SERBIAN BUTCHER MLADIC RUSHED FROM COURT TO HOSPITAL

Former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic was rushed to a Dutch hospital on Thursday, the fourth day of his war crimes trial, after asking for a break and slumping with his head in his hands.

Mladic, 70, is accused of genocide over the siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the 1995 killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, Europe's worst massacre since World War Two.

Prosecutors and relatives of victims fear that he could die without facing justice, as happened with former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, who died in a Dutch prison cell in 2006 while on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Netherlands.

Tribunal spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic told Reuters: "He (Mladic) complained he was feeling unwell during the hearing, so the hearing was adjourned."

The court said the hearing would resume on Friday if Mladic could attend. Otherwise, an update would be given, Jelacic said.

Reuters