PRISTINA (AFP) – The United Nations mission in Kosovo signed an agreement yesterday handing over to the European Union its property to help the EU deploy in Serbia’s breakaway ethnic Albanian majority province. “The technical agreement gives UNMIK... the green light for transferring assets to us,” including office space, vehicles and other equipment, said Karin Limdal, spokeswoman for the incoming EULEX mission. The head of EULEX, Yves de Kermabon, plans to have the EU police and justice mission fully in place by the end of autumn. The changeover is going ahead despite opposition by Serbia and its ally Russia, which reject the move as another breach of international law, just like Kosovo’s UDI on February 17. So far, the EU mission has deployed 285 officials including police, judges, prosecutors and custom officers in Kosovo. It will eventually have 1,900 international and 1,100 local staff.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Montenegro, Olympic water polo silver medalists four years ago while competing with Serbia, can repeat their Athens feat without their former compatriots, the team’s coach said yesterday. Petar Porobic said Montenegro’s split from Serbia had strengthened his side and the world’s newest team had proven everyone wrong by winning the European championships in July. “Nobody expected we would put together a decent team after we separated,” Porobic told Reuters after Montenegro advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s tournament. “It was only two years ago we split, people thought we would be weak. Now, the team is even better. I think it’s easier, we have a strong chance here.” Montenegro seceded from Serbia in May 2006 after a referendum on independence for the country of 650,000 people. Porobic has cobbled together one of the world’s strongest teams from only three water polo clubs – Jadran, Primorac and Budvanska Rivijera. “Now, we’ve shown our power. They didn’t think we would be good, but we are now an excellent team,” he added.

ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkish state-run media say a land mine explosion in the southeast has killed a soldier and injured eight others. The Anatolia news agency quotes a provincial governor as saying that a land mine believed to have been planted by Kurdish rebels exploded yesterday near a military vehicle. It does not say how badly hurt the injured were. The Turkish military earlier reported that it struck a rebel shelter in neighboring Iraq over the weekend. The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, also known as PKK, are fighting for self-rule in parts of Turkey’s east and southeast.

A Somali national drowned off Turkey’s western coast yesterday when a boat carrying clandestine immigrants capsized while trying to reach nearby Greek islands, media reports said. Locals tipped off the coast guard after the boat carrying 32 Somalis turned over off the town of Didim on the Aegean coast, the Anatolia news agency reported. Thirty-one of the migrants were rescued while one drowned, it added. The NTV news channel suggested that the boat had capsized due to excess weight. Turkey lies on a major human-smuggling route from Asia to Europe. (AFP)

Bulgarian police seized more than 2 tons of cannabis in several villages along the southern border with Greece, a local police spokeswoman told AFP yesterday. “Over two tons of the drug were confiscated during a special police operation carried out in a number of villages in the region, which are notorious for growing cannabis,” spokeswoman Gergana Moralieva said. Bulgaria is a major transit point on the so-called Balkan route, which brings heroin and other illicit drugs to Western Europe, but the cannabis cultivated in the country is primarily for domestic consumption, according to the latest US Department of State narcotics control report. (AFP)