PODGORICA (AP) – NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer yesterday pledged to help Montenegro in its bid for full membership in the Western military alliance. During his first visit to the world’s newest country, de Hoop Scheffer said that “Montenegro has really chosen the path of Euro-Atlantic integrations.” “NATO will do what it can, if so requested, to assist and help Montenegro on that road,” de Hoop Scheffer said after talks with top Montenegrin officials.

BERLIN (AFP) – German police said yesterday that they have arrested alleged Serb crime boss Andrija Draskovic, who has been linked to the assassination of Serb militia leader Arkan. Draskovic, believed to be one of the leading figures of the crime underworld in the former Yugoslavia, was arrested at Frankfurt airport last Sunday under an international warrant issued by an Italian court, police said. The 42-year-old is wanted in Italy for smuggling large amounts of cigarettes from Montenegro to Bari in southern Italy in the 1990s. A Frankfurt court is due to rule on his extradition to Italy.

A former ally of late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic has died days after being charged with siphoning off state money to Cyprus in the 1990s, a report said yesterday. Jovan Zebic, 67, one of the late strongman’s closest aides during his autocratic regime, died in the capital Belgrade on Thursday night, said the state-run Tanjug news agency. The report cited the Socialist Party of Milosevic, who himself died in a cell of the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague a year ago. The cause of death was unclear. (AFP)

The US Senate has approved legislation to endorse the enlargement of NATO to include the admission of Albania, Croatia, Georgia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Ukraine. The measure was approved Thursday night by voice vote. A similar bill was approved by the House on March 6. Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said eventual membership for the five countries “would be a success for Europe, NATO and the United States by continuing to extend the zone of peace and security.” (AP)