SARAJEVO (AP) - Bosnia’s top international official, Paddy Ashdown, said yesterday that the Balkan country could face a third, crucial rejection to join NATO’s Partnership for Peace program because of the Bonsian Serbs’ failure to arrest war crimes suspects. NATO will consider Bosnia’s application for the program, seen as a first step to join the alliance, in April. Ashdown said if the Bosnian Serbs do not step up efforts to capture the fugitives wanted by a UN war crimes tribunal, “I do not believe that NATO should ask Bosnia-Herzegovina to apply again.”

ANKARA (AFP) - Four Kurdish former lawmakers, including award-winning human rights activist Leyla Zana, pleaded innocent and asked for a fair hearing yesterday in a high-profile retrial for alleged links with armed Kurdish rebels. “I reject the accusations,” Zana told the court in Ankara in her first defense argument. “The trial should be fair and in line with the decision of the (Turkish) appeals court and the European Court of Human Rights.” Her colleagues and co-defendants — Hatip Dicle, Selim Sadak and Orhan Dogan — also pleaded not guilty.

The UN war crimes tribunal yesterday named a third aide to top Bosnian-Serb fugitive Ratko Mladic who is indicted with two other ex-generals for murder, persecution and deportation of Muslims. The tribunal said Zdravko Tolimir, Bosnian-Serb army assistant commander for intelligence and security, faces the same charges as another ex-general who surrendered Thursday and a third expected in The Hague on Monday. (Reuters)

Albania decided to reinforce its small UN military contingent in Iraq by 50 soldiers, a government spokesman said yesterday. (AFP)

Balkan neighbors Bulgaria and Romania said yesterday they would share an area of air space straddling parts of both their common border as the first step in creating a single airspace over Southeastern Europe. (AP)

A 75-year-old woman has been arrested in Belgrade for alleged heroin dealing and possession of arms, police said yesterday. Olga Tasic was arrested along with another man who had allegedly been distributing drugs for her, the police said in a statement. (AFP)