With a thin pink quilt pulled around his shoulders and three rusty metal coffins to keep him company, Bratislav Stojkovic is spending another freezing night inside a tomb at a long-forgotten municipal cemetery in the southern Serbian city of Nis.

European leaders accepted Macedonia as a candidate for EU membership today, but linked the Balkan nation’s entry to a debate on the union’s future and its ability to absorb more relatively poor newcomers.

SLOBODAN Milosevic began his long-delayed defence against war crimes charges yesterday, denouncing the accusations as “unscrupulous lies”.