World IN BRIEF : BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA : U.N. Denies Telling Pope to Cancel Visit

The United Nations denied that it told Pope John Paul II to cancel his visit to Sarajevo. The Pope’s visit to the capital, planned for today, was called off after Bosnian Serbs refused to guarantee his safety and fired mortars around the city. Bosnia’s Muslim leaders accused U.N. officials of recommending that the visit be put off, but the U.N. Protection Force said it had merely warned the Vatican of the risks. A leader of the Serbian Orthodox Christian Church in Bosnia expressed satisfaction that the Pope had called off his trip. “As far as I’m concerned, we don’t need him. It doesn’t please us to see him around,” Metropolitan Bishop Vasilije said.