YUGOSLAVIA: The Yugoslav Interior Minister, Mr Zoran Zivkovic, said yesterday he had no "indication" on reports that the Bosnian Serb wartime leaders, Dr Radovan Karadzic and Gen Ratko Mladic, had been arrested.
Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency earlier said that the Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica had told a Kosovan news agency that US special forces had just arrested Dr Karadzic and Gen Mladic, both accused of genocide during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Ms Neda Stanisavljevic, head of Mr Kostunica's press office, denied that the president had made such a statement. "This information is absolutely not true," she said.
Earlier this week a book of poetry written by Dr Karadzic went on sale in Serbia's second city, Novi Sad. Some 300 people attended the promotion of the book From the Crazy Spearhead to the Black Fairytale. - (AFP)
3 die in salmonella outbreak
GLASGOW - Salmonella infection has killed three people and infected a fourth at Glasgow's Victoria Infirmary. An investigation confirmed an initial diagnosis of salmonella on January 8th.The hospital is still investigating the cause of the infection. - (Reuters)
Baby rape charges dropped
JOHANNESBURG - Charges against six South African men accused of raping a nine-month-old baby were dropped yesterday after DNA tests proved negative, South African radio reported.The case of Baby Tshepang, raped after her 16-year-old-mother left her in the care of a friend last October, led to angry protests countrywide. - (Reuters)
Robinson criticises Danish government
COPENHAGEN - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, has criticised the Copenhagen government for closing down the Danish Centre for Human Rights in a cost cutting exercise.
"Your government's proposal to dismember and close down one of the world's model institutions sets a very negative example," Mrs Robinson said in a letter to the Danish Prime Minister, Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen. - (Reuters)
Argentine central banker resigns
BUENOS AIRES - The governor of Argentina's Central Bank resigned yesterday as pressure mounted to overturn unpopular banking curbs and Spain's biggest bank considered pulling out of the devastated economy and blue-chip shares plummeted.
Banks took out full-page newspaper advertisements blaming the government for the financial chaos, and last year's Nobel-winning economist said Argentina was paying the price for "fatal" mistakes by the IMF. - (Reuters)
Ray honoured instead of Jones
LAUDERHILL - A plaque intended to honour black actor James Earl Jones at a Florida celebration of the life of Martin Luther King instead paid tribute to James Earl Ray, the man who killed the black civil rights leader, officials said.
The mix-up was caused by an error by the plaque's designer. The erroneous plaque read: "Thank you James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive." Ray was the man who shot and killed King in 1968 - (Reuters)
SLA members charged
SACRAMENTO - Five ex-members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, including one-time fugitive Sara Jane Olson, were charged with murder on Wednesday for shooting a mother-of-four to death while robbing a California bank in 1975. The charges against the former SLA guerrillas, who shot to fame in the early 1970s after kidnapping newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, came after police arrested three of the suspects early on Wednesday. - (Reuters)