Sarajevo  - The War Crimes Chamber of Bosnia-Herzegovina's State Court on Tuesday handed down verdicts against 11 Bosnian Serb genocide suspects, sentencing seven to a total of 284 years in jail and acquitting four.

Milenko Trifunovic, Brano Dzinic and Aleksandar Radovanovic received 42 years jail each; Milos Stupar, Slobodan Jakovljevic and Branislav Medan received 40 years each, while Petar Mitrovic was sentenced to 38 years jail.

All of them were declared guilty of genocide during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The court declared Velibor Maksimovic, Dragisa Zivanovic, Milovan Matic and Miladin Stevanovic not guilty and released them.

Sarajevo /Banja Luka  - Bosnian Muslim and Croat representatives in the Bosnian Serb Parliament vetoed Tuesday a new coat of arms for the Bosnian Serb entity, the Srpska Republic, on grounds that it reminded them of the label of a German beer.

Using the veto given to each ethnic group in the parliament in order to be able to protect vital national interests, Muslims and Croats in the Srpska National Assembly blocked the vote by the Serb majority to adopt the new coat of arms with a two-headed eagle on a red shield held by two lions.

Sarajevo/Pale  - Several thousand Bosnian Serbs organized Saturday peaceful protests and prayers in towns across the Bosnian Serb entity, the Srpska Republic, in support of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

Some 1,500 people marched in a peaceful demonstration in Karadzic's former stronghold of Pale, a village some 20 kilometres south-east of the capital Sarajevo.

Many of the protesters held Karadzic's picture and banners with a message to the former leader: "We are with you!"

Sarajevo - Forensic experts completed excavation of a mass grave near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica on Friday.

Sarajevo - Five people were injured in an explosion at the blast furnace of a steelworks in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, company officials confirmed Friday.

Sarajevo- The courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina face "serious challenges" in trying war crimes cases outstanding from the 1992-95 war and need international assistance, Human Rights Watch said in Sa