BELGRADE (Reuters) - UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said yesterday she was not satisfied with Serbia’s search for war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic, whose arrest is key to the country clinching closer ties to the European Union. “I must tell you, I am not satisfied about the implementation of the action plan,” she said, referring to the Serbian government’s plan to find and arrest Mladic, twice indicted for genocide for his role in the 1992-95 Bosnia war. Asked whether she would give a positive assessment to the EU so that suspended talks on closer ties might restart, she said: “Not now. Let’s see in the next weeks, maybe. I hope. I want to have Mladic in The Hague,” she added.

PODGORICA (AP) - Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, the longest-serving leader in the Balkans who led his tiny state to independence, will step down, the president said yesterday. President Filip Vujanovic, who intended to offer Djukanovic another four-year premiership after their center-left coalition swept Montenegro’s general elections last month, told state radio that Djukanovic turned down the offer. “Djukanovic’s decision is firm,” Vujanovic said, adding that Djukanovic will remain the leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists.

Bulgarian authorities warned people against using water from the Danube River yesterday after a large oil spill flowed downstream into its territory. The spill, 140 kilometers (86 miles) long and between 100 and 150 meters wide, may have originated in Serbia, although Belgrade has not confirmed its source, said Kristian Kirilov, head of the civil defense office in the Danube port of Vidin. “We have warned people not to water their crops or animals and to stop fishing in the Danube,” he told Reuters. (Reuters)

A young Turkish man was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for killing his unmarried teenage sister to avenge the family honor after she became pregnant, the Anatolia news agency reported. The court in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, classified the murder as an “honor killing” and handed down a life sentence against Selahattin Sezgin, 22, even though he had argued that he killed his sister in a fit of anger during an argument, the report said. According to media reports, he shot the 16-year-old Meryem twice, in the chest and the head, in July after learning she had become pregnant after running away from home. (AFP)