BUCHAREST (AFP) - Five more people died from the freezing weather which has gripped Romania for the last 10 days — bringing the total to 60, of whom 18 were homeless — a statement from the Romanian Ministry of Health said yesterday. Two people died of hypothermia and a third from severe frostbite suffered the previous weekend in the northern district of Bistrita. Two others died in the district of Timis, in the west, and in Vaslui, in the northeast, the communique added.

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria is likely to sign a deal at the end of April to establish two US military bases on its territory, Defense Minister Veselin Bliznakov said in an interview published yesterday. Washington has been in talks with its new NATO ally to set up training facilities at the Bezmer Airfield and Novo Selo shooting range near the country’s southern border with Turkey. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Bulgaria in late April for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

Bulgaria’s Economy and Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov will visit Moscow to discuss Russian gas giant Gazprom’s request for a review of current delivery arrangements, his ministry said yesterday. Ovcharov “will leave on Tuesday on a two-day working visit to Moscow... upon the invitation of Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko,” the ministry press office said in a statement. Gazprom, which provides almost all of Bulgaria’s gas supplies, has been pressing the Balkan country for a review of current agreements, which expire in 2010. (AP)

A Belgrade court convicted a Serb man of war crimes yesterday and sentenced him to eight years in prison for beating Croatian prisoners of war in 1991. Milan Bulic was convicted for taking part in one of the worst massacres of POWs during the 1990s Balkan wars when about 200 Croatians were killed by Serbian troops at a pig farm near the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar. (AP)

A Japanese man has died after he was bitten by a stray dog in Bucharest, authorities said yesterday. Hajime Hori, 68, was bitten on the left leg on Sunday. The bite damaged an artery in his thigh, and he bled to death several minutes later, Bucharest police said. (AP)

A Turkish military aircraft crashed yesterday in southeastern Turkey but the pilot survived the accident, local officials said. The F-16 fighter went down on a training flight outside Diyarbakir, in the Kurdish southeast. The pilot managed to eject, the sources said. (AFP)