The Serbian capital Belgrade is braced for a river water surge that threatens to inundate the country’s main power plant and cause major power cuts, as the Balkans continue to struggle with the consequences of the worst flooding in south-eastern Europe in more than a century.

By Will Downing

Out goes Shay Given, 36 years of age and 125 caps. In comes James McCarthy, 21 years of age, three caps.

A SUPERB late Gary McCabe equaliser saw Shamrock Rovers cheered off the pitch in Tallaght last night but the earlier concession of an away goal means that Partizan Belgrade retain the whip hand in this Europa League play-off game ahead of next week’s second leg in the Serbian capital.

A 5.3-magnitude earthquake rattled central Serbia overnight, killing at least two people and injuring 50.

SERBIAN riot police fought running battles with hundreds of far-right supporters who tried to disrupt a gay pride march in central Belgrade yesterday.

ITALIAN midfielder Alberto Aquilani could find himself being thrown to the Wolves as Liverpool struggle desperately to save their season.

RADOVAN Karadzic, who led Bosnian Serbs into a 1992-1995 war that killed 100,000 people, says his conscience is clear and he does not regret his role for which he is awaiting trial on genocide charges.

A mass grave believed to contain dozens of victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre has been discovered in eastern Bosnia, officials said.

Nato troops closed roads between Serbia and northern Kosovo and armed UN police guarded wrecked border checkpoints today preparing for more protests by Serbs incensed by the country’s declaration of independence.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern begins a four-day visit to the Balkans tomorrow amid political unrest in the region.

Serbia’s foreign minister is proposing an eight-point agenda for new talks on Kosovo that would be unlimited in time and without independence for the Serbian province as the pre-determined outcome.

A planned Rolling Stones concert in Belgrade will not take place at the Serbian city’s racetrack to avoid upsetting hundreds of horses stabled nearby, concert organisers said today.

Fighting in Afghanistan, mounting tension in Kosovo and American plans to build anti-missile defences in Europe will dominate talks among Nato foreign ministers in Norway.

CORK CITY arrived in the Serbian capital late last night without controversial midfielder George O’Callaghan ahead of the critical Champions League second leg qualifier against Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday.

America has suspended aid to the Serbia-Montenegro government because it is refusing to co-operate with the tribunal set up by the United Nations to deal with war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, the US State Department said today.

The rising Danube flooded hundreds of homes in Serbia and Bulgaria today and threatened production at one of the Balkan’s biggest power plants.

UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari arrived in Kosovo today on a fact-finding mission before crucial talks that will determine whether Kosovo becomes an independent nation or a self-governing region within Serbia.

Three carriages of a passenger train carrying more than a hundred school children derailed today in western Serbia, disrupting railway traffic but causing no injuries.

Gen Ratko Mladic’s days as a war crimes fugitive may be numbered, according to a senior US State Department official who announced the US was lifting its freeze on a $10m (€8.2m) aid package to Serbia-Montenegro.

SERBIAN war crimes suspect Miroslav Radic, wanted for the killing of civilians and prisoners of war in Croatia in 1991, has handed himself over to authorities in Belgrade, the Beta news agency reported yesterday.

Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic returned to court today after a two week recovery from flu to face evidence from a former Croatian defence minister.