BUCHAREST (AP) - Authorities have turned back almost 1 million Romanians trying to leave the country since the beginning of the year, mostly because they lacked the travel money required by an agreement with the EU, border police said yesterday. Some 945,825 Romanians were prevented from leaving the country in the first six months of the year, about three times more than in the same period last year, a border police statement said. More than half of them did not have the equivalent of 100 euros (US$120) a day for trips planned to countries in the EU, as required by an agreement between Romania and the bloc.

SOFIA (AP) - Carrying out the wishes of the head of Bulgaria’s Orthodox Church, police yesterday continued storming churches to expel opponents of Patriarch Maxim and turn over control to priests loyal to him. The evictions, which started Wednesday, are part of a legal battle launched last month by Maxim in an attempt to end a decade-old feud among rival camps within the country’s Orthodox clergy. Maxim’s Holy Synod, the church’s supreme decision-making body, says it has legal rights over all church properties in the country, claiming it is the only legitimate Orthodox authority in Bulgaria.

Serb police said yesterday they have issued an arrest warrant for fugitive war crimes suspect Goran Hadzic and will launch an internal inquiry to probe whether someone in the force helped him escape capture last week. Hadzic fled his villa in Novi Sad, northern Serbia, last Friday, as an indictment by UN prosecutors was unveiled. Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte accused Belgrade authorities of helping Hadzic escape by informing him of the indictment before it was released. (AP)

Romania is considering allowing foreigners to adopt children with serious medical problems, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said yesterday. Nastase’s statement, broadcast by a private Romanian TV station, was made at a news conference in Washington after he met President George W. Bush during a visit to the US. “I assured the president that for such special situations we will draft bills for each case that will go to Parliament for approval,” he said. (Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to visit Turkey in early September, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced yesterday. (AFP)