MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia yesterday welcomed the creation of a parliament of Kosovo Serbs in defiance of the United Nations as a “logical response” to Kosovo’s declaration of independence, the Foreign Ministry said. The assembly is the “logical response to the illegal and unilateral declaration of independence of this territory,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It “reflects the will that prevails among the Serbs to oppose their forced integration into the illegal creation of the Kosovo Albanians,” the ministry said.

SARAJEVO (AFP) – The European Commission welcomed the entry into force yesterday of an interim trade deal with Bosnia, which it said created a free trade area between the Balkan country and the European Union. The agreement “effectively creates a free trade area, with progressive opening of the market of Bosnia-Herzegovina facilitating economic and social development,” the EU’s executive body said in a statement. “The free trade area will create economic opportunities and will attract more European investment to Bosnia-Herzegovina,” EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson was quoted as saying.

BUCHAREST (AFP) – A Romanian court on Monday ordered the Defense Ministry to hand over documents proving that former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena are buried in a Bucharest cemetery. The ruling by the Court of Appeal upholds a lower court’s decision in February which had ordered the ministry to prove to the couple’s only surviving son, Valentin, that the remains buried in the cemetery at Ghencea are indeed those of his parents, executed by firing squad after a summary trial on December 25, 1989. Such was the hatred toward the couple that they were buried secretly at night with false names on the crosses, for fear their graves would be vandalized.

The war crimes trial against the former Yugoslav army chief-of-staff has been postponed until October, the International Court for the former Yugoslavia said yesterday. Momcilo Perisic, 64, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as political, racial and religious persecution, and the killing and attacking of civilians. The decision to delay the trial, originally scheduled for July 24, was made at the request of both parties, who asked for further preparation time. (AFP)

Robbers wearing police uniforms and armed with automatic weapons stormed a post office in central Sarajevo and stole hundreds of thousands of euros as security guards watched the Euro 2008 soccer final, media reported yesterday. Sarajevo police confirmed that an undetermined number of armed men robbed the post office at 10.30 p.m. on Sunday, injuring three guards, one of them seriously. Police would not disclose further details. (AFP)

Bulgarian customs seized 20 kilograms (45 pounds) of heroin in a car crossing the border from Turkey and detained a Dutch driver, the customs agency said yesterday. The drug was hidden in a car traveling from Turkey to the Netherlands through the southeastern border checkpoint at Kapitan Andreevo, the agency said in a statement. A 39-year-old Dutch national was arrested. (AFP)

Two men were killed and another two injured when a land mine left over from Bosnia’s 1992-95 war exploded near the northeastern town of Tuzla, police said yesterday. The victims, Hismet Tagic, 45, and Nihad Dagic, 24, were chopping wood on Sunday evening when they triggered the device in a forest near Tuzla. (AFP)

Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic yesterday slammed a lack of police action over the brandishing of pro-Nazi symbols at a music concert in the capital a month ago. “There is video footage of those people... but they have not been sanctioned yet,” Bandic was quoted as saying by the Hina news agency. Some 60,000 people attended the concert by Marko Perkovic, known by his stage name Thompson, which was organized in Zagreb’s main square by veterans of Croatia’s 1991-1995 war of independence from the former Yugoslavia. (AFP)