ANKARA (AP) - A US-built Turkish air force jet crashed seconds after takeoff yesterday, killing the pilot and two other soldiers on the ground at a central Anatolian air base, local news agencies reported. The F-5A fighter jet took off from the base in Konya, the state-run Anatolia news agency said. The jet crashed into the runway right after take off, private Dogan news agency reported. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

TIRANA (AP) - Albania’s Parliament ratified a pre-membership agreement with the European Union yesterday, turning into law the deal that commits the impoverished country to economic and political reforms. The Parliament unanimously voted to formally ratify the agreement 126-0. Opposition parliamentarians, who have boycotted voting procedures in the past month because of political infighting, also took part in the vote. The Stabilization and Association Agreement, signed June 12 in Luxembourg, provides for more intense political and economic consultations between the EU and Tirana.

The US envoy to the Kosovo status talks yesterday urged ethnic Albanian and Serbian leaders to intensify efforts to improve the rights of the province’s Serb minority. During a visit to Kosovo, US diplomat Frank Wisner said the two former foes need “to put in place a common vision, a practical and a realistic solution to the way forward for Kosovo.” “The job ahead of us today is to put in place the necessary elements of a final status package before we define the package,” Wisner said. “That means realistic solutions to the outstanding issues of municipalities, churches, minorities and economics.” (AP)

President Traian Basescu is expected to discuss military bases the US will set up in Romania in talks with President George W. Bush yesterday as well as the future of Romanian troops in Iraq. Speaking before he left Bucharest for Washington, Basescu said he would also discuss an oil pipeline from Central Asia to Europe that will cross the Black Sea. “The main topic is evaluating the military bases to be built in Romania,” Basescu said. (AP)

A land mine explosion killed a Turkish soldier and injured two others in southeast Turkey yesterday, officials said. The explosion occurred in the province of Bingol, some 900 kilometers (550 miles) east of the capital, Ankara, during a military offensive against autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels, the governor’s office said. It said the mine had been placed by Kurdish rebels, who commonly attack Turkish government forces in the region. (AP)