ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey is planning to boost its police force in a bid to better tackle a rising crime rate and to catch up with EU standards, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said yesterday. The government has drafted a bill that would allow holders of four-year university degrees to join the police after six months of training, Cicek told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. The minister explained that 35,000 more officers were needed to reach the EU level, where one policeman serves an average of 250 people.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - UN judges demanded yesterday that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic stop wasting time and ask witnesses more focused questions as his marathon war crimes trial entered its fourth year. “You’re going round and round in circles and you are consuming a lot of time. You have a specific number of days to present your case and you must use your time more prudently,” presiding judge Patrick Robinson told Milosevic. The court said last year it wanted him to wrap up his case by October.

Romanian President Traian Basescu has returned a property he bought from the state following media criticism about the way it was purchased, a statement said yesterday. Basescu said he “wants to clarify his accommodation situation, and with respect to public opinion, he understands he has to give up this apartment,” the statement said. The decision comes after days of criticism about the way Basescu bought the property from the state in 2001 while he was already living in state-provided accommodation as mayor of Bucharest. (AP)

Dozens of pigs have been slaughtered and two pig markets have been closed in Transylvania after an outbreak of swine fever in one region, authorities said yesterday. The outbreak of swine fever started at the beginning of February, said Ioan Bogulin, director of animal health services in the region. He said pig markets had been closed in the city of Bistrita and the nearby town of Viisoara, some 300 kilometers (187 miles) north of Bucharest. (AP)

Romanian President Traian Basescu yesterday called for rebuilding relations between Bucharest and Moscow as he made his second state visit since being elected in December. Basescu said his two-day visit to Moscow aimed “to restore a high level of political and economic relations and to rebuild confidence,” according to the Interfax news agency. “I am not the type of Romanian politician fixated on past relations with Moscow,” he said. (AP)