SARAJEVO (AFP) - Survivors of Bosnia’s wartime massacre in Srebrenica will file a compensation claim to the Dutch government next week for failing to prevent the worst European atrocity since World War II, a lawyer said yesterday. “We are to file a request for out-of-court settlement to the Dutch government on July 1, demanding compensation for the victims,” said Semir Guzin, a lawyer representing families of the Srebrenica massacre.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania plans to offer courses in Holocaust history to high-school students in a bid to face up to its dark Nazi past and prevent racism among youngsters, education authorities said yesterday. Romania, an ally of Nazi Germany in World War II, denied as recently as last year that the Holocaust ever took place on its territory, despite evidence of the killings of hundreds of thousands of Jews. “It’s a project of paramount importance for teenagers who need to learn about the horrors of the past, about the Holocaust in Romania,” Education Ministry inspector Doru Dumitrescu told Reuters.

Thirteen accused gang members implicated in the assassination of Serbia’s Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic were convicted yesterday on drug trafficking and other charges. The 13 alleged members of the Zemun Clan were arrested during months of sweeps following Djindjic’s 2003 murder. Several members are also being tried for their alleged roles in the assassination. (AP)

A former Kosovo Albanian rebel leader charged with kidnapping and attempted extortion was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a United Nations court yesterday, his lawyer said. Shefqet Musliu was a senior figure in the now-dismantled Albanian Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (LAPMB), and figures on a US blacklist alongside 22 other ethnic Albanians regarded as threats to Balkan security. (AFP)

NATO-led peacekeepers raided the wartime base of top Bosnian war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic here yesterday, soldiers said. NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) spokesman Marc Hope said only that the search of a hotel and political party headquarters was “part of our ongoing operations to ensure a safe and secure environment in the country.” He did not say whether the operation was related to the apprehension of genocide suspect Karadzic. (AFP)

Bulgaria said yesterday it will replace its 450-strong battalion in Iraq with a larger force and move its operations to a safer base on the outskirts of the flashpoint city of Kerbala next month. (Reuters)

The first train in 14 years was due to leave Serbia yesterday for the Adriatic coast of neighboring Croatia, reviving a link severed when the two countries went to war in 1991 as Yugoslavia crumbled. But only 23 people have bought tickets for the inaugural trip, the Belgrade-based Beta news agency reported. (Reuters)