ZAGREB (AFP) - A Croatian firefighter died yesterday from serious burns sustained while battling a wildfire which killed 11 of his colleagues, a hospital in the coastal town of Split said. Ante Juricev-Mikulin, 22, received the injuries fighting a blaze in the national park on the central Adriatic island of Kornat on August 30. According to preliminary results of a investigation into the deaths, the firemen became cut off when the wind suddenly changed direction and caused the flames to flare up, in a so-called «eruptive fire.»

ANKARA (AP) - Turkish troops killed one Kurdish rebel in a clash in the country's southeast and captured two others yesterday, local authorities said. The clash occurred near the town of Besiri in the southeastern city of Batman.

Thousands of schoolteachers in Bulgaria staged protests for higher pay on the first day of classes Saturday, national radio reported. About two-thirds of the country's 102,000 teachers joined the nationwide one-hour strike during official opening ceremonies, strike leader Stefan Valkov was quoted as saying. They are demanding a 100 percent pay rise by July 2008. (AFP)

The son of fugitive Bosnian-Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was released from overnight custody in Serbia on Saturday and barred from the country for a year for possession of fake documents. Aleksandar «Sasa» Karadzic was detained Friday for questioning related to the hunt for his father, who is wanted for genocide and has been on the run for a decade. He was fined about $500 for possessing documents falsely indicating he is a Serb citizen. (Reuters)

The UN Security Council voted late Friday to extend the term of Yugoslav war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte until the end of the year, despite Russian opposition. Explaining Moscow's abstention on the 14-0 vote, Russian envoy Ilya Rogachev accused Del Ponte «of being some kind of quasi political player» instead of an impartial prosecutor. (AP)