BANJA LUKA (Reuters) – A regional court yesterday banned a 19th-century Serb national song as the anthem of Bosnia’s Serb Republic, saying it violated the national interests of Muslims and Croats living there. “‘The God of Justice’... does not represent all three constitutional peoples as it should as an anthem,” Mirko Zovko, the president of the Serb Republic constitutional court, told a news conference. The court’s decision leaves the Serb half of Bosnia without an anthem.

BUCHAREST (AP) – Some 400 Romanian troops will leave for Iraq on a six-month mission, replacing Romanian peacekeepers already there, the Defense Ministry said yesterday. Romania has about 600 troops in Iraq, most of them stationed with British troops in the south. Their presence in Iraq has become a contentious issue in domestic politics, with Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu calling for their withdrawal.

A Croatian former official should be extradited from Austria to his homeland for trial on charges of embezzling precious gems used in arms deals, a federal court ruled yesterday. Lawyers for Gen. Vladimir Zagorec challenged the decision, and the court said he would be allowed to remain in Austria pending appeal. Zagorec has been released on bail of 1 million euros ($1.38 million). Zagorec, a former deputy defense minister, was arrested on March 13 in the Austrian capital on an international warrant. Croatian prosecutors have accused Zagorec of taking 3.8 million euros’ ($5 million) worth of diamonds later used as collateral for a 1990s weapons purchase. Zagorec has denied the charges. (AP)

The UN war crimes prosecutor reiterated a call yesterday for the arrests of Balkan war crimes suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, 12 years to the day the Bosnian-Serb pair were first indicted. Carla del Ponte said the fact that the former Bosnian-Serb political leader and his army commander remained at large since their 1995 indictments cast “a permanent shadow not only on the work of this tribunal, but also the international community as a whole.” In a statement, Del Ponte said Karadzic and Mladic were charged with “the worst crimes known to humanity and the worst crimes committed in Europe since World War II.” (AFP)