BUDAPEST (AP) - A Turkish passenger plane on its way to Brussels with 293 passengers aboard made an emergency landing yesterday at Budapest's international airport, officials said. No injuries were reported. The pilots of the Fly Air Airbus A300 requested an emergency landing after the aircraft's instruments signaled an engine malfunction, Budapest Airport spokeswoman Ibolya Forika said.

SOFIA (AP) - Bulgaria's foreign minister yesterday ruled out the possibility that his country would pay blood money to win amnesty for five Bulgarian medics sentenced to death in Libya for allegedly infecting 400 children with the virus that causes AIDS. Ivailo Kalfin, however, said that Bulgaria was ready to «assist in solving the humanitarian problem.» Libyan officials renewed demands that Bulgaria should negotiate with the families of the victims to decide on blood money.

Bosnian Serb President Dragan Cavic yesterday condemned the killing of a Serb customs officer by his Muslim colleague, trying to calm inter-ethnic tensions in the southern town where the crime took place. Cavic «strongly condemned the brutal murder of a member of the state border service, which should be an example of inter-ethnic tolerance,» a statement from his office said. Muslim customs officer Anis Bandic, 29, shot his colleague Bojan Prodanovic, 34, several times at close range Wednesday at a southeastern border crossing with Montenegro. (AFP)

Romania forgave $2 billion of the $2.5 billion debt owed it by Iraq yesterday in the first such deal involving a country not a member of the Paris Club of rich creditor nations. Finance Ministry officials from Romania and Iraq signed the agreement at a ceremony in Amman. «We are the first to do this. The precedent is important for the countries not in the Paris Club to follow suit and help bring sustainability to Iraq's long-term debt servicing,» Deputy Romanian Finance Minister Dragos Neacsu told Reuters. (Reuters)

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk said yesterday that Ukraine and Romania will solve their Black Sea border dispute through talks rather than having the case considered by the International Court of Justice. «The two states, their presidents have a political will to solve the dispute... We will avoid court,» Tarasiuk told reporters. The two former communist countries have been wrangling for years over the boundary line in the oil-rich Black Sea. (AP)

NATO remains committed to providing security to allow for a peaceful climate in Kosovo as the disputed UN-administered province nears possible talks on its future status, the alliance's commander for southeastern Europe said during a visit yesterday. Admiral Harry Ulrich, commander of NATO's Joint Force Command based in Naples, Italy, made the comments during his second visit to Kosovo as regional commander. (AP)