Netherlands: Milosevic obstinate at war crimes tribunal
Slobodan Milosevic made a defiant appearance Wednesday at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, dismissing the judges as biased in his last hearing before going on trial for alleged war crimes in Kosovo.
Keeping up his opposition to the U.N. court, Milosevic clashed with presiding Judge Richard May of Britain and said his case was unfair because it was based only on British intelligence and would be presented by a British judge.
The hearing in The Hague laid the groundwork for Milosevic's first trial, due to start Feb. 12.
Prosecutors said they plan to call scores of witnesses and present more than 1,400 exhibits to prove the ousted leader led a Serb onslaught against ethnic Albanians in 1998-1999.
Colombia: Talks with rebels end
President Andres Pastrana's government declared an end to three years of unsuccessful peace talks with Colombia's largest guerrilla army Wednesday and gave the rebels 48 hours to leave the vast safe haven that was turned over to them as a venue for negotiations.
The Colombian army was placed on high alert, with orders to begin moving back into the Switzerland-size zone later this week. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the 18,000-member insurgent group that is now the de facto government there, had no immediate comment on whether it would withdraw. It did say it hoped to revive the talks.
Pastrana has staked his presidency on bringing peace to Colombia, where a worsening civil war pitting two Marxist-inspired rebel groups against the Colombian military and a growing paramilitary force is claiming more than 3,000 lives a year.
Northern Ireland: Violence flares again outside Catholic school
Seventeen police officers were hurt as Roman Catholic and Protestant rioters clashed with authorities into the early hours today outside a Catholic girls' school that was the focus of months of heated protests last fall.
Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said 200 police officers and 200 soldiers had been deployed to restore calm.
Police said officers were attacked with stones, fireworks and gasoline bombs, and several police vehicles were set afire in the violence outside Holy Cross Primary School in the divided Ardoyne area of north Belfast.
The disturbance began as parents were collecting their children after school. Between 30 and 50 people appeared to be involved in the riot, police said.
The Holy Cross school was built in the Protestant neighborhood shortly before Northern Ireland's conflict ignited in 1969.
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