SKOPJE (AP) - International monitors yesterday again reported irregularities in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)’s latest round of local elections but Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski praised the voting as a “model” for future elections. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said in a preliminary report that Sunday’s voting “took place in a generally calm atmosphere, but with low voter participation and cases of electoral malpractice again witnessed by observers in a number of municipalities.” The state electoral commission confirmed that opposition-backed businessman Trifun Kostovski, 58, won the capital Skopje in a second round runoff with 96,000 votes.

BELGRADE (AFP) - A sergeant who deserted from the Serbia-Montenegro army says top Bosnian-Serb fugitive Ratko Mladic was hiding at an army barracks in Belgrade in June 2004, the daily newspaper Danas reported here yesterday. “I was part of the third security circle protecting Mladic, my duty was to assure his safe passage south if he needed to flee to Macedonia,” said Miroslav Petrovic, 26, who deserted in November after seven years’ service.

Bosnia’s international administrator met with Serbia’s leaders yesterday to seek the arrest of two top war crimes suspects wanted by a UN tribunal — Bosnian-Serb wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. Paddy Ashdown also praised Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs for the recent extradition of 12 Serb suspects to The Hague. “The process (of cooperation with The Hague) has now started, and that required political courage,” Ashdown said after meeting with Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic. (AP)

The Bulgarian chess federation has invited former world chess champion Bobby Fischer to a tournament in May in Sofia, federation chief Jivko Guinshev said. “We hope he will accept. A representative of the Bulgarian federation may travel to Iceland, where Fischer lives, to discuss the invitation if necessary,” Guinshev told AFP. Fischer is wanted by US authorities for breaking a UN embargo against Yugoslavia in 1992 by playing a chess match against Boris Spassky in Sveti Stefan, Montenegro. (AFP)

Three Romanian journalists kidnapped nearly two weeks ago in Iraq are alive and Romanian authorities are optimistic about getting them home, the president’s office said yesterday. (AP)