Hundreds of square kilometres in Croatia are still suspected to be filled with mines from the Balkan wars in the 1990 ZAGREB — Mirjana Filipovic is still haunted by the land-mine blast that killed her boyfriend and blew off her left leg while on fishing trip nearly a decade ago. It happened in a field that was supposedly demined.Now, unlikely heroes may be coming to the rescue to prevent similar tragedies: sugar-craving honeybees. Croatian researchers are training them to find unexploded mines littering their country and the rest of the Balkans.When Croatia joins the European Union on July 1, in addition to the beauty of its aquamarine Adriatic sea, deep blue mountain lakes and lush green forests, it will also bring numerous uncleared minefields to the bloc’s territory. About 750km² are still suspected to be filled with mines from the Balkan wars in the 1990s.Nikola Kezic, an expert on the behaviour of honeybees, sat quietly together with a group of young researchers on a recent day...
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