SARAJEVO (AFP) - NATO-led peacekeepers yesterday arrested a Bosnian Serb thought to be a supporter of the Balkans’ most wanted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, a NATO spokesman said. “We have detained Milovan Bjelica over his support to persons indicted for war crimes,” Robert Lapreze, spokesman for the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) told AFP.

BANJA LUKA (AP) - A special commission researching the Srebrenica massacre of close to 8,000 Muslims said yesterday it had obtained information about three more mass graves where the victims might be buried. The three are in addition to nine mass graves recently announced by the Bosnian-Serb government commission. They were said to be located in the Srebrenica region.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer yesterday called on Bulgaria to provide extra help in the expansion of the NATO-led security assistance force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. “I have asked my Bulgarian interlocutors to see if Bulgaria, for instance, could do more in Afghanistan, within the framework of building the so-called provincial reconstruction teams,” he said after a meeting with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy. (AFP)

Croatian authorities have failed to make significant progress on the return of Serb refugees who fled the country during 1990s war, US rights group Human Rights Watch said yesterday. “The Croatian government has failed to take significant steps to facilitate the return of Serb refugees, despite pledges by the new prime minister (Ivo Sanader),” it said in a statement. “The new government’s statements are welcome, but they must be matched by action,” Human Rights Watch said. (AFP)

Israel’s consul-general in Istanbul said yesterday she expected Turkey to begin shipping drinking water to Israel later this year in a deal seen as enhancing relations between the Middle Eastern allies. Turkey and Israel agreed in March to the purchase by Israel of 50 million cubic meters of water each year for 20 years. That would account for about 3 percent of Israel’s annual fresh water consumption of 1.5 billion cubic meters. (Reuters)

Romania is expected to approve a new law next week which effectively bans foreign nationals from adopting Romanian children, lawmakers said yesterday. The Balkan state, which hopes to join the European Union in 2007, has already imposed a three-year moratorium on adoptions. (Reuters)