The world at a glance . . . Europe

The Hague, Netherlands

Bosnian Serbs guilty: An international tribunal has found two Bosnian Serb commanders guilty of war crimes, including burning children alive, during the Bosnian civil war. Milan and Sredoje Lukic, who are cousins, were members of a paramilitary group that systematically attacked Bosnian Muslim civilians from 1992 to 1994. The two ordered about 130 women, children, and elderly men into two houses, which they set on fire, shooting everyone who tried to flee. “The perpetration by Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic of crimes in this case is characterized by a callous and vicious disregard for human life,” said Judge Patrick Robinson in his verdict: Milan, the ringleader, was sentenced to life in prison, while Sredoje got 30 years.

Vatican City

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Claiming Oscar Wilde: The Vatican has embraced writer Oscar Wilde as a Catholic thinker. The writer, who was jailed in 1895 for homosexual acts, converted to Catholicism on his deathbed. The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published an article this week arguing that Wilde was not merely “an aesthete” but also “a man who behind a mask of amorality asked himself what was just and what was mistaken, what was true and what was false.” Through his writings, the article said, Wilde followed “a long and difficult path toward that Promised Land which gives us the reason for existence, a path which led him to his conversion to Catholicism.” Wilde once wrote that the Catholic Church was “for saints and sinners alone—for respectable people, the Anglican Church will do.”