SOFIA (AP) - A senior Bulgarian sports official accused of misconduct intends to step down temporarily from his executive positions in the country’s Olympic committee and the national soccer union, his spokesman said yesterday. Word of the move by Ivan Slavkov followed his suspension as a member of the International Olympic Committee for alleged involvement in a bid city corruption scandal. Slavkov will be suing the British Broadcasting Corp, his spokesman said.

SOFIA (AFP) - Bulgaria confirmed yesterday that a video appearing on the Internet showed Islamic extremists decapitating a man but could not yet identify the victim as a Bulgarian kidnapped last month. "Because of the poor quality of the video, it’s impossible to say anything definite about the person executed, " said Deputy Foreign Minister Gergana Grancharova. One kidnapped Bulgarian truckdriver was beheaded last month, while the fate of a second remains unknown.

Forensic experts said yesterday they found a mass grave in the waste dump of a coal mine in eastern Bosnia, which they suspect may contain the bodies of about 350 Muslims who disappeared from a Bosnian-Serb detention center during the Bosnian war. According to the head of the team, Amor Masovic, who spoke on Bosnian radio, the experts believe the remains could be those of Muslims who were held in a former jail in the town of Foca, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Sarajevo, that was turned into a detention center by Bosnian Serbs. (AP)

Bosnia’s nine-member team departed for Athens yesterday after a late influx of cash enabled them to overcome the financial shortfall that had threatened their participation in the Games. As late as the end of May, the Olympic Committee of Bosnia-Herzegovina (OKBIH) needed 500,000 marka ($308,415) but had no sponsors and no funding from either central government or the authorities running the country’s Muslim-Croat and Serb halves. But eleventh-hour sponsorship deals and a late financial contribution from the authorities saved the day. (Reuters)

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will pay his first visit to the grave of his father Fritz, a Wehrmacht corporal killed in World War Two almost 60 years ago, during a trip to Romania on Thursday. A German government official said Schroeder would go to the grave alone before starting the official part of a two-day trip. The chancellor will be greeted by the mayor of the village of Ceanu Mare, where his father lies buried in a cemetery. (Reuters)

Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar will visit Turkey next week to discuss bilateral issues, including increased security measures for Turkish nationals working in war-torn Iraq, Turkish officials said yesterday. (AFP)