UN COURT CLOSES UNDER CLOUD OF WAR CRIMINAL’S SUICIDE
THE HAGUE: It was supposed to be business as usual in the sedate halls of the United Nations court for the former Yugoslavia, as judges delivered their final verdict after two decades of painstaking, groundbreaking work. Instead, halfway through Wednesday’s appeals judgement, a tall, determined Bosnian Croat - known for his past courtroom antics - wrought chaos on the tribunal, ensuring the last day of its public proceedings will be forever remembered for his shocking suicide. In full view of the cameras and judges, former military commander Slobodan Praljak, 72, defiantly drank down a noxious liquid to protest the upholding of his 20- year term for war crimes against Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s. But experts were divided on Thursday on how much the dramatic scenes would tarnish the court’s work in the long run. “The damage to the ICTY legacy and its international justice project is immense,” argued Jelena Subotic, a political science professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
MAY SAYS TRUMP ‘WRONG’ ON ANTI-MUSLIM VIDEOS
LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May repeated on Thursday that US President Donald Trump was wrong to retweet anti- Muslim videos posted by a British far- right group, but stressed that the US- UK’s “special relationship” would endure. May’s initial condemnation prompted an extraordinary rebuke from the US leader, who told her on Twitter: “Don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom.” Speaking to reporters during a trip to Jordan, the prime minister stood her ground, defending her record on tackling extremism - including by the far- right - while emphasizing the strength of British- US ties. “I’m very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do,” May said, describing the group as a “hateful” organisation that “seeks to spread division,” But she stressed that Britain and the United States have “a longterm special relationship... it is an enduring relationship that is there because its is in both our nations’ interests.”