A pro-European Union candidate and a nationalist opponent are headed for a run-off in Serbia's presidential elections, while the ruling pro-Western party is likely to form the next coalition government, independent pollsters said.

With the conviction of Charles Taylor, warlords can no longer rest easy

Goran Hadzic's arrest paves way for his country's entry to the EU

The flamboyant folk singer Svetlana Raznatovic, better known as Ceca, will spend eight months under house arrest and pay a €1.5m (£1.3m) fine as part of a plea bargain approved by a court in Belgrade yesterday.

The former head of Serbia's police force was jailed for 27 years yesterday for war crimes, crimes against humanity and the murders of at least 724 civilians in Kosovo 12 years ago. Dressed in dark blue suit and white shirt, Vlastimir Djordjevic remained emotionless as the presiding judge, Kevin Parker, passed sentence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Serbian President Boris Tadic yesterday became the first Belgrade official to visit a site where more than 200 Croatians were massacred at the beginning of the war that tore the former Yugoslavia apart.

Serbia has no financial strength, its clubs collude with 'ultras' and fans can travel without visas – so its problems are unlikely to go away soon.

No one who ever got into besieged Srebrenica will forget it. Crammed with Muslim refugees from all over eastern Bosnia, the price of its resistance to the surrounding Bosnian Serbian army was unbelievable suffering.

Re-invented by the Victorians, under the name of Boadicea, Boudicca was presented as an idol of nationalism, of British warrior tradition and, somewhat incongruently, as a figurehead of imperialism, even though this was the thing she had fought against.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic refused to attend the start of his war crimes trial today saying he was not ready, and judges said they would impose a legal team on him if he failed to show up again.

Radovan Karadzic is a name from the past, but suddenly it is a name for the present, too. His trial for war crimes is due to open today at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Proceedings may yet be postponed; the defendant sent a letter to the court last week saying that his defence was not ready. Or the trial may open, and Mr Karadzic will act on his threat not to turn up. The former Bosnian Serb leader, who was arrested last year after a decade in hiding, clearly sees no reason to simplify the prosecutors' lives.

The Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war has appointed one of the most renowned experts on international law as an adviser, in what is viewed as an indication that the Blair government's legal justification for the invasion is to come under serious scrutiny.

I wonder if one day you'll be able to opt out of paying for war you don't like