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BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Karadzic trial to start without him

THE HAGUE | The trial of Radovan Karadzic - one of the most significant war crimes cases to emerge from Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II - is to start Monday without the defendant present.

The Bosnian Serb leader's boycott of the opening is a blow to survivors who hold him responsible for tens of thousands of deaths during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

The trial of Karadzic's former political mentor Slobodan Milosevic ended without a verdict after he died in 2006.

Like Milosevic, Karadzic, 64, is charged with genocide - one count for the 1995 murder of 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica and a second for the Bosnian Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing against the country's Muslims and Croats. There are nine other charges including extermination, persecution and taking peacekeepers hostage.

Karadzic faces a maximum life sentence if convicted.

Two suspects are still sought by the court - wartime military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic and a former leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia, Goran Hadzic.

ISRAEL

Palestinians protest at Al-Aqsa mosque