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Elections in Bosnia show partisanship

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Four years after Bosnia's war ended, weekend elections showed how deep the ethnic divide in this country remains, as Muslim voters shifted toward moderate leaders while Serbs and Croats stayed with old-style nationalists.

Although official preliminary results in the vote for municipal councils were not expected until today, the contending parties' own estimates of their showings were being regarded yesterday as reliable. In the past, such assertions have generally proved accurate.

The country is divided into the Bosnian Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

The moderate Social Democratic Party claimed victory yesterday in 20 cities over hard-line Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic's Party of Democratic Action.

Meanwhile, in the Serb Republic -which comprises almost half the country - the Serbian Democratic Party, founded by indicted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, said it had won 56.5 percent of the vote.

Last week's arrest on war crimes charges of Momcilo Krajisnik, Karadzic's right-hand man, was seen as a major factor in the defeat Saturday of a coalition of Western-backed Serbian moderates led by the republic's prime minister, Milorad Dodik.

Blair to take holiday leave with newborn

LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair says that when his 45-year-old wife, Cherie Booth, gives birth to their fourth child next month, he will go into "holiday mode" for a time, canceling public engagements but otherwise running the country.

While Booth received support from the female members of Parliament and working mothers in general, business leaders winced and conservatives harrumphed over what they clearly thought was a wimpy idea.