THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic faced the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Friday as a defiant general who never lost a battle, denying the charges against him as “obnoxious” and “monstrous.”

Formally charged by a U.N. tribunal which has waited 16 years to see him in the dock, he began with a wary appeal from a “very sick man” but ended with a defiant flourish of his old bravado, predicting he would be acquitted.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic faced the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Friday as a proud general who never lost a battle, declining to plead guilty and calling charges against him “monstrous”.

He began his first appearance before the court wearing a military forage cap and offering a brief salute. As expected he declined to enter a plea immediately and the court set a date of July 4 for his next hearing.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Ratko Mladic will face his judges at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Friday to answer charges of genocide in the Bosnia war.

The former Bosnian Serb Army commander, once a burly and intimidating figure on the battlefield, is now in frail health, looking much older than his 69 years.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Ratko Mladic was at the height of his military power when the United Nations set up the Hague tribunal 17 years ago in the middle of Europe’s bloodiest war since 1945, over the dismembered territory of Yugoslavia.

The Bosnian Serb Army general, commanding forces which had the heavy weaponry of Yugoslavia’s arsenals, scoffed at the theoretical risk of prosecution.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli troops shot Palestinian protesters who surged toward its frontiers with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza Sunday, killing at least 13 people on the day Palestinians mourn the establishment of Israel in 1948.

In the deadliest such confrontation in years of anniversary clashes usually confined to the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli forces opened fire in three separate border locations to prevent crowds of demonstrators from crossing frontier lines.

By Douglas Hamilton

TEL AVIV (Reuters Life!) – Naked crowds in public places have made American photographer Spencer Tunick world famous, but his plan for an installation featuring hundreds of nude Israelis floating in the Dead Sea has hit money problems.

His photographs of hundreds of naked men and women of “all religions, shapes and sizes” in locations such as the Sydney Opera House and Switzerland’s Aletsch Glacier have won critical acclaim and attracted fans worldwide.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An ill-fated attempt to smooth over a dispute in Gaza’s Palestinian Islamist movement was the real reason behind the salvo of mortars Hamas fired at Israel four-days-ago, triggering a flare-up of fighting, observers say.

If it was a ploy, it went badly wrong. Ten people have been killed in the cycle of violence, and some on both sides fear a new war could erupt unless it is contained.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Lethal strikes in Gaza and a deadly suitcase bomb in Jerusalem on Wednesday confirmed fears that violence between Israelis and Palestinians is on the rise again after nearly two years of relative calm.

Virtually ignored for the past three months as the neighbouring Arab world plunged into turmoil, the 62-year-old Middle East conflict has slid quickly back into its familiar cycle of bloody attack, retaliation and counter-attack.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Lethal strikes in Gaza and a deadly suitcase bomb in Jerusalem Wednesday confirmed fears that violence between Israelis and Palestinians is on the rise again after nearly two years of relative calm.

Virtually ignored for the past three months as the neighboring Arab world plunged into turmoil, the 62-year-old Middle East conflict has slid quickly back into its familiar cycle of bloody attack, retaliation and counter-attack.

LONDON (Reuters) – Military targets will grow harder to hit and the risk of deadly errors will increase as Western nations pursue their air campaign over Libya, with no guarantee of stopping Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in their tracks.

While three nights of bombing have enforced a no-fly zone and appear to have knocked out surface-to-air missile defences, they have yet to stop Gaddafi loyalists attacking rebel cities.