“This flame will engulf the whole of Belgrade,” said Vladan Batic, an opposition leader.Although authorities appear unwilling to strike back at the crowds, Milosevic turned to other options to try to cling to power.Yugoslavia’s highest court lhas invalidated part of the September 24 presidential elections, which Milosevic’s opponents say was won outright by his rival Vojislav Kostunica.It was not immediately clear if this means a complete repeat of the elections would be required. A run-off election was scheduled for Sunday, but opposition forces said they would boycott the vote. The court was to release a full ruling Thursday.The constitutional court ruling – by judges loyal to the president – could be aimed at allowing Milosevic to stay in power longer. His term would have expired next June if he hadn’t called early elections and now he might be trying to get back to the previous status as if the elections didn’t take place.Milosevic’s government conceded that Kostunica gained more votes than Milosevic, but that he failed to win the majority legally required for outright victory.The court ruling came just hours after police were forced to abandoned plans to take over a striking coal mine after confronting fearless anti-Milosevic crowds – a stunning development unprecedented in a former communist nation with no history of major worker uprisings.”He saw that he cannot push through the second round against the majority of the people,” opposition campaign manager Zoran Djindjic said of Milosevic “His solution is … to create a new situation for totally new elections” allowing him to cling to power for further months.The tribunal met in emergency session to hear claims by the 18-party opposition coalition that Milosevic’s cronies manipulated election results by using a sophisticated software program.Opposition leaders said they obtained a copy of the program.Even before the court ruling, passions were high.Zoran Zivkovic, the mayor of Nis, the nation’s third largest city, said any violence on the part of Milosevic’s forces Thursday would be met by violence from crowds wanting his ouster,”I’m telling the army and police that we won’t stop,” said Zivkovic, addressing 30,000 anti-Milosevic demonstrators in Nis Wednesday.

“We are going to Belgrade to finish off what we had started in the elections.”Before the court decision, top opposition figures had been buoyed by the police capitulation at the Kolubara mine complex. They rushed to join more than 10,000 protesters there and openly predicted Milosevic’s quick demise.”Serbia has risen so that one man would leave,” Kostunica told cheering workers and their supporters at the Kolubara mine near Lazarevac, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Belgrade.Police in riot gear had occupied the strip mine complex in an attempt to break up the largest of the nationwide strikes against Milosevic. But they couldn’t contain a swelling crowd that heeded the workers’ cry for help.With sunset approaching, the police gave up. Most police withdrew from their barricades and mingled with strikers inside the compound.From the beginning of the civil disobedience campaign, the mine was a pivotal point. It employs 7,000 workers and supplies major power plants.The mine walkout was the forerunner of other strikes; state telecommunications company workers announced they would stay off the job, and city bus drivers and garbage collectors in Belgrade refused to work. It was the first widespread strike action in Yugoslavia’s 55-year history.In an open letter Wednesday to Milosevic, Kostunica said, “it will be better for you to recognize” electoral defeat or risk “the danger of open clashes” nationwide.Even before the court ruling, however, Milosevic, showed no signs he was contemplating defeat.His prime minister, Momir Bulatovic, repeated the position that Milosevic can remain in office until June 2001 regardless of the election outcome That’s when Milosevic’s present term runs out..

