GENEVA (Reuters) - Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said yesterday that despite the lack of a “smoking gun,” she had enough evidence to convict former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of genocide. “Let’s see if we manage to convince the judges that despite what we are missing — the confession or other (evidence) — that he can be convicted of genocide,” she said. Del Ponte also said she expected Britain in the next few days to propose a judge to replace Richard May, the presiding judge who stepped down last month for health reasons.

ANKARA (AFP) - Prosecutors in central Turkey have indicted three people over the collapse of an apartment block in February which claimed 92 lives, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. The architect of the block and two of his associates were accused of “causing death through negligence” and could face several months in prison if found guilty, the report said. It was not clear when the trial would start.

The Bulgarian Parliament yesterday ratified the adhesion treaty for joining NATO in April along with six other former communist states. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia will hand their ratification documents to officials in Washington on March 29 in the last step before adhesion. (AFP)

The UN war crimes tribunal sentenced a retired Serb admiral in the Yugoslav navy to seven years in prison Friday for shelling the Croatian coastal city Dubrovnik in 1991, killing two people and wreaking havoc on the historic city. Admiral Miodrag Jokic, 69, was convicted on six counts of murder, unlawful attacks on civilians and the destruction of religious and historic monuments in an attack by troops under his command on a single day, December 6, 1991. (AP)

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the British Council’s office in the Turkish capital, causing no injuries but some damage to property, the state-run Anatolia news agency said yesterday. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, which occurred late on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Romania’s Environment Ministry said yesterday that toxic waste containing cyanide had spilled into a river in the northeast of the country and could pose health hazards and kill fish. Cyanhydric acetone, used in production of detergents, leaked from a storage tank at the Metadet chemical plant in Falticeni, 500 km (300 miles) north of Bucharest, into Somuzul Mare, a tributary of the Siret River which flows into the Danube. The plant has been out of operation since 2000 but still houses tanks storing chemicals. “We estimate that 10 tons of toxic substances leaked into the river,” Ioan Jelev of the ministry told Reuters. (Reuters)