Pristina - The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said Friday that international judges returned to work in the volatile town of Mitrovica six months after their violent ouster.

"The reopening of the court in north Mitrovica is a first step to ensure that rule of law is provided to everyone in Kosovo," UNMIK said in a statement.

The court was shut down in mid-March after it was stormed and occupied by Serb demonstrators.

Pristina, Kosovo  - Kosovo police said Thursday it has arrested the customs deputy director and five other customs officials suspected of allowing organized crime to smuggle vast amounts of fuel.

Also arrested was a businessman who allegedly bribed the officials into allowing his fuel tankers to pass without paying duty.

"The officials were arrested for abusing their position, for accepting bribes and bribing others ... in complicity of organized crime," police spokesman Veton Elshani told reporters.

The arrested customs employees operated on Kosovo's main border pass toward Macedonia. They are suspected of inflicting damage to the state adminIstration of almost 1 million euros (1.4 million dollars).

Pristina - Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in February afte

Pristina  - The Kosovo government named on Thursday its first ten diplomats for postings to diplomatic missions in the West.

Diplomats, among whom are former journalists, professors, scientists, civil activists and presidential advisers, will represent Kosovo in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Austria, Switzerland and Albania.

The ten nominees will be at the level of "charge d'affaires" and not ambassadors.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February and has been recognized by more than 40 countries, including the US and a majority of European Union countries.

Pristina  - A top Kosovo Albanian politician Friday accused Belgrade of dangerously raising tensions by sending police to illegally control the northern, Serb-dominated section of Kosovo.

Pristina - Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu sig