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Oliver Knezovic, who is suspected of killing a Bosnia and Herzegovinan football club fan in the southwest town of Siroki Brijeg, has escaped from the custody of judicial police, local media reported on Tuesday. Police have launched an investigation and the officers responsible for Knezovic have been suspended. Media reports suggest he fled to Croatia. The president of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Amir Jagnjac, said that Knezovic escaped at around midnight on Tuesday from the custody of police. He said that th

In parting remarks made after a three-day visit to Kenya late on Wednesday, former UN chief Kofi Annan warned that the country risks returning to ethnic clashes if reforms are not implemented. "My conversations with Kenyans during the last three days have underscored that there is a crisis of confidence in Kenya's political leadership," Annan said. "Only Kenya's politicians can solve that crisis. I urge them to listen to the voices of Kenyans." Annan said that he had noted some progress on the reform agenda but warned that time was running

Two people have been killed in a fire in Greater Manchester, England. The couple were thought to be in their 50s. Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service were called to a house fire in Farnworth, Bolton on Friday at around 1715 BST. The woman's death occurred at the scene of the blaze. The man was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital, but later died from his injuries. A witness had said that the man did not want to be helped from his burning home and that he had said to the fire brigade: "I'm sick of it all." Greater Manchester Police have sa

A fuel tanker explosion in Nigeria killed at least seventy people on Saturday, officials have said. The incident took place in the southern state of Anambra. According to the authorities, the tanker flipped over after driving over a pothole, causing it to ignite. The fire quickly spread to five crowded minibuses nearby. The death toll is expected to increase as bodies continue to be recovered from the debris. The head of operations for Nigeria's Federal Road Safety Commission, Ben Ekenna, warned that similar such accidents will happen again

A plane belonging to the United Nations has crashed in Haiti, reports said. The UN says that all on board the plane have been killed. The plane, a CASA C-212 Aviocar, crashed on Friday afternoon about 45 kilometres from the country's capital of Port-au-Prince, near the border with the Dominican Republic. "The aircraft was on a regular reconnaissance flight," said UN spokeswoman Michele Montas in a statement. All bodies were found at the crash site, the UN said, and the victims were military personnel from Uruguay and Jordan. The plane belon

The European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee supported on Tuesday a proposal by the European Commission to scrap visa requirements for citizens of Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia, starting on January 1 of next year. The committee also asked that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania be included in the visa liberalisation process, although neither has met EU-determined benchmarks yet. European Parliament members also want to initiate visa liberalisation dialogues with Kosovo and establish a roadmap for visa-free travel. Serbia, Macedonia,

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov voiced expectations on Tuesday that the process of resolving the country's long-standing name dispute with Greece will receive a new impetus, given the new government in Athens. He said that a compromise is possible, if the process continues under the auspices of UN resolutions and talks focus only on the name, and not on the Macedonian identity and language. Ivanov added that any compromise shouldn't "be offensive" to either Macedonia or Greece. “A compromise is possible if the process is under the auspices

Iran's Revolutionary Court has sentenced an opposition activist to death, in the first such verdict since trials of opposition supporters began in August. Monarchist Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani is to be hanged for participating in unrest last June, according to opposition websites. Several top Iranian opposition websites reported that Iran's Revolutionary Court has handed down a death sentence to an opposition activist for the first time since August, when it began trying those involved in post-election unrest. Iran's Committee on Human Rights

According to the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the US budget deficit reached a record $1.4 trillion in the fiscal year to September 30. The deficit was about 9.9% of the country's GDP, over three times the level in 2008 and the highest since the Second World War ended. Economical analysts had initially predicted a deficit of $1.6 trillion. The deficit was blamed on decreased tax revenues and higher government spending. The CBO also said on Wednesday that tax revenue dropped by 17%, or $420 billion, to its lowest level for over half a

US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that the Senate Finance Committee will vote on a sweeping health care reform bill next Tuesday. US President Barack Obama has made clear that extending health insurance coverage to as many Americans as possible is his top domestic priority. Republican lawmakers, however, are still overwhelmingly opposed to the bill, saying it is too expensive and would expand the role of government in people's health care. Obama and his fellow Democrats in the Senate received some good news late Wednesday from the

At least 26 workers were killed and five were injured in China after an accident at a tin mine in the Hunan province, national media reported. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted a rescue team as saying that nineteen of the miners were killed instantly after two lifts fell due to a brake failure on Thursday. Another seven died later due to their injuries. An investigation into the accident has been launched, Xinhua reported. China has some of the most deadly mines in the world. Official statistics indicate that over 3,200 miners d

The BBC has received 487 complaints after Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Anton du Beke used a racist remark for his dance partner. Actress contestant Laila Rouass, who is of Morrocan descent, was called a "paki" by her dance partner during rehearsals for the show. British tabloid News of the World revealed the information from the BBC One programme in their newspaper on Sunday. By Monday, it had emerged that there had been 63 complaints to the corporation. Since Thursday, the racist comment by du Beke has caused a total of 487 compl