SKOPJE (Reuters) – The ethnic Albanian party in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s (FYROM) coalition has threatened to quit the government and end its slim majority in a power struggle with the country’s other main Albanian party. A senior member of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) said late on Saturday it would leave the coalition after reports emerged that Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski had reached a deal to end a parliamentary boycott by the DPA’s chief Albanian rivals, the opposition Democratic Union for Integration (DUI). The deal has yet to be confirmed, and the DPA ministers in his cabinet have not formally resigned. Gruevski would have to look elsewhere to keep his parliamentary majority if they did.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – The party of Romanian President Traian Basescu threatened on Monday to launch a no-confidence vote against the government after voters emphatically rejected government-backed moves to impeach him. A successful parliamentary vote against the minority government of Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu could end a policy stalemate after a May 19 referendum, aimed at bringing Basescu down, flopped. But there was no certainty the move by Basescu’s Democrats would succeed, and some analysts said the political crisis, which is paralyzing the European Union newcomer’s reform efforts, might only deepen. “The only step that will stop us from initiating a censure motion against the government would be the resignation of the government,” Democrat party head Emil Boc told Reuters in an interview.

Turkish forces in Lebanon will remain there for another year after the former’s parliament decided yesterday to extend their mission. Turkey has more than 1,000 troops, most of them sailors, in the force. More than 260 soldiers and civilian engineers serve on the ground as part of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon. (AP)

Turkish troops killed seven Kurdish guerrillas yesterday in a clash in southeastern Turkey, the regional governor’s office said. The clash occurred near the town of Eruh in Siirt province, the governor’s office said. Separately, the troops killed three other guerrillas late Monday in the province of Van, which borders Iran, after they ignored a call for them to surrender, the local governor’s office said. (AP)

A sixth infant died of injuries suffered during a fire that swept through a Sarajevo orphanage and killed five babies last month, hospital officials said yesterday. The blaze broke out on the morning of April 22. (AP)