SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg is expected to replace five ministers in his 19-member Cabinet in a planned reshuffle, the local private Info radio said yesterday. A spokesman said the government changes, which need Parliament’s approval, would be unveiled by the end of July. He declined to comment on reports over the expected changes. Info radio quoted sources as saying Defense Minister Nikolai Svinarov, Interior Minister Georgi Petkanov and Energy Minister Milko Kovachev were expected to go in the reshuffle, widely seen as an attempt to counter plunging government popularity. Education Minister Vladimir Atanasov and Healthcare Minister Bozhidar Finkov were also expected to leave office.

SKOPJE (AP) - A man was injured when Slav-Macedonian soldiers opened fire on two men trying to illegally enter the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia from Kosovo, the army headquarters said yesterday. An army patrol late Monday spotted an unlit car crossing the border on a side road near the regular border crossing of Blace, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the capital Skopje, an army statement said. The patrol tried to stop the car, and a man inside opened fire. The soldiers returned fire, hitting one of the two men in the car. The men managed to escape to a nearby village. One of them, identified as Ismet Kurtishi Tadzedin, later asked for medical care and was arrested by FYROM police, the army said.

Remains of 14 ethnic Serbs killed by Croatian soldiers during the war here 12 years ago were buried yesterday in their hometown in eastern Croatia. About 300 people attended the ceremony, led by an Orthodox priest in Paulin Dvor, state-run news agency HINA reported. The remains were exhumed only last year during an investigation into the killing of 19 Serb civilians in Paulin Dvor on December 11, 1991. The families of five victims had decided their relatives would be buried elsewhere. (AP)

An elderly Serb ended a heated argument with his neighbor by lobbing a hand grenade and severing the man’s arm, Tanjug news agency said yesterday. Pensioner Milan Djokic, 70, was charged with attempted murder and illegal weapons possession after attacking Slavko Grujic, also 70, in the northern town of Zrenjanin on Monday. Grujic first caught the grenade and threw it back, but the device exploded on a second try by Djokic. Tanjug did not say what they were arguing about. (Reuters)

Turkish firefighters and soldiers struggled yesterday to put out a 20-hectare (50-acre) wildfire raging near an Aegean resort area. Local official Osman Eksi said rescuers were using helicopters and bulldozers to fight the fire near the town of Konacik, 5 kilometers (3 miles) outside the resort town of Bodrum. Officials also requested that tanker planes be sent. Eksi said strong winds were spreading the fire. The cause of the blaze was unclear. (AP)

A renowned Romanian editorial writer will keep his house after journalists and readers raised enough money to help him pay off a hefty court judgment for libel, he said yesterday. Ion Cristoiu was ordered to pay 400 million lei ($12,500) in moral damages for describing a rival female writer as “unfeminine and untalented” in an article. The Bucharest-based newspaper Jurnalul National, which publishes Cristoiu’s editorials, began appealing for public help two weeks ago, when court-appointed collectors scheduled the sale of his house for July 29. (AP)