World IN BRIEF : BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA : Envoys Depart After Standoff With Rebels

A group of U.S. and German diplomats flew out of Sarajevo airport after a nearly 24-hour standoff in which rebel Serbs refused to let them make the five-mile journey into the besieged capital. The group, which included John Menzies, the new acting U.S. ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina, had been scheduled to meet Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic. But rebel Serbs, who control routes to and from the airport, refused to let the diplomats into Sarajevo because of a U.N. Security Council vote Friday that their leader, Radovan Karadzic, said was aimed at getting the Serbian government to further distance itself from the rebels. Hours after the group’s departure, an unrelated accidental explosion at the airport killed three French peacekeepers.