SOFIA, Bulgaria,
May 20--A massive corruption scandal implicating top-level government officials threatened to overshadow new EU member Bulgaria’s first chance to elect representatives to the European Parliament.
Voters are to choose 18 representatives to the 732-seat European Parliament on Sunday. But polls predicted a low turnout of about 35 percent, with domestic concerns outweighing European affairs, AP reported.
Polls opened at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) and will close at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT).
Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev has dismissed two deputy Cabinet ministers because of “serious accusations“ against them, while the economy minister and a government investigator have taken leaves from office pending the investigations.
The corruption scandal has eroded support for the front-running Socialists, who lead Bulgaria’s three-party governing coalition.
Earlier polls predicted nine seats for the Socialists but a more recent National Public Opinion Center poll conducted last week predicted six seats for the ruling Socialists.
Still, polls put the Socialists marginally ahead of its main challenger, the new populist centrist party, GERB, led by Sofia Mayor Boiko Borisov. GERB was predicted to take four seats.
The Turkish minority Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, a major government coalition partner, is expected to carry three seats, followed by the ultra-nationalist formation Ataka with three seats and the centrist National Movement Simeon II party of former King Simeon Saxcoburggotski with two seats.
Bulgaria has 6.7 million registered voters.

An Ivorian troop carries guns handed back by West Resistance Armed Forces (FRGO)'s members during a ceremony for the dismantling of militias in Guilo, May 19.

GUIGLO, Ivory Coast, May 20--The leader of a 12,000-strong militia handed his Kalashnikov to the Ivory Coast president on Saturday in a symbolic gesture marking another step toward peace.
“Today, I am handing over to you all our weapons. ...
From this day forward, those that carry arms will do so according to the laws of our republic,“ said Denis Maho Glofiehi, the commander of the Resistance Forces of the West, known by its French acronym, FRGO, AP reported.
He handed his Kalashnikov, as well as a hunting rifle, to President Laurent Gbagbo, who declared: “The war is over.“
The FRGO is an umbrella group comprised of five militias in western Ivory Coast, all of which were loyal to Gbagbo’s government.
After a brief civil war in 2002, Ivory Coast was divided in two, with the north under the control of a rebel warlord and the south led by a civilian government separated by a 20-kilometer (12-mile) wide buffer zone.
After numerous failed attempts, a peace accord signed March 4 in Ouagadougou, the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso, paved the way for the leader of the rebels to become prime minister, joining hands with his former enemy Gbagbo.
While many were initially skeptical, both sides appear to be following through on their promises of disarmament, with Saturday’s ceremony marking the latest chapter.
Glofiehi _ who used to be addressed by the title of “General“ _ has agreed to return to civilian status, acting as the president of the local pro-government party.
Part of his duties will include trying to find work for the 12,000 ex-militiamen.
After he was handed the rifle and the Kalashnikov, Gbagbo in turn handed them to Abou Moussa, the interim chief of the United Nations mission in Ivory Coast. To applause, Moussa set them on fire.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 20--More than 30 rebel fighters were killed in southern Afghanistan early Sunday, a police chief said, as the NATO force announced it had killed “a significant number“ of Taliban leaders.
The 30 rebels were killed in a military sweep involving foreign forces in the southern province of Ghazni, provincial police commander Alishah Ahmadzai told AFP. “We have seen the bodies on the battlefield,“ he said, AFP reported.
His toll could not be independently verified. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the separate US-led coalition said they did not have information about the operation.
Eleven other rebels were captured and 18 wounded in the sweep which moved through villages along a key highway in the province, Ahmadzai said.
Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi confirmed there had been a military operation in the area and said it involved the use of air power. His death toll was much lower.
ISAF announced separately that “a significant number of Taliban extremist leaders were successfully targeted and killed in a precision air strike last night in southern Afghanistan.“
The men were gathered in a remote area, it said in a statement.
“Initial assessments indicate all of those who died were enemy insurgents.“
It would not give the location of the strike or identify the “rebel leaders“ targeted.
“Combined with the recent demise of Mullah Dadullah, this strike will, in the short term, push the enemy into confusion and disarray,“ ISAF spokesman Major John Thomas said.
Dadullah, the Taliban’s top military strategist, was killed in a foreign and Afghan operation on May 11.

