Bujanovac (AP) - A court in Serbia's volatile south yesterday ordered seven ethnic Albanians arrested in a police raid the previous day be detained for a month pending an investigation. The ethnic Albanians were part of a group of 12 men arrested in a police sweep on Saturday in two militant strongholds close to the Kosovo province, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Belgrade. The raid uncovered a «large quantity of automatic weapons, ammunition, military and communications equipment» in the villages of Veliki Trnovac and Konculj, court officials in the nearby town of Vranje said. Five of those arrested were released later on Saturday, including Jonuz Musliu, a former ethnic Albanian rebel leader-turned-politician. The remaining seven are to be held in custody until an investigation on possible terrorism charges is complete, the court officials said. The Serbian police action triggered a protest rally, with hundreds of ethnic Albanians blocking a road to Kosovo late into Saturday night.

Ankara (AFP) - The separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has warned that it will fight Turkey and Iraqi Kurds if they move to purge northern Iraq of PKK militants, a pro-Kurdish newspaper reported yesterday. In an interview published on the website of the Ozgur Politika daily, senior PKK commander Osman Ocalan, the brother of the group's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, said PKK militants based in northern Iraq would move back to Turkey if Turkish troops entered the region. «If Turkey sees the issue as a vendetta and starts an annihilation war, the (Ankara) government will seal its own end,» Ocalan said.

The EU confirmed on Saturday that German Admiral Rainer Feist is to head its first ever peacekeeping force, which will relieve NATO forces in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The Council of Ministers said in a statement that Feist, deputy supreme commander of NATO's forces in Europe, will be supported by French General Pierre Maral, who has been appointed commander of ground forces. The headquarters of the operation will be situated at the command center for the Allied Forces of NATO in Europe, in the Belgian town of Mons. (AFP)

Saudi officials apparently forgot to supply tents for 40,000 Turkish pilgrims who were supposed to spend the night in the Mina valley outside the holy city of Mecca, the Anatolia news agency reported. An official from the Turkish Union of Travel Agencies, which was organizing the pilgrimage trip of 45,000 Turks, was quoted as saying in Mecca that they were trying to resolve the problem. «The money for tents to be given to the Turkish pilgrims was paid in advance. But enough tents were provided, not for 45,000, but for 5,000 people. As an explanation for this situation, Saudi authorities said they had forgotten,» Mustafa Canerli told Anatolia. (AFP)