The Serbian justice minister has confirmed Ratko Mladic is on plane on his way to The Hague.

Judges have rejected an appeal by war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic seeking to stop his extradition to a UN tribunal.

The lawyer for war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic says the former general is so ill he will not live to see the start of his trial on genocide charges.

Protesters throwing stones and bottles clashed with baton-wielding riot police in Belgrade after several thousand Serbian nationalist supporters of jailed war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic rallied outside the parliament building to demand his release.

PROTESTERS throwing stones and bottles clashed with baton-wielding riot police yesterday in Belgrade after several thousand Serbian nationalist supporters of jailed war-crimes suspect Ratko Mladic rallied outside the parliament building to demand his release.

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal is fully equipped to deal with any health issues suffered by genocide suspect Ratko Mladic when he is extradited to stand trial in The Hague, a spokeswoman said.

After 16 years on the run, a frail and haggard Ratko Mladic was hauled before a judge in the first step towards charges for international war crimes, including the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

Ratko Mladic, the ruthless Bosnian Serb military leader charged with orchestrating Europe’s worst massacre of civilians since the Second World War, was arrested at a relative’s home in a tiny Serbian village today after a 16-year hunt.

Mortal remains

Hezbollah supporters gathered in the streets of Beirut early today after a UN tribunal filed indictments over the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, prompting several schools to close as nervous parents withdrew their children from class.

Serbian MPs narrowly approved a declaration condemning the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, in a bid to distance the country from the past warmongering under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Patriarch Pavle, who led Serbia’s Christian Orthodox Church through its post-Communist revival and called for peace and conciliation during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s but failed to openly condemn Serb nationalism, died today. He was 95.

War-time Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is requesting that the UN Security Council pass a resolution exempting him from trial at the UN's Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, insisting he was promised immunity by an American envoy.

Video clips showing war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic living freely in Serbia have emerged on Bosnian state TV.

LEBANON’S Hezbollah yesterday rejected charges in a German magazine that it was behind the 2005 killing of statesman Rafik al-Hariri and said the “fabrications” were made to try to influence next month’s general election.

Nationalists were planning a huge anti-government rally in Serbia's capital today as Radovan Karadzic's lawyer predicted the government will try to whisk the arrested war crimes suspect off to the UN tribunal before the protest.

Hard-line supporters of Serbian mass killer Radovan Karadzic are threatening to bring violent chaos to Belgrade tomorrow with a huge rally in his support.

HE WAS accused of masterminding massacres that the United Nations war crimes tribunal described as “scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history”.

Thousands of survivors of Europe’s worst massacre since the Second World War sued the United Nations and the Dutch government today for their failure to protect civilians in the Srebrenica safe haven when Bosnian Serb forces overran it in 1995.

ENVIRONMENT Minister Dick Roche has given up hope of using international law to shut down a new reactor at the Sellafield nuclear power plant.

A RENOWNED Rwandan singer went on trial yesterday before a UN tribunal, accused of writing lyrics that incited the notorious 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which 500,000 people were killed in just 100 days.

Serbia has stepped up efforts to capture war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic by putting into effect a secret government plan to arrest him, the interior minister said today.

Serbia’s government is drafting an “action plan” to locate and capture top war crimes suspect General Ratko Mladic, a senior government official said today.

Judges at the UN Yugoslav Tribunal in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for a former prime minister of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska for contempt of court.

EUROPEAN judges are due to rule today on the legality of the Government’s decision to complain to the UN about the Sellafield nuclear plant.

European judges will rule tomorrow on the legality of a Government decision to complain to the United Nations about the Sellafield nuclear plant.

The lower house of the Russian parliament today harshly criticised the UN War Crimes Tribunal, blaming it for Slobodan Milosevic’s death and calling for its quick closure.

A HEARSE took the body of Slobodan Milosevic to Amsterdam airport last night as Serbia cleared the way for the former Yugoslav president’s widow to return for a funeral in Belgrade.

A Belgrade court has suspended an arrest warrant for Slobodan Milosevic’s widow, but also ordered her passport to be seized, leaving in doubt a Belgrade funeral for the former Yugoslav president.

An official with Slobodan Milosevic’s party said today that an arrest warrant for Milosevic’s wife had been suspended, leading to a possible Belgrade funeral for the former Yugoslav president.

Slobodan Milosevic’s body was being released to his family today after an eight-hour autopsy revealed that the former Yugoslav president died of a heart attack in his prison cell.

SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC died of a heart attack in his jail cell, according to preliminary post-mortem findings last night.

Dutch pathologists conducted a post mortem examination and toxicological tests today to determine what killed Slobodan Milosevic amid claims that the ex-Yugoslav leader feared he was being poisoned.

Borislav Milosevic, the older brother of late ex-Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, said today that the family does not trust the UN tribunal to conduct his autopsy impartially.

Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president indicted for war crimes for orchestrating the Balkan wars of the 1990s, was found dead in his prison cell near The Hague, the UN tribunal said today.

The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague, Netherlands, was adjourned today after the defendant said he was feeling too ill to proceed.

THE Irish government is facing a court action as a result of its own legal efforts to close down the controversial nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield.

The European Union opened membership talks with Croatia after the United Nations war crimes tribunal’s chief prosecutor said the government in Zagreb was now co-operating fully with efforts to bring a suspect to trial.

The arrest of an alleged Croatian underworld boss in Greece has raised hopes that one of the UN war crimes tribunal’s most wanted suspects is also within grasp.

Bosnian Serb police today said several bombs had been found at Srebrenica’s memorial centre ahead of the 10th anniversary of the wartime massacre.

Police and spies have practically taken over the house of Bosnia’s most wanted war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic, anxious to see whether he returns home for the funeral of his mother, a Sarajevo daily newspaper reported today.

The mother of top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic died today, hospital officials said.

Serbian authorities are hunting for war crimes suspect General Ratko Mladic, but a number of raids on his alleged hide-outs – including a monastery – have failed to locate the elusive ex-commander, a top official said in an interview published today.

Ann Cahill, Europe Correspondent