BELGRADE (AP) – Thousands of pro-Western Serbs marched and lit candles in memory of reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, assassinated five years ago yesterday – and pledged to carry out his goal of joining the EU despite resurgent nationalism. Djindjic, who launched a popular revolution in 2000 that helped bring down strongman Slobodan Milosevic, became Serbia’s first democratically elected prime minister after World War II. He was gunned down on March 12, 2003, outside Serbian government headquarters by paramilitaries and mobsters loyal to Milosevic. The assassination dealt a major blow to Serbia’s pro-Western reform efforts, and the quick collapse of Djindjic’s government paved the way for nationalists to retake control of government. Five years later, Serbia remains far away from EU membership. Milosevic’s loyalists are poised to return to power, having gained strength amid Serb frustration over Kosovo’s declaration of independence last month. “Serbia is again at a crossroads,” the US Embassy in Belgrade said in a statement yesterday. “One path – Djindjic’s path – leads to integration with Europe and Western institutions,” it said.

SKOPJE (Reuters) – An ethnic Albanian party threatened to bring down the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s (FYROM) ruling coalition yesterday over what it said was a failure to support minority rights or to recognize newly independent neighbor Kosovo. A walkout by the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) would end conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s slim parliamentary majority and force him to look for other partners or call a snap election less than two years since taking office. The European Union favors ethnic Albanian participation in the government and insists on progress on the rights of the Albanian minority before entry talks can start with FYROM.

A man armed with a shotgun opened fire on teenagers as they left a Bulgarian orphanage yesterday, killing a 15-year-old girl and wounding another two before committing suicide, police said. The motive of the attack, in the western city of Tran, was not immediately clear, but police said the 67-year-old Bulgarian man had previous convictions for sexual abuse. Officials said the two wounded teenagers, aged 12 and 15, have been hospitalized and were expected to survive. (AP)

Croatia and Montenegro have agreed to refer a dispute over ownership of an Adriatic peninsula to the International Court of Justice, the countries’ leaders announced yesterday. “The governments of the two countries will set up a joint commission which is to prepare the case,” Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader told journalists after meeting his Montenegrin counterpart Milo Djukanovic. (AFP)