ROME - Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic is under investigation in Italy for involvement in a cigarette-smuggling ring and links to organized crime, judicial sources said yesterday. Prosecutors in the southern city of Bari have formally opened an investigation into Djukanovic for links to mafia groups involved in cigarette smuggling. Several former associates of the Montenegrin president are also under investigation, sources said. The investigation was opened after a key witness and several informers involved in the smuggling ring came forward and provided information on Djukanovic. (AFP)

BERLIN - Germany’s Cabinet yesterday approved a four-month extension to the peacekeeping mission of German troops in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), a government spokesman said. The decision follows NATO’s decision last week to extend “Operation Amber Fox” in FYROM from June 26 to October 26. German parliamentary approval is still required, but expected. (AP)

The release on bail of a Bosnian Serb by the UN war crimes court was welcomed yesterday by the Bosnian-Serb Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic, who said it could encourage other wanted men to surrender. Bosnian-Serb Lieutenant Colonel Dragan Jokic, who faces war crimes charges over his alleged role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, arrived back in Banja Luka on Tuesday after being granted bail by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) pending his trial. Ivanic said Jokic was bailed after his government had offered to guarantee his return. (AFP)

Prosecutors in Lyon, France, said yesterday they have broken up a theft ring that used miniature cameras to steal credit card numbers and their confidential codes. At least 143 people were victims of a scam that targeted gas station users in the southern French city, prosecutors said. Two Bulgarian nationals who allegedly operated the scam were arrested on Monday. They are accused of placing a miniature camera at a gas pump to photograph credit card numbers and the secret codes that customers punched into a keyboard. The camera transmitted the information to receiving equipment the men operated from a nearby car. The information was then sent to Bulgaria and Romania where false credit cards were manufactured. (AP)

In the latest effort to cut down on cigarette consumption, the Bulgarian government said yesterday it would ban smoking in schools and hospitals and fine those who do not comply. (AP)

Bulgaria created a special ministry yesterday to oversee EU accession talks and related reforms. The department is to be led by Meglena Kuneva, the country’s chief negotiator with the EU. She is expected to work to build consensus on sensitive issues such as the EU demand for the closure of four of the country’s six nuclear reactors. (AP)