ANKARA (AFP) - Two shepherd boys, aged 13 and 14, were killed yesterday by an explosive device they had found in eastern Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported. The teenagers found the device on wasteland near their village of Erhaci, close to the border with Armenia. They were killed instantly when the device went off as they were handling it.

SPLIT (AFP) - Albania, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia expect to be invited to join the NATO military alliance in April next year, the Croatian foreign minister said after a meeting here on Saturday. The three countries «expect an invitation for NATO membership in Bucharest,» Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic told journalists, referring to a NATO summit to be held in the Romanian capital in April 2008.

A small plane on Saturday slid off the runaway while landing in southern Croatia and collided with a car, leaving just the pilot slightly injured, the Transport Ministry said. While landing at the airport in the southern town of Sinj, the Supercab plane slid off the runaway, broke the security fence and hit the car driving on a nearby road, the ministry said. (AFP)

Serbian police said yesterday they had arrested a German man trying to smuggle nine people into Croatia, the Beta news agency reported. «During a control procedure at the border crossing at Batrovci, the 51-year-old tried illegally to cross from Serbia to Croatia, driving nine Serbian citizens, including five minors,» police said in a statement. A magistrate ordered one month of detention for the suspect, it added. (AFP)

Romania accused Moldova of breaching «European values» on Saturday after customs authorities barred entry to several Romanian local government officials. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the Romanian delegates were invited by the mayor of Chisinau to participate in official celebrations but were denied entry Friday after failing to show their formal invitations. «This type of behavior is totally against the spirit of the agreements between our states... This is clearly an act against European values, which are also assumed by Moldova,» Foreign Minister Adrian Cioroianu said in a statement. (AFP)