Beating strains U.S., Serb relations

U.S. officials demand man's return to states; Serbian officials refuse NEW YORK - It started as a bar fight in a college town in upstate New York. Police say a hulking basketball player from Serbia beat a fellow college student to a bloody pulp and fled to his home country, setting off a diplomatic crisis. U.S. senators have intervened on the victim's behalf, reaching out to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and threatening to pull back aid to Serbia over the episode. Serbia has refused to cooperate, damaging relations between the two countries just as the nation's new pro-Western government was hoping for a new era in diplomacy with the United States. American officials in Belgrade delivered a diplomatic note to the Serbian government on Wednesday demanding that the suspect, Miladin Kovacevic, be returned to the U.S. by... [read full story]