BUCHAREST, Romania, May 2--Romanians rejected an attempt by parliament to impeach reformist President Traian Basescu in the Saturday referendum, official results showed on Sunday, giving fresh support to his anti-sleaze campaign.
Data collected from 92 percent of the polling stations showed 74 percent of Romanians voted against impeaching Basescu on charges that he overstepped his authority, Reuters reported.
Basescu, the country’s most popular politician, got 5.6 million votes in the referendum, half a million more than in the 2004 elections when he defeated ex-prime minister Adrian Nastase on an anti-graft ticket.
Preliminary results showed turnout was 44 percent, slightly lower than in 2004.
Parliament suspended Basescu as president last month and called the referendum on the grounds he had exceeded his authority and pushed the European Union newcomer into a political deadlock. His opponents have also accused Basescu of using the secret services to discredit them.
No proof of this has emerged, while many Romanians see the ex-sea captain as an anti-corruption crusader and a symbol of their long-frustrated goal of rejoining the European mainstream.
Analysts say Basescu’s victory will help him implement his anti-sleaze drive.
“This landslide will boost his force (to implement reforms) as it gives him more legitimacy from people,“ political analyst and writer Stelian Tanase told Reuters. “His victory may trigger some internal crises in the parties that have opposed him.“
Basescu has said he wanted parliament, dominated by the leftist opposition, to back his anti-sleaze drive and seek a reform of the electoral system to make politicians more directly accountable to their voters.
“My whole project hinges on parliament’s backing. Otherwise it cannot be done,“ Basescu told reporters on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 20--Hardline clerics said Sunday that they had released two Pakistani policemen held hostage at a mosque here, after a deal was struck with authorities to free four extremists.
The clerics said two other policemen still captive will only be released when a total of 11 men detained by the Pakistani government are freed.
Dozens of students from a madrassa, or seminary, attached to the Red Mosque in Islamabad, seized the four policemen on Friday evening, triggering a tense stand-off at the mosque between armed police and the radical students.
“We released two policemen late Saturday as a goodwill gesture,“ the mosque’s deputy leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi told AFP.
“None of our 11 students have returned yet, but we hope to get back four of them shortly in the first phase and rest afterwards as agreed by the authorities,“ he said.
The government has not commented on the trade-off, which was greeted in local press with the headlines “Government bows to Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) mullahs“ and “Lal Masjid gets its own way.“
The apparent concession came despite President Pervez Musharraf recently vowing to tackle what he said was rising militancy in Pakistan.
Last month the Red Mosque set up a self-styled Islamic court, which issued a fatwa, or religious decree, against Pakistan’s female tourism minister for hugging a French paragliding instructor after a charity jump.
She was reported on Sunday to have resigned after bowing to political pressure and harassment from Islamic militants.

DILI, East Timor, May 20--UN police fired teargas and warning shots Sunday to disperse two rival groups throwing rocks in the East Timor capital, an AFP reporter witnessed.
The fighting erupted just hours after Jose Ramos-Horta was sworn in as president of the tiny nation in a ceremony at nearby parliament house.
“About 50 UN police arrived quickly on the site and immediately set about arresting some 70 people, handcuffing them and putting them in vans,“ the AFP reporter said.
The arrests enraged the fighting groups who then started pelting the police vans with stones, prompting the warning shots and tear gas, the reporter said.
“The glass panels of three UN police vehicles were broken by the stones and one female UN police member was hit on the arm by a stone,“ the reporter said.
It appeared that the fighting was between youths from the east of the country supporting the ruling Fretilin party and supporters of a small political party supporting Ramos-Horta. Ramos-Horta defeated the Fretilin candidate in a landslide in the May 9 presidential election.
He had implored the nation’s youth during his inauguration speech Sunday to end street violence that has been flaring since deadly unrest erupted in East Timor last year. UN police and foreign peacekeeping troops have been attempting to restore security in the troubled nation since the unrest in May last year that left 37 people dead and forced thousands of others to flee their homes.