TIRANA (AFP) - Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha unveiled a plan yesterday that will offer public land to foreign investors for 1 euro per square meter. “‘Albania, For One Euro’ is an initiative that aims at attracting foreign investment in a bid to lead the country out of poverty (and) bring it closer to Europe,” Berisha said. Albania could “achieve this goal only while offering foreign investors very low costs and higher quality compared with other countries” in the region, said Berisha. As part of the plan, the Albanian government envisages selling public grounds for 1 euro per square meter (1.3 dollars per 10.7 square feet), as well as investor-friendly taxation and economic policies.

ANKARA (AP) - Fifteen people have died in southeastern Turkey after falling off rooftops on which they were sleeping, the state-owned Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. Temperatures in the southeast have recently exceeded 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and it is not uncommon for people to sleep on their roofs in search of relief from stiflingly hot houses. Doctors at the State Hospital in the southeastern town of Batman said the hospital has treated 1,274 people - most of them children - this summer who have toppled off rooftops. Fifteen died, they told Anatolia.

Serbia will try to repair its links to the European Union this week with a slate of proposals aimed at putting the country firmly on an EU membership course. In May, the EU froze pre-membership talks because Serbia failed to arrest war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic. Deputy Prime Minister Ivana Dulic-Markovic goes to Brussels today with a plan showing Serbia wants to try again, but needs help. “We have been getting signals in the past months that the door is again open for us. We want to initiate this dialogue,” said the minister, an ethnic Croat and the only woman in Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica’s Cabinet. (Reuters)

Thieves have made off with a part of a Serbian bridge destroyed during the 1999 NATO bombing campaign against the Balkan country, the daily Politika said yesterday. The 4-ton section of the Varadin Bridge went missing a few days ago from the banks of the Danube River. (AFP)

A ferry with more than 300 people on board crashed into a concrete pier while trying to dock in the Croatian port of Split yesterday, injuring at least 18 passengers, police in the coastal city said. (AP)

Bulgaria’s central bank agreed yesterday to ensure prosecutors have swift access to information on commercial bank accounts and safety deposits to help fight money laundering and other financial crimes, officials said. Under an agreement signed yesterday, the central bank will make sure prosecutors can quickly get hold of details about accounts in Bulgarian commercial banks. (Reuters)