TIRANA (AP) – Albanian soldiers sifting through the wreckage of an ammunition depot that exploded last weekend found two more bodies yesterday, raising the death toll to 21, the military said. Officials said about 1,000 soldiers and other rescue workers were searching for more victims. The blast March 15 near the capital, Tirana, injured more than 300 people, destroyed 412 homes, damaged 3,800 others and scattered artillery shells over some 15 square miles (40 square kilometers). Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s spokeswoman, Juela Mecani, said it was still unclear how many people were missing from the explosions at Gerdec village. She said DNA tests would be needed to identify some victims.

ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkish police detained 11 people yesterday in a probe into a gang of extreme nationalists who allegedly want to topple the Islamic-rooted government, local media said. Detainees included a journalist, a former university president and the head of a small political party, private NTV television said. The website of Ulusal TV station confirmed the detention of Dogu Perincek, head of the Turkish Workers’ Party, which won a tiny fraction of the votes in general elections last summer. It said the offices of the station, which often carries statements by the party, were being searched by police. The detained journalist, Ilhan Selcuk, writes a column for the secular Cumhuriyet newspaper and is a fierce critic of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

A Serbian judge was fatally wounded yesterday when a bomb exploded outside his home in southeast Serbia, a senior medical official said. “Early in the morning, an explosive device was activated at the family home of the president of the municipal courts of Knjazevac, Dragisa Cvejic, while he was leaving,” the Serbian Justice Ministry said in a statement. Knjazevac is a small town near Serbia’s eastern border with Bulgaria. The judge was taken to the southern city of Nis for treatment but later died. There was no immediate word on possible motives for the attack. (AFP)

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso congratulated Bulgaria yesterday after it became the sixth EU nation to ratify the bloc’s new reform treaty through parliament. “I would like to congratulate Bulgaria on the successful approval of the Treaty of Lisbon by the parliament today,” he said in a statement. Barroso travels to Sofia next week. (AFP)