Morning Brief: Notorious Bosnian war criminal nabbed

Top Story GORAN SIVACKI/AFP/Getty Image After more than a decade on the lam, Radovan Karadzic has finally been captured. The former Bosnian Serb president and accused war criminal had been hiding out in Belgrade under the name Dragan Dabic, practicing alternative medicine and disguising himself with a white beard. Karadzic had been wanted by the ...

By , a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
593844_080722_karadzic8.jpg
593844_080722_karadzic8.jpg

Top Story

Top Story

GORAN SIVACKI/AFP/Getty Image

After more than a decade on the lam, Radovan Karadzic has finally been captured. The former Bosnian Serb president and accused war criminal had been hiding out in Belgrade under the name Dragan Dabic, practicing alternative medicine and disguising himself with a white beard. Karadzic had been wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for his role in the slaughter of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995. “Of the three most evil men of the Balkans, Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic, I thought Karadzic was the worst,” said Dayton Accords negotiator Richard Holbrooke.

Karadzic’s capture sent the Serbian dinar upwards and raised hopes for Serbia to join the European Union.

Decision ’08

Barack Obama traveled to Anbar province, once the heart of Iraq’s insurgency.

John McCain, visiting George H.W. Bush in Maine, criticized Obama’s policy on Iraq, yet appeared to agree that troops could be withdrawn by 2010.

CNN runs the McCain op-ed piece that the New York Times allegedly rejected.

Obama is spending more money on organizers; McCain is putting resources into media.

Global Economy

Efforts to revive the Doha round of trade talks seem to be going nowhere.

Ford is making a major shift from trucks to small cars.

Americas

Argentina moved to renationalize its airline, Aerolineas Argentinas.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez called for a strategic alliance with Russia.

Asia

Unidentified gunmen killed a top security aide to Asif Zardari, the head of Pakistan’s most powerful political party.

China’s double bus bombing was preceded by bizarre text messages.

A white whale has been spotted off the coast of Australia.

Middle East and Africa

The “surge” has officially ended: The last additional U.S. combat troops left Iraq this past weekend. Today, fewer U.S. convoys are being attacked.

Israeli President Shimon Peres welcomed his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, to his house for peace talks.

Zimbabweans are hoping their lives will get back to normal as a power-sharing deal gets hammered out between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.

Europe

British PM Gordon Brown experienced the Obama effect on his trip to Israel.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy narrowly won a vote on constitutional changes that will make the presidency more à la Américain.

Today’s Agenda

Obama dines with Jordan’s King Abdullah.

Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki and PM Raila Odinga of Kenya are in London for talks with British PM Gordon Brown.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is heading to Singapore for the ASEAN meeting, where she’s expected to encounter her North Korean counterpart.

Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.

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