BELGRADE (Reuters) – Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic was arrested in Serbia Thursday after years on the run from international genocide charges, opening the way for the once-pariah state to approach the European mainstream.

Mladic, accused of orchestrating the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica and a brutal 43-month siege of Sarajevo during Bosnia’s 1992-5 war, was found in a farmhouse owned by a cousin, a police official said.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic will face trial on genocide charges in the Hague following his arrest in Serbia after 15 years on the run, with European officials expecting his extradition within 10 days.

The arrest on Thursday of Mladic, the last of the three men blamed for instigating the ethnic cleansing during the 1992-5 Bosnian war, was expected to clear the way for the former pariah state of Serbia to join the European Union.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Ratko Mladic, who has been arrested in Serbia, is accused of orchestrating the methodical slaughter of up to 8,000 Muslims from the Bosnian “safe area” of Srebrenica, in the worst massacre in Europe since World War Two.

The dead were bulldozed into mass graves over four days.

It was the horrific culmination of a 3-1/2-year conflict in which the beefy general pounded the besieged city of Sarajevo daily with the artillery, tanks, mortars and heavy machineguns of his Bosnian Serb army, killing 10,000.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia said on Thursday it had arrested Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic after years on the run from international genocide charges, opening the way for the once-pariah state to seek to join the European Union.

“On behalf of the Republic of Serbia I can announce the arrest of Ratko Mladic. The extradition process is underway,” Serbian President Boris Tadic told reporters in Belgrade.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia said on Thursday it had arrested Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic after years on the run from international genocide charges, opening the way for the once-pariah state to seek to join the European Union.

“On behalf of the Republic of Serbia I can announce the arrest of Ratko Mladic. The extradition process is underway,” Serbian President Boris Tadic told reporters in Belgrade.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Ratko Mladic, who has been arrested in Serbia, is accused of orchestrating the methodical slaughter of up to 8,000 Muslims from the Bosnian “safe area” of Srebrenica, in the worst massacre in Europe since World War Two.

The dead were bulldozed into mass graves over four days.

It was the horrific culmination of a 3-1/2-year conflict in which the beefy general pounded the besieged city of Sarajevo daily with the artillery, tanks, mortars and heavy machineguns of his Bosnian Serb army, killing 10,000.

BELGRADE/VIENNA, May 4 (Reuters) – A Serbian finance
ministry panel rejected on Wednesday a sweetened 1.1 billion
euros ($1.6 billion) offer by Telekom Austria (TELA.VI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to buy a
majority stake in domestic operator Telekom Srbija.

“The work group tasked with the sale… of Telekom Srbija
has considered the offer and proposed that the government reject
it as it failed to fulfil financial conditions from the tender,”
Serbia’s finance ministry said on Wednesday.

VIENNA/BELGRADE, May 2 (Reuters) – Telekom Austria (TELA.VI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)
and the Serbian government on Monday denied media reports the
Austrian company had sweetened a bid for a majority stake in
Telekom Srbija ahead of a deadline this week.

“We have not made an offer so far. The deadline for
submitting an offer ends on May 4 at (1200 GMT),” a company
spokeswoman said in response to reports in Austrian and Serbian
media.

BELGRADE, April 27 (Reuters) – Serbia does not expect to use
income from a planned sale of part of the country’s dominant
telecoms firm to Telekom Austria (TELA.VI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to fund its 2011
budget gap, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said on Wednesday.

“If the sale materialises in May, it will take months before
money is paid to our account, therefore the sale procedure
itself is not allowing us to spend that this year,” Cvetkovic
told parliament.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s conservative opposition leader told at least 50,000 protesters Saturday he would go on a hunger strike until the government agreed to early elections in the Balkan country.

A pro-European Union coalition under President Boris Tadic has governed Serbia since 2008, but economic hardship and frustration with obstacles to progress towards the EU has left many disgruntled in Serbia.