BELGRADE (AFP) – Serbian police carried out searches in a spa town south of Belgrade yesterday as part of the hunt for Bosnian Serb war crime fugitive Ratko Mladic, prosecutors said. A statement said that Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, had ordered police to undertake searches in Arandjelovac, 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the capital. A police source said the target was premises where Mladic was thought to have stayed, but gave no further details.

SARAJEVO (AFP) – A Facebook group glorifying the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims appeared to have been shut down yesterday following complaints about its content. The link to the Serbian group “Noz, zica, Srebrenica,” or “Knife, Wire, Srebrenica,” which had attracted about a thousand people, was no longer directing users to the page, but no explanation was given. A group opposed to the site had attracted 15,832 people since being created on Monday and alerted the administrator about it. It said the controversial site “glorifies the acts of genocide... (and) propagates hatred to all Muslims.”

ZAGREB (AFP) – Croatia and Serbia yesterday agreed to step up police cooperation to tackle organized crime in the Balkans, with the Croatian capital in particular hit by a recent spate of mafia-style violence. Visiting Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Croatian Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko signed the agreement. “We signed a memorandum defining further cooperation... notably the importance of strengthening police cooperation aimed at efficient prevention of all forms of organized crime,” Karamarko told journalists. He added that being aware of a “turbulent situation regarding organized crime in the region... we encourage the exchange of information, even the joint fight against criminals who know no borders.”

Visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said in Mexico City late Thursday his government would keep all options on the table, including the use of military force, in dealing with separatist Kurdish PKK rebels. “In our struggle against this organization we’re using many tools, including the military,” Babacan told a joint press conference with his Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa. Babacan’s statement comes nine days after a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) spokesman announced a unilateral, nine-day ceasefire with the Turkish army from November 7 to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast and to signal to Ankara they are ready for peace negotiations. Asked about the ceasefire, Babacan reminded reporters that the PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the EU, the US and Turkey’s neighbor Iraq. “The key step such groups must take is to stop committing acts of terrorism,” he said. (AFP)

Hundreds of young people held a silent rally in Sofia yesterday, urging the government to step up the fight against crime after drunk youths beat a student to death. Inspired by protests in neighboring Greece, students called on the Socialist-led government to show it can impose rule of law and crack down on widespread gang crime in the dozens of bars and nightclubs in Sofia’s student district. “We stand against what is happening in Bulgaria – because life here is full of aggression,” said student Orlin Viktorov, 25. “But we will not do as in Greece – you cannot fight violence with violence,” he said. (Reuters)

Bosnia’s largest state power company announced yesterday it would give out more than half a million energy-saving light bulbs to encourage customers to use them. Elektroprivreda BiH was to launch the monthlong campaign on Monday, it said in a statement, and customers will be presented with bulbs when they pay power bills at the company’s counters. “We are doing this to protect our customers’ standard of living by helping them pay smaller power bills and in order to protect the environment,” the company’s executive sales manager Emir Aganovic said. (AFP)