BUCHAREST (AP) - Hundreds of houses were flooded in 17 Romanian counties, leaving many families homeless yesterday, after rain lashed southern and eastern parts of the country for a second day. The worst-affected region was the southern county of Dambovita, where 31 villages were flooded, and 368 farms and 895 hectares (2,212 acres) of crops submerged, the interior minister said. Bucharest was badly hit by rain, with several roads and 21 public buildings flooded. Some 165 schools were affected by the floods.

BELGRADE (AP) - A Belgrade court has ordered one month’s detention for three suspects implicated in a military purchase scandal which has triggered allegations of corruption among top officials in Serbia-Montenegro, a judge said yesterday. District Court Judge Branislav Todic told reporters that private arms manufacturer Mile Dragic and two Serbia-Montenegro officers, Col. Jovica Vuckovic and Capt. Igor Mihajlovic, would be held for one month pending investigation into charges against them.

The United Nations, United States and European Union have agreed to appoint former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari as special envoy for the status of Kosovo, a newspaper said yesterday. “There is agreement in the New York-Washington-Brussels axis that Ahtisaari be special envoy for status,” Kosovo’s respected Albanian daily newspaper Zeri said, quoting diplomatic sources. (Reuters)

A Croatian arrested for Monday’s blast at the British Embassy in Zagreb has told police he accidentally set off a hand grenade he was carrying for protection after receiving threats. A summary of the police testimony of Damir Rovisan, a 28-year-old embassy employee, was published in Globus weekly yesterday. “I’ve been carrying the hand grenade with me every day since September 2, 2005, to protect myself and members of my family,” Rovisan told the police, according to the weekly. (Reuters)

A former paramilitary leader of Croatian Serbs yesterday denied a recent newspaper report in his adopted homeland of Australia that said he was implicated in the torture and rape of Muslims during the Bosnian war from 1992-95. Dragan Vasiljkovic said he would go to Australia today to deal with the accusations. “These are unfounded charges,” said Dragan Vasiljkovic, also known as “Captain Dragan.” (AP)

Interior Minister Rumen Petkov decried Bulgaria’s image as “a bandit country, where criminals have taken control” and vowed yesterday to curb organized crime to ensure entry into the EU as early as 2007. “We have two options: to show society, our European partners, and investors that law rules in Bulgaria and is equally applied; or to keep the status quo. I support the former,” he told a news conference. (Reuters)