’s accident had also died after suffering critical injuries. British driver Nicholas Morley, 30, was charged with endangering traffic and abandoning an accident victim. He was released from custody in the southern town of Ohrid late Friday after being granted bail set at –25,000 ($33,900). Within hours of that decision, authorities said they stopped Morley at an airport in Skopje as he was preparing to board a private jet. (AP)

Two deputy ministers in Bulgaria’s center-left government were dismissed Saturday while Economy Minister Rumen Ovcharov was told to take leave. All three are implicated in a corruption investigation that is the first in Bulgaria to involve high-ranking government officials. Ovcharov’s deputy Kormelia Ninova, and Deputy Minister of Disaster Management Delyan Peevski were named as the other dismissed officials. (AFP)

Some 12,000 Romanians rallied in the Black Sea city of Constanta yesterday, voicing support for suspended President Traian Basescu, who faces an impeachment referendum later this month. “Basescu, president!” shouted the supporters, who had traveled to the demonstration from eight counties. Addressing lawmakers, who voted 322-108 to suspend Basescu last month on grounds that he violated the constitution, the demonstrators yelled “Thieves!” (AP)

The verdict in the trial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of slandering two Libyan police officers by saying they were tortured will be delivered on May 27. The decision was made during a brief hearing yesterday that saw defense lawyers try unsuccessfully to get the case dismissed. (AFP)