BUCHAREST (AP) - Former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase yesterday stepped down as leader of Romania’s opposition Social Democracy Party pending an investigation into corruption allegations. After senior party members called for his resignation, Nastase said he planned to step down from the leadership for three months while anti-corruption prosecutors investigate whether his accumulation of real estate and other wealth was legal. He had been due to testify before the prosecutors yesterday but sent his lawyers to testify in his place.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish police seized 23 kilos (50 pounds) of plastic explosives and arrested three presumed members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the town of Van in eastern Turkey. Seized last Friday, the explosives and the suspects were found in a car stopped by police. The following day police again found some 23 kilos of the explosive and arrested two presumed Kurdish separatists at the other end of the country in a suburb of Izmir.

A Turkish military hospital decided yesterday that Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was not fit enough to do military service, television reports said. The decision by Istanbul’s GATA hospital came after a series of physical and psychological tests on Agca, a draft dodger, to see whether he could do military service that is obligatory for Turkish men over 18, the CNN-Turk and NTV news channels said. (AFP)

Bulgaria will soon begin improving its crumbling transport infrastructure to attract investment and boost competitiveness before planned EU membership next year, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said yesterday. He said Bulgaria, which lies on the main land route between Europe and the Middle East, could lose a crucial geostrategic advantage if it does not mend its roads and modernize its railways. (Reuters)

Serbia must give the UN war crimes tribunal access to all of its files on fugitives and freeze their assets or else face delays to EU integration talks, a minister said yesterday. “If we fulfill these two obligations, I’m sure that the negotiations scheduled for February will not be deferred,” said Human Rights Minister Rasim Ljajic, who is also responsible for cooperation with the Hague-based tribunal. (AFP)

Albania’s prime minister plans to visit Kosovo later this month in an effort to increase bilateral ties and contribute to regional peace and stability, his press office said yesterday. Prime Minister Sali Berisha was invited by Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi and Soren Jessen-Petersen, the top UN official in the disputed province, to visit Jan. 26-27. (AP)