N. Korea hosts reception for RI envoy: North Korea hosted a

N. Korea hosts reception for RI envoy: North Korea hosted a reception for a special envoy of Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri and expressed hope for closer bilateral relations, Pyongyang's official media said on Wednesday. Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun said at Tuesday's reception with envoy Nana Sutresna that ties between the two countries had developed since North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met his Indonesian counterpart in March last year, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. "It is the invariable stand of the DPRK (North Korea) to further expand and develop the relations in political, economic and cultural and all other fields," Paek was quoted as saying. -- AFP

Bosnian Serb gets 17 years for Srebrenica massacre: A former Bosnian Serb army commander was jailed for 17 years by The Hague war crimes tribunal on Wednesday after confessing to his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys. Dragan Obrenovic, one of two former commanders to admit his role in Europe's worst massacre since World War II in a plea agreement in May, pleaded guilty at the UN court to one count of crimes against humanity the same month. "The trial chamber hereby sentences you to a period of 17 years' imprisonment," presiding judge Liu Daqun told Obrenovic as he stood to hear his sentence for admitting persecution on political, racial and religious grounds. -- Reuters