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BULGARIA

Ex-prime minister of Kosovo arrested

SOFIA | Bulgarian authorities have detained a former Kosovo prime minister on an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol, and Serbia sought his extradition Wednesday.

Agim Ceku, the prime minister of Kosovo between 2006 and 2008, was taken into custody at Serbia's request at the Gyueshevo border checkpoint while entering Bulgaria from Macedonia late Tuesday, police said.

Mr. Ceku, 48, is wanted for war crimes purportedly committed during the 1998-99 fighting in Kosovo, when he was military chief of the Kosovo Liberation Army, made up of ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

Mr. Ceku's arrest comes despite repeated requests from U.N. officials in Pristina that the Belgrade-issued arrest warrant be disregarded.

ISRAEL

2 former ministers jailed for graft

JERUSALEM | Israeli courts jailed two former Cabinet ministers Wednesday in cases highlighting what judges called a battle against corruption, months after the last prime minister was forced from office over a police graft probe.

Former Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson, an ally of scandal-hit former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was jailed by a Tel Aviv court for more than five years for theft, fraud and other offenses committed while he was a trade union leader.