SOFIA (AP) - A Bulgarian company is being investigated for alleged illicit arms deals with the former regime in Iraq, a senior police official said yesterday. In a report earlier this week, the top US arms inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, accused a number of governments, people and companies in illicit oil-for-food or arms deals with Saddam’s regime for more than a decade before the US-led invasion in Iraq in 2003. Gen. Boiko Borisov, Bulgaria’s top police official, said the case involved a Sofia-based company, JEFF Corp., which had allegedly sold weapons spare parts to Iraq in 2002. “I’ve seen no accusations or reproach to Bulgaria as a state,” he said.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Turkey’s Kurdish activist Leyla Zana is to address the European Parliament next week and finally be honored for an EU human rights prize awarded in 1995 when she was in jail, officials said yesterday. Zana, who was released in June after a decade behind bars, will be hailed personally nine years after she was awarded the Sakharov prize by the European Union’s legislative assembly, which she will address on Thursday. Three other former Kurdish legislators who were released alongside Zana in June — Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak — will accompany her to Brussels.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to visit the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on Monday, the official information agency reported. FYROM has supported the US-led effort in Iraq and has contributed about 30 soldiers to the coalition. (AFP)

Bucharest’s popular mayor, who will run for president after his political partner stepped out of the race for health reasons, said yesterday he’s confident he’ll win in the first round of elections set for November. Traian Basescu, 52, said he will be an active president who will “be working side by side with the prime minister,” he told the daily Evenimentul Zilei, vowing to reduce widespread corruption and nepotism in Romania. “Remember this: I will win in the first round,” said Basescu, the candidate of the opposition Justice and Truth Alliance. (AP)

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will pay an official visit to Germany on October 18-19 as part of efforts to drum up support for his country’s drive to join the European Union ahead of a critical December summit, a senior Turkish diplomat said yesterday. (AFP)