Britain is set to introduce its own legislation to ban tobacco advertising after a decree from the European Union was overturned by the European Court of Justice. Britain is set to introduce its own legislation to ban tobacco advertising after a decree from the European Union was overturned by the European Court of Justice.
The European ban was ruled unlawful in a move which follows a multi-million pound campaign spanning several years by the tobacco industry, supported by publishers who stand to benefit from its advertising revenues.In its ruling, the Court said the Commission had “no power” to introduce the ban in the way that it had. The European ban was rejected on technical grounds – because the Commission introduced the measures under EU single market legislation and not as a health and safety issue. The Commission had chosen to use its single market provisions partly because EU laws on the single market only require a qualified majority of member states to approve them.The Court today formally annulled the directive, but the Commission is expected to attempt another ban under health and safety issues before the end of the year.The Commission chose to use its single market provisions which did not require a unanimous vote after Germany and Austria decided to oppose the ban. After 10 years of discussions, the rules were approved by EU health ministers in 1998 against German and Austrian opposition.Under the EU Directive, tobacco advertising on television is already outlawed in 15 EU countries. And the rules as they stand will trigger a ban on billboard and cinema advertising of tobacco products in July 2001, with newspaper and magazine tobacco promotions rendered illegal by 2005.Sports and cultural sponsorship by tobacco companies will be outlawed by 2003, although Formula One was granted an exemption until 2006, by which time the only smoking publicity allowed will be in specialist tobacco trade journals and inside shops which sell cigarettes.The Formula One exemption is controversial in Britain because of suggestions of improper behaviour by the Labour Party. One of its major donors was revealed to be Bernie Ecclestone, the head of Formula One.Labour health spokesman in the European Parliament, Catherine Stihler said: We battled for over a decade on these ads.

If the judges do overturn the ban it will be a terrible disappointment. It is outrageous that companies like Marlboro, Benson and Hedges and Rothmans have used every legal trick in the book to put a stop to these new rules.”The tobacco industry may delay this ban but they will not stop it. We may lose this battle on a technicality but Europe’s war against tobacco must go on.”Almost 100 million people died from tobacco-related illnesses in the 20th century and if current smoking patterns continue the number for the 21st century could be one billion.”. Slobodan Milosevic has fled his home hours after anti-government supporters stormed the Yugoslav parliament, according to opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica.

Slobodan Milosevic has fled his home hours after anti-government supporters stormed the Yugoslav parliament, according to opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica.
Kostunica made the announcement to thousands of supporters in Belgrade – before declaring himself elected President of Yugoslavia.Reports say there is no sign of Milosevic, or his police, at his family compound.In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said as far as the United States knew, Milosevic was still in Belgrade.Yugoslavia’s official Tanjug news agency, long seen as a Milosevic mouthpiece, has now called Kostunica “elected president of Yugoslavia”.A brief and rare urgent report on Tanjug announced the agency was siding with the demonstrators and that it would stick to principles of professional journalism in its reporting.It was signed the statement with: “Journalists of liberated Tanjug”.World leaders also united in their call for Milosevic to step down peacefully on the day an estimated 500,000 people took to Begrade’s streets in protest.Tony Blair told Milosevic: “Your time is up Go now. Don’t wait until there has been more death and destruction.”And US President Bill Clinton, speaking at the White House, added: “All we want for the Serbian people (is) … the right to freely choose their own leaders.”Anti-government demonstrators stormed the parliament building at the third attempt after initially being forced back by riot police.Flames poured out amid chaotic scenes which left protesters free to fly flags from its windows as police looked powerlessly on and then fled.Some police units and army conscripts sided with demonstrators, and it is unclear whether the full army will stand by Milosevic.His Socialist Party of Serbia has issued a statement vowing to fight back and attacking the protesters’ “violence and destruction”.Kostunica told supporters in the centre of Belgrade this evening that Serbia is again “part of Europe”.He also called on Western nations to lift economic sanctions because Yugoslavia is now a democratic state.And he added: “We call on everybody to accept peacefully and with dignity the results of the election.”We call on the military and police to do everything to ensure a peaceful transition of power.”He told the crowd “there would have been no NATO troops if there hadn’t been Slobodan Milosevic.”Bombs wouldn’t have dropped on this people if there hadn’t been Slobodan Milosevic. He was stealing and didn’t know how to conceal the theft.”He declared Serbia “is now on the road to democracy, to where there is no place for Slobodan Milosevic”.He also urged the crowd to stay in the streets until Milosevic is gone, adding: “There are no more people who will stand by him. What we are doing today is making history.”And this people is doing that without anybody’s help We don’t need Moscow or Washington.