BELGRADE (AFP) – Serbian ultra-nationalist Vojislav Seselj, who is in jail awaiting a UN war crimes trial, will contest general elections early next year, his party announced. Seselj, who still heads the Serbian Radical Party despite having been in custody at The Hague since February 2003, signed up to top its list of deputies from his cell, the party’s Dragan Todorovic told the Tanjug news agency. The 51-year-old could in theory be elected in the January 21 elections and win a seat in Serbia’s 250-seat Parliament. The Radicals are currently the strongest single political force in Serbia, holding a third of the mandates in the assembly. Seselj began a hunger strike nine days ago, demanding that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) dismiss a lawyer recently appointed to help him in his trial, scheduled to begin next Monday.

BELGRADE (AP) – A former Serb paramilitary soldier suspected of taking part in the execution-style killings of 200 Croatian prisoners of war in 1991 has been arrested in Norway, Serbia’s war crimes prosecutors said yesterday. Damir Sireta was detained in Norway after an international arrest warrant was issued for him, the Serbian war crimes prosecution office said in a statement. There was no immediate confirmation from Norwegian authorities. Sireta is “suspected of taking part in the execution of 200 prisoners of war on the Ovcara farm” near the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar in November 1991, the statement said. Another 15 paramilitaries have recently been convicted by Serbia’s war crimes court and sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for their part in the killings.

Three detainees released from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have arrived in Albania, a government spokesman said yesterday. Albania said on Saturday that it would take in three detainees – an Algerian, an Egyptian and an ethnic Uzbek who was born in the former Soviet Union – after US authorities determined they were no longer “enemy combatants.” “They have arrived in Albania but I don’t know more details,” government spokesman Neritan Sejamini said. (AP)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to begin a visit to Jordan this week for talks on developments in the Middle East and ways to bolster trade, the state-run Petra news agency reported yesterday. Erdogan is due to arrive Friday for a three-day visit during which he will discuss with King Abdullah II and senior officials “the roles which Jordan and Turkey can play in achieving peace and security in the Middle East.” (AFP)