BEIRUT (AFP) - An initial contingent of Turkish peacekeepers arrived in Lebanon yesterday, the first Muslim troops in the beefed-up international force policing a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the official ANI agency reported. A Turkish military plane arrived at Beirut airport with seven officers on board, part of a 270-man engineering corp set to be deployed near the southern port of Tyre around October 20, the Turkish Embassy said.

SOFIA (Reuters) - A Bulgarian woman who killed her son was released from prison because of terminal cancer. She then went home and killed her husband, police said yesterday. The 57-year-old was sentenced to 15 years in jail for killing her 29-year-old son with a garden hoe in April 2005 while he was sleeping. “She threatened that if she is released again she will kill her second son as well,” a police spokeswoman said. “The whole case is like something from the twilight zone.”

Romania’s President Traian Basescu urged the newly appointed heads of the secret services yesterday to help speed up the opening of files compiled by the feared communist-era Securitate, officials said. The process of reading the files has gathered speed this year thanks to Basescu who said transferring the remaining files held by the secret services to independent researchers must be done before Romania joins the EU next year. (Reuters)