SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Bosnia’s upper house of parliament rubber-stamped a police reform law yesterday that ends four years of interethnic negotiations and fulfills the European Union’s main condition for closer ties. The EU has said it would sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with Bosnia, the first step toward membership, only after the country approved legislation reforming its ethnically separate police forces. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a statement the final adoption of the police reform laws “paves the way toward signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement.”

PRISTINA (AFP) – Kosovo police said yesterday they had brought terrorism charges against 21 Serbs accused of torching two border posts in protest at Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Belgrade. “Criminal charges against the suspects were brought because there is a reliable suspicion that the suspects have committed the criminal act of terrorism,” the police said in a statement.

Two Bulgarians suspected of circulating up to 150,000 euros’ ($239,286) worth of false banknotes have been arrested, the Romanian general prosecutor’s office said yesterday. The two men were detained Saturday on their way to Bucharest, shortly after entering the country, it added. Investigators found they were part of an international counterfeiting ring, which included Romanians and Greeks, and had circulated since June up to 150,000 euros in fake 50-euro and 200-euro notes, the prosecutor’s office said. (AFP)

The new UN war crimes prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia, Serge Brammertz, will visit Belgrade for the first time today and tomorrow, his office announced. “The prosecutor will be in Belgrade tomorrow. It will be his first visit to Serbia,” spokeswoman Olga Kavran said yesterday. (AFP)

A news agency says a man was rearing a lion in his backyard in Romania until neighbors decided they had heard enough roaring and called police. Rompres state news said police found a caged 3-year-old lioness, as well as two deer, a stag and two peacocks roaming the garden of the man’s home in the southern village of Pietrosita. The 28-year-old man is being charged with illegal possession of wild animals and could be sentenced to up to a year in jail. He also faces a fine of up to 10,000 lei (2,800 euros; $4,430). (AP)