Slobodan Milosevic’s death just before the end of his trial deprived victims of justice – and made the capture of war crimes fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic even more urgent, the chief UN prosecutor said today.

The death of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic does not absolve Serbia of responsibility to hand over war crimes suspects from the Balkan wars of the 1990s, the European Union said today.

MILAN Babic, the Serb leader of a rebel republic in Croatia and one of the key figures in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, committed suicide in prison, the UN war crimes tribunal said yesterday.

Milan Babic, the Serb leader of a rebel republic in Croatia and one of the key figures in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, has committed suicide in a Netherlands prison, the UN war crimes tribunal said today.

Milan Babic, the leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia and one of the key figures in the early Balkan wars of the 1990s, committed suicide in the Netherlands prison where he was serving a 13-year sentence, the UN war crimes tribunal said today.

Croatian war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina pleaded not guilty today to seven counts of murder, persecution and expulsion of Serbs during the critical final months of the Croatian war in 1995.

TWO Vincent Van Gogh paintings and works by Paul Cezanne and Leonardo da Vinci are among paintings worth €525 million that have made it on to an FBI most wanted list.

EUROPEAN Union leaders clashed yesterday over a plan to set up camps in North Africa to process immigrants and asylum seekers to help stop the flow of illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

EU leaders clashed today over a plan to set up camps in North Africa to process immigrants and asylum seekers to help stop the flow of illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

STORMS killed at least 33 people across northern Europe over the weekend, destroying buildings, uprooting trees and disrupting travel by air, land and sea.

Slobodan Milosevic’s lawyers today asked a Dutch judge to rule that the UN wear crimes court is illegal and to free the former Yugoslav president who is awaiting trial for alleged atrocities in Kosovo.

Slobodan Milosevic says he’s not suicidal, is in good health and high spirits, and is convinced he did the right thing for Yugoslavia, said a Canadian lawyer who saw the former Yugoslav President in jail yesterday.

The Dutch vessel dubbed the ‘‘abortion ship’’ has begun its controversial 10-day visit to Ireland with crew claiming that women seeking to terminate their pregnancies in the state were having their human rights violated.

The vessel, registered in the Dutch port of Scheveningen, carries an operating theatre within a converted container attached to its deck.

A Dutch boat is on its way to Ireland, fitted with an abortion clinic and security equipment to protect the ship against pro-life activists.