BUCHAREST (AP) - Floods killed at least one person yesterday in southern Romania, raising the death toll to seven after days of heavy rain, officials said. In the southern village of Barbulesti, floods killed at least one person yesterday and authorities were scrambling to rescue by boat dozens of residents gathered on higher ground at a school. News helicopters captured images of residents waving for help on roof tops and at the school. Six other people died Thursday near the Black Sea coast, where waters swept several villages.

SKOPJE (AP) - The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)’s center-left government early yesterday survived a no-confidence vote called by opposition parties, angry at slow progress in the tiny Balkan country’s bid to join NATO. Parliament voted 61-23 against the motion. Two deputies abstained, and 34 were absent from the vote. Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski pledged to continue efforts to join NATO and pull closer to the EU.

Serbia may propose that a friend and ally of top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic become Serbia-Montenegro’s new defense minister, a government official said yesterday. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has held talks with coalition partners about the possible appointment of Gen. Zoran Stankovic, former head of the Belgrade military hospital, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Stankovic’s candidacy has not been formally announced. (AP)

Croatian authorities said yesterday they had launched an extensive probe into war crimes allegedly committed by a former Serb paramilitary leader during the 1991-95 Serbo-Croatian war who has been living in Australia. “A very intense criminal investigation throughout Croatia is under way... and two criminal charges have already been filed,” Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt told journalists. Dragan Vasiljkovic, alias “Captain Dragan,” is charged in the killing of 20 Croatian civilians near the town of Glina in July 1991. (AFP)

Security forces in southeastern Turkey yesterday killed a suspected Kurdish rebel allegedly involved in the shooting of two policemen, while a soldier died in a landmine explosion, officials said. The suspected member of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was killed in a shootout in Gurpinar, in Van province, during an operation police launched after two officers were shot dead when PKK militants strafed a police station at the weekend. (AFP)

Bulgaria’s foreign minister on Thursday ruled out paying “blood money” to the families of Libyan children whom Tripoli claims were infected with HIV at the hands of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor. Libya suggested in August that Bulgaria negotiate over a “diya,” blood money, with the victims’ families. Islamic law allows such a payment in murder cases to prevent a death sentence. “They are not guilty, that is very clear,” Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said. “You pay blood money if you have guilt.” (AP)