YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC CROSSES NEW BRIDGE IN NOVI SAD, 2000-05-29 (photo)

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic talks with Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic (R) and head of the Serbian reconstruction agency Milutin Mrkonjic (C) on the train crossing the new bridge over the Danube river before the bridge's official opening ceremony in Novi Sad May 29. Yugoslav President Milosevic opened what he called a "morally superior" bridge restoring an international rail link severed by NATO bombing. The Serbian strongman, shunned by the West over his role in Balkan wars, made a defiant speech to tens of thousands of people near the 432 metre (470 yard)-long road and rail bridge. All three bridges spanning the Danube in Novi Sad were destroyed during the NATO air war last year, cutting the city in two. Milosevic, indicted by a U.N. court last year for alleged war crimes in Kosovo province, said Europe should be proud of Serbia's reconstruction and ashamed of the destruction caused by NATO's "aggression. IM/FMS