SOFIA (AFP) - The defense team for five Bulgarian nurses accused of infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV-tainted blood claims psychological torture measures were used against the nurses, Bulgarian newspapers reported yesterday. According to reports confirmed by the Foreign Ministry, the defense gave the court in Tripoli a list of 211 instances in which the nurses were subjected to psychological pressure. The torture claims were “particularly important to disprove the accusations.”

ZAGREB (AP) - NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said yesterday that Croatia, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) would likely get a positive signal on their prospects for membership in the alliance at its next meeting, in November. The three Balkan nations are hoping to be folded into the alliance when it next takes on new members, probably in 2008. Their joint bid is backed by the US and others, but there have been suggestions that a target date for taking in new members could be pushed back to 2010.

The Turkish government yesterday rejected local press reports that a mass cull of chickens had spurred an increase in deadly ticks that have killed at least 11 people this year. Some zoologists said in newspaper reports that the killing of chickens that eat ticks harmed environmental balances, causing a rise in the number of ticks. “The number of poultry culled in the provinces is around 70,000. This is not a number that can affect the tick population,” the ministry said in a statement. (Reuters)

A delivery vehicle carrying bread to military police near the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir exploded yesterday, killing the driver, the Anatolia news agency reported. The explosion was believed to have been caused by a bomb placed on the vehicle and then activated by remote control, Anatolia said, citing security officials. The explosion occurred in the town of Dicle as the delivery vehicle was approaching its destination, a military police station. (AP)

Croatia continued to set records in the number of tourists drawn mainly to its Adriatic coast during the first six months of the year, the national tourist board said yesterday. More than 2.8 million tourists - mostly Germans, Austrians, Slovenians and Italians - visited Croatia between January and June, a board statement said. It is a 5 percent increase compared with the same period last year. (AFP)

Bosnia’s presidency yesterday agreed on the structure and size of the country’s new armed forces - comprising the three ethnic groups who fought against each other in the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Under the new structure, Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosniaks will serve together. (AP)