SOFIA (AFP) – A short circuit in the generator of one of two reactors at Bulgaria’s nuclear power plant at Kozloduy forced authorities to shut the reactor down early on Saturday morning, officials at the plant said. “A short circuit in the excitor chains of the generator of reactor No 5 prompted us to switch off the whole 1,000-megawatt bloc from the electricity grid of the country,” safety director Mitko Yankov told AFP. The failure occurred at 3.29 a.m. (local time) Saturday morning, the company said, adding there was no radiation leakage threat whatsoever after the switch-off.

ANKARA (AFP) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat will meet in October for talks on the future of the divided island of Cyprus, a Turkish Cypriot official said on Saturday. The meeting was requested by Talat, the leader of the breakaway northern part of the island, in a letter he sent to UN chief in early August, spokesman Hasan Ercakica said. “In his letter dated August 30, Ban said he was ready to meet Talat in mid-October. We will determine the exact date of the meeting next week,” Ercakica said. Talat is scheduled to meet Tassos Papadopoulos, head of the internationally recognized Cyprus government in the south.

Italy will push for Kosovo’s independence and seek a “non-traumatic” solution for the province, the foreign minister said on Saturday, but added that Serb demands on safeguarding sacred sites must be granted. A UN plan to give Kosovo independence from Serbia has been blocked by Serbian ally Russia, spurring negotiations with the “troika” of Russia, the EU and the US to reach a deal. The 27-member EU is so far split on the idea of recognizing a new European state without a UN resolution. “It is clear that we want a solution that is shared as much as possible and non-traumatic,” Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said. (Reuters)

Albania’s experience in being the first nation to destroy its entire chemical weapons stockpile can offer other world nations an example to follow in removing weapons of mass destruction, US Senator Richard Lugar said on Saturday. In July, Albania finished destroying about 16 metric tons of blistering chemical agents at a cost of US$50 million (euro 36.6 million), funded by a US program for dismantling Cold War-era weapons of mass destruction. (AP)

Organizers of an event in which almost 7,000 couples kissed simultaneously in a Bosnian town on Saturday said their effort deserved a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. A total of 6,980 couples kissed for 10 seconds at the main square of the northeastern town of Tuzla, said local radio station Kameleon which organized the event. (AFP)