VIENNA (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin restated his opposition to an “imposed solution” in Kosovo yesterday, arguing that Serbia’s territorial integrity should be respected. “Our position is based on civil rights principles, including the principle of territorial integrity, and on former UN Security Council decisions” like Resolution 1244, which determined that Kosovo was part of Serbia, Putin told a joint press conference with Austrian President Heinz Fischer. Such principles of international law can be modified but no solution should be imposed on any party, “rather there should be a dialogue and all the parties should come to an agreement,” he added.

BELGRADE (AP) – Serbian lawmakers elected a pro-Western parliament speaker yesterday to replace an ultra-nationalist whose appointment earlier this month triggered outrage at home and abroad. Oliver Dulic, a 32-year-old doctor from the reformist Democratic Party, was chosen with 136 votes in favor and 98 against in the 250-member assembly. Dulic’s election sidelines the Radical Party’s Tomislav Nikolic, who briefly served as parliament speaker two weeks ago amid a government crisis that threatened to destabilize the Balkan republic. Dulic is the youngest parliament speaker since the multiparty system was introduced in Serbia in 1990, following decades of communism.

Bosnian-Serb police on Tuesday said that no remaining fugitives from the Hague-based UN war crimes court were hiding in Bosnia. “According to our information and information of other intelligence services, The Hague (court) fugitives are not on the Bosnian territory,” head of Bosnian-Serb criminal police Gojko Vasic told journalists. “We have no new information about Mladic, Karadzic and Zupljanin, and all current operations are being conducted outside Bosnian-Serb territory,” Vasic added without elaborating.(AFP)

A psychiatric patient activated a hand grenade in his room at a hospital in central Bosnia, killing himself and another patient and injuring two others, police said yesterday. The 32-year-old man triggered the grenade Tuesday night in the psychiatric department of a hospital in the town of Doboj, said police spokeswoman Ljerka Stanimirovic. A hospital staff member said the patient had been admitted to the psychiatric unit because he had tried to commit suicide in the past. He died instantly, while another patient died later of injuries. Two more suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, the police spokeswoman said. Police were investigating how a hand grenade was brought into the hospital.(AP)