BUCHAREST (AP) - Romanian authorities scrambled to reinforce dams yesterday after a week of flooding which has claimed the lives of seven people and caused widespread damage. Record rainfall in southern and eastern Romania caused damage estimated at over US $1.8 billion (1.5 billion euros). Thousands of police and soldiers were dispatched to help local authorities reinforce dams in southern Romania, where swollen rivers are threatening several communities, including the city of Slobozia, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Bucharest.

MADRID (AP) - Serbian authorities have handed over a key suspect in the Madrid train bombings and Spanish police were accompanying the man back to Spain yesterday, police said. Abdelmajid Bouchar, a 22-year-old Moroccan, was detained at Belgrade's main train station in June with no documentation and claiming to be an Iraqi immigrant worker. Belgrade finished processing Spain's extradition request last week.

Bulgaria might postpone the withdrawal of its 380-strong troop contingent from Iraq, Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin told reporters Saturday. «The term of our current contingent in Iraq is due to be over on October 31 but... it might be either lengthened a bit or it is not impossible that we send a new contingent,» Kalfin said on his return from the UN summit in New York. (AFP)

Two Turkish soldiers were injured when a land mine exploded under their military vehicle in southeastern Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. The mine is believed to have been planted by Kurdish rebels, Anatolia reported. The blast took place in Mardin province, near the Syrian border, and came a day after Turkish security forces killed three rebels in clashes. (AP)

Serbia's pro-Western president and Montenegrin officials yesterday criticized a proposal that an ally of top UN war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic become the new Serbia-Montenegro defense minister. President Boris Tadic told private BK Television that the possible candidacy of Gen. Zoran Stankovic, former head of Belgrade military hospital, would be a «very odd proposal.» «No country that is striving for NATO integration would want to have a former general as a defense minister,» said Tadic, himself an ex-defense minister. (AP)