Mladic brands war crime charges 'obnoxious'

Ratko Mladic, who is accused of war crimes including the Srebrenica massacre, has made his first appearance in court in The Hague.

The former Bosnian Serb commander is charged with 11 counts including genocide and crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors say he helped orchestrate the murder of thousands of Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, after his troops took over the town which had been declared as a United Nations safe haven.

After the judge read out the charges, Mladic replied by calling them ''obnoxious'' and ''monstrous''.