TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya will impose a trade embargo on Bulgaria for what it calls Sofia's failure to take responsibility for the infection of hundreds of Libyan children with HIV, a government official said yesterday. Tripoli blames the infections on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who were convicted last year of deliberately infecting more than 400 children at a hospital in Benghazi. «Libya will boycott Bulgarian companies and shut the doors of all investment and trade opportunities to Bulgarian companies because the Bulgarian government has ignored demands to take responsibility for the action of its citizens in the HIV case,» the government official said.

BELGRADE (AP) - Serbia's president will invite Kosovo's pro-independence leader for the first direct talks on the disputed province's future, the Serbian president's office said yesterday. The unprecedented talks would include Serbian President Boris Tadic and Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, the press office said in a statement to The Associated Press. There was no immediate response to the invitation from Rugova, but in the past he had rejected direct talks with the Serbian leaders on the province's status, saying it was up to Kosovo's people to decide their own future. Tadic will invite Rugova to Belgrade this week, the statement said.

Bosnian police and EU troops seized 27 kilograms (59 pounds) of heroin, the largest drug seizure ever in the Balkan country, the EU peace force said yesterday. As part of their cooperation against organized crime, local police and the EU force, dubbed EUFOR, on Monday stopped a car in northeastern Bosnia containing a large quantity of heroin, EUFOR said in a statement released in Sarajevo. (AP)

A grave containing the remains of 17 people believed to have been killed by partisans at the end of World War II, among whom at least eight are thought to have been Franciscan priests, has been discovered in southern Croatia, a local official said yesterday. «The grave, located in a valley just near the southern town of Zagvozd, contains the skeletons of 17 people, who had wire around their necks and wrists,» the head of the Zagvozd Municipality, Bozenko Dedic, told AFP. (AFP)

A strike at Serbia's key oil refinery triggered fuel shortages yesterday, as people lined up at gas stations to stock up on diesel and gasoline. The workers at Pancevo oil refinery, just outside Belgrade, blocked the gates of their compound last Friday, demanding a 30 percent increase in salaries. (AP)