BUCHAREST (Reuters) – The death toll from Romania’s heat wave rose to 15 yesterday after six more people died in the Black Sea country where temperatures hovered around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu said. Meteorologists say high temperatures, which could exceed 42 Celsius in the southern regions on the Danube River border with Bulgaria, might last until early next week.

BUCHAREST (AFP) – Eight people were killed and 24 injured yesterday when a train rammed into a coach on a level crossing in southern Romania after the driver ignored the signal for an approaching train, police said. The coach was carrying around 40 passengers returning from a village wedding when the accident happened at dawn near the town of Targoviste. Six passengers and the coach driver were killed instantly, while another passenger died in hospital. A further nine of the injured were described as critical. Two women in a coma were transferred to hospital in Bucharest.

Serbia has asked its neighbors for help in fighting forest fires raging in the central and eastern parts of the country, officials said yesterday. The fires erupted days ago amid extremely high temperatures that have engulfed the Balkans this month. In Serbia, the fires were mostly concentrated on the Stara Planina mountain, along the boundary with Bulgaria, where firefighters had trouble reaching parts of the area. Serbia’s military have been called in to help the firefighters, while helicopters and planes were also used.

A Turkish prosecutor said on Saturday he is investigating a former Kurdish lawmaker accused of advocating autonomy for Kurds, a news agency reported. The investigation follows a complaint by police in the eastern city of Igdir where Leyla Zana spoke at a rally Friday in support of dozens of Kurdish independent candidates running in Sunday’s legislative elections. “It is time to divide Turkey into states,” newspapers quoted her as telling the crowd. Zana also reportedly called on Ankara to allow the establishment of a Kurdish state. (AFP)

Albania’s parliament elected as president the ruling Democratic Party’s vice chairman, Bamir Topi, reports said late on Friday, avoiding snap polls that would have delayed reforms needed for membership of the European Union and NATO. Topi, 50, received 85 votes in the penultimate round, one more than needed, thanks to several opposition Socialist Party lawmakers who disregarded an opposition call for a boycott of the vote. (Reuters)