BANJA LUKA - Montenegro’s president denied allegations that Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian-Serb wartime leader and war crimes fugitive, had used his republic as a hideout, in comments published yesterday. “Karadzic neither was nor is now in Montenegro,” said President Milo Djukanovic in an interview with the daily Nezavisne Novine. “This malevolent misinformation comes from forces who seek an excuse for their inefficiency in discovering Karadzic’s whereabouts and arresting him,” he said. (AFP)

THE HAGUE - Croatian-Serb wartime leader Milan Martic is to appear before the UN court here today to answer charges of war crimes for ordering the bombing of the Croatian capital Zagreb in 1995. At his initial appearance at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Martic will hear the charges against him and can enter a plea. The former president of the self-proclaimed Serb Republic of Krajina turned himself over to the tribunal Wednesday declaring his innocence and vowing to “fight for the truth about my people.” (AFP)

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic served as the best man at the prison wedding of another war crimes suspect in the UN jail near The Hague, a tribunal spokesman said Sunday. “Milosevic served as best man at the wedding of Predrag Banovic,” detained in the international court accused of crimes against humanity, court spokesman Jim Landale said. The ceremony took place Saturday at the UN detention unit in the coastal town of Scheveningen. (AFP)

Bosnia launched its first common identity card yesterday in a further bid to bridge the ethnic divide left by the 1992-95 war and bring the country closer to Europe. “This is the central building block for a sovereign, modern and civic-minded state of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” outgoing international peace overseer Wolfgang Petritsch said at a ceremony promoting the new document. (Reuters)

More than 80,000 public service workers in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), among them teachers, justice officials and civilians working at the Defense Ministry, went on strike yesterday, demanding that their salaries be doubled. “We demand that the minimal wage in the public service be increased to 120 euros” ($110), said Vanco Muratovski, head of the Workers’ Unions. The average salary in the public service currently stands at about 50 euros. (AFP)

The US announced yesterday that it would reopen its consulate in the Aegean port city of Izmir, a mission it had closed for budgetary reasons in 1993. The consulate will work to develop trade links between the Aegean region and the United States, a statement from the US Embassy in Ankara said. The consulate is to reopen today. (AP)