BELGRADE (AP) - Serbia’s largest nationalist opposition party announced yesterday it has launched a parliamentary procedure to topple the pro-Western government. Former Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia said it has submitted a motion to the republic’s Parliament for a vote of confidence on the government. Parliament rules require the vote to be held within 14 days, said Dejan Mihajlov, a party spokesman. Bringing down the government in a no-confidence vote requires a simple majority in the 250-seat Parliament. Kostunica’s party, which has 42 deputies, could succeed in its move if it wins support from other defectors from the crumbling democratic block and about 70 deputies from Milosevic’s Socialists and two other nationalist groups.

SARAJEVO (AFP) - The Dayton peace agreement is not perfect but scrapping it would bring chaos to Bosnia as it recovers from the 1992-95 war, the pact’s chief US architect, Richard Holbrooke, said yesterday. “The Dayton agreement is a framework for peace, prosperity and the future in Bosnia. It is not a straightjacket. It is not a prison. Like any constitution, it can be improved,” Holbrooke said after meeting top Bosnian officials. Ditching it altogether would “open up the floodgates of chaos and confusion in the political situation that has progressed a great deal, but is not yet fully mature,” he said.

Four Iranians were killed and 27 others injured yesterday when their bus hurtled down a precipice in mountainous eastern Turkey, the third such accident in the same area over the past month, the Anatolia news agency reported. The accident took place near the village of Somkaya in the province of Agri, where two Iranian buses were involved in similar accidents last month, with the first one claiming 13 lives. Officials told Anatolia that yesterday’s accident occurred when the driver lost control of the vehicle while arguing with his assistant. The Iranians were returning from Syria. (AFP)

A traveling grocer ran over and killed a customer with his van after she complained that he had cheated her over the weight of a bag of potatoes, Croatian police said yesterday. The 18-year-old grocer allegedly ran over 57-year-old Ruzica Ratko on Wednesday when she tried to stop him leaving her driveway, said Zagreb police spokeswoman Gordana Vulama. The man is being held in custody awaiting charges, she added. (AP)