Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist party threatened yesterday to topple Serbia's minority government if the former Yugoslav president was not buried with state honors in Belgrade and if his widow was not allowed to attend.
Meanwhile, a Belgrade court dismissed a request by Milosevic family attorneys to waive an arrest warrant for the ex-president's widow to enable her to return from Russia for the funeral.
"We do not have the legal authority to do so, only a president can," Ivana Ranic, District Court spokeswoman, said.
Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic said late on Sunday that it was "absolutely inappropriate" for Milosevic to be buried with honors because it was Serbs who had toppled him in massive street protests in October 2000.
Tadic also declined to pardon Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic, who lives in self-imposed exile in Moscow and faces detention at home on charges of abuse of office during her husband's rule.
A state funeral would involve Serbia-Montenegro army guardsmen providing an honor escort at the ceremony, but the country's Supreme Defense Council announced yesterday it was banning the use of the military in Milosevic's funeral.
Counting on a huge turnout, the Socialists have said Milosevic should be buried at Belgrade cemetery's "Alley of Heroes" -- the graveyard reserved for prominent Serbs. The alternative, they said, would be his birthplace of Pozarevac, some 50km east of Belgrade.
Milosevic's body was found in his bed early on Saturday at the UN detention center at The Hague, Netherlands, where he had been on trial on war crimes and genocide charges stemming from the Balkan ethnic bloodletting of the 1990s.
An autopsy on Sunday showed the former Yugoslav president, long ailing from a heart condition and high blood pressure, had died of a massive heart attack, the UN war crimes tribunal said.
However, a Dutch toxicologist confirmed yesterday he found traces of a non-prescribed drug in a blood sample taken from Milosevic earlier this year.
Also in the Netherlands, Milosevic's legal adviser Zdenko Tomanovic said the ex-president's remains would be claimed by his son Marko either yesterday or today.

PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,

REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.

UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention