Balkans

SARAJEVO (Reuters) – A man shot and killed six people in a village near the northern Bosnian town of Tuzla on Thursday, gunning down three in their homes and three aboard a bus, police and witnesses at the scene said.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Serbia denied it was guilty of genocide during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia on Monday, opening its defense before the U.N.’s highest court against Croatian allegations of ethnic cleansing.

(Reuters) – Courted by rival pro-Western and nationalist blocs for a coalition government, Serbia’s Socialists are torn between a new respectability in Europe and the legacy of their founder, autocrat Slobodan Milosevic.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Courted by pro-Western and nationalist rivals for a coalition government, Serbia’s Socialists are torn between seeking new respectability in Europe and the legacy of their founder, autocrat Slobodan Milosevic.

ZAGREB (Reuters) – President George W. Bush assured Macedonia on Saturday that the United States wants it in NATO as soon as possible, along with other former Yugoslav republics.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – The U.N. war crimes tribunal acquitted Kosovo’s former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj on Thursday of charges of torturing and murdering Serbs during the 1998-99 war.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to focus on areas of agreement rather than discord at talks with NATO leaders on Friday, in efforts to keep ties with the West on a relatively even keel before he steps down.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – A delay in inviting Macedonia to join NATO could encourage radicals and fuel instability in the Balkans, Albania’s prime minister said, urging compromise to allow a last-minute deal at an alliance summit on Wednesday.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – President George W. Bush urged NATO allies on Wednesday to send more troops to Afghanistan, but France distanced itself from expectations in the alliance that it could deploy 1,000 extra soldiers.

PRISTINA (Reuters) – Serbia said on Monday it would conduct its May elections in the former Kosovo province as well, in a fresh challenge to the newly independent state and its international overseers.