BUCHAREST (AP) - Authorities began to examine the communist-era secret police files of 71 politicians yesterday, to determine whether they had collaborated with the dreaded Securitate police. President Traian Basescu last week said the country needs to shed light on the Securitate files before joining the EU, something it hopes to do in 2007. Some of the 71 politicians whose files will be published are believed to have collaborated, while others are believed to have been under surveillance. Csaba Sogor, a senator for the party that represents the interests of the country’s 1.4 million Hungarians, arrived at the council that publishes the files early yesterday and said he wanted to clear his name. He denied reports that he had been an informer. Head of the opposition Social Democratic Party Mircea Geoana said the party would expel members who were proven to have collaborated with the Securitate.

ANKARA (AP) - Turkey said yesterday that the United States is to release a German-born Turk held in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since January 2002. Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan confirmed earlier reports that Murat Kurnaz, an ethnic Turk born in Germany and holding German citizenship, will return to Germany after lengthy US investigations failed to provide proof of criminal or terrorist activity.

The widow of the former Yugoslavia’s communist dictator, Josip Broz Tito, was granted a state pension after 26 years of life in seclusion. Jovanka Broz, 82, has lived in Belgrade in a decrepit, government-owned house under a leaky roof and without heating since Tito’s death in 1980. She was receiving the equivalent of 120 euros ($155) a month in state social welfare. After her public plea earlier this year, the government said it has granted her a state pension worth 1,100 euros ($1,420) a month, according to the Official Gazette published yesterday. Jovanka Broz fell out of favor soon after Tito’s death, and was forced out of the dictator’s luxurious Belgrade residence. (AP)

Bulgaria’s government was considering cutting corporate tax by three points to 12 percent in 2007, the finance minister said yesterday. Plamen Oresharski did not announce the motives behind the possible move, but earlier tax cut proposals were aimed at attracting more foreign investment. A final decision could be made in October, Oresharski told a news conference. (AP)