THE HAGUE (AFP) - The chief prosecutor of the United Nations war crimes court yesterday formally appealed a decision to lift restrictions on former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, after stepping in to oppose the decision last week. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) gave permission to Haradinaj to take part in political activities with prior approval of the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). The ICTY reimposed its restrictions on Haradinaj on Friday, two days later, after chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte called for a stay of execution of its decision, pending a formal appeal. In the appeal filed yesterday, Del Ponte said the tribunal had “given too much weight to UNMIK’s views and too little to victims’ and witnesses’ concerns.”

ANKARA (AP) - A bomb went off inside a courthouse washroom in southeast Turkey yesterday, causing minor damage but no injuries, officials said. The bomb was left in the women’s washroom on the second floor of the four-story building in predominantly Kurdish southeastern city of Batman, police said. Batman is some 900 kilometers (550 miles) from the capital, Ankara.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha will make a one-day visit to the neighboring Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) today to discuss bilateral relations and joint efforts to join NATO and the EU, the government press office reported yesterday. During the trip Berisha will meet Slav-Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski, his counterpart Vlado Buckovski, Parliament Speaker Ljubco Jordanovski and ethnic Albanian political leaders there. (AP)

The UN in Kosovo is downsizing its mission in the southern Serbian province, a spokesman said yesterday. The mission began to trim the number of people on a team that has dealt with the civil administration in a province, which it has run since 1999, said Neeraj Singh, the UN spokesman in Kosovo. (AP)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan left for Pakistan yesterday, a visit aimed at showing Turkey’s solidarity with the quake-hit country. Erdogan was scheduled to meet with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz over a traditional Ramadan fast-breaking dinner later yesterday, before heading to the earthquake zone today. He was also expected to hold talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf before returning to Turkey later today. (AP)

Nebjosa Minic, a Serbian police commander accused of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, has died in Argentina, where he had been detained since May, local officials in Mendoza province said. Minic, 40, suffered from AIDS and lung cancer, but the cause of death at a hospital in Mendoza was not given. (AFP)