SOFIA (AFP) – Bulgaria signed a contract with Russian company Atomstroyexport here yesterday to build a new nuclear power plant at Belene in the north of the country. The contract was signed by the executive director of Bulgaria’s National Electricity Company (NEC), Lyubomir Velkov, and Sergei Shmatko, the president of Atomstroyexport, whose subcontractors are France’s Framnatome and Germany’s Siemens. The new nuclear plant, which will be Bulgaria’s second and will produce 2,000 megawatts, will cost just under 4.0 billion euros (526 billion dollars), NEC said. A consortium of Areva and Siemens will provide security equipment, control mechanisms, electric systems and parts of the heating and ventilation systems for the plant, NEC added.

THE HAGUE (AFP) – The UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia said yesterday it would intervene in the hunger strike of Serbian ultra-nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj in the event of a medical emergency. Seselj, leader of the largest party in Serbia’s parliament, has been on hunger strike since November 10 and the court registry reported last Monday that his condition had weakened. “He still refuses the food offered (by the detention unit) and the medicine. We will intervene should a medical necessity arise,” said Refic Hodzic, spokesman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

European peacekeepers in Bosnia said yesterday they had removed almost 400 hand grenades from citizens in two small towns this week as part of efforts to maintain safety in the country. The European Union force (EUFOR) troops removed 394 hand grenades, 41 small-caliber weapons and 42,000 rounds of ammunition illegally held by the civilians in Vogosca and Sokolac, near the capital, Sarajevo. According to official surveys, around 10,000 people have either been killed or have committed suicide using light weapons in Bosnia since the end of its brutal 1992-1995 war. (AFP)

Serbian President Boris Tadic will pay an official visit to Germany this week for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel about issues including Kosovo, his office said yesterday. (AFP)