BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union and Serbia have completed negotiations for an agreement on closer ties but signing it depends on Belgrade’s cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal, an EU spokeswoman said on yesterday. Krisztina Nagy, spokeswoman for Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, told reporters that technical talks on the so-called Stabilization and Association Agreement – the first rung on the ladder to eventual EU membership – were wrapped up last week. “The technicalities have now been resolved at this session last week, so as to make further headway and to finalize this agreement and get it signed, Serbia should cooperate fully with the Hague court,” she said.

BANJA LUKA (AFP) – A 6-year-old Bosnian boy killed his 5-year-old friend with a machine gun in the eastern town of Bijeljina, police said yesterday. “While they were playing in front of a house in Bijeljina, one boy shot another boy” on Tuesday, a police spokesman said. The 5-year-old, who was shot in the chest, died on his way to the hospital in the Serb capital Belgrade, a doctor said. An investigation has been opened into the incident.

Patients at a psychiatric hospital in central Romania were startled yesterday when a bear and her two cubs smashed a window, pushed open a door and entered in search of food. The bear dug into some food in a metal canister, which she dragged outside. Staff at the hospital called hunters, who arrived at the hospital, which is in a forest near the mountain resort of Predeal, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Bucharest. “We shot her with a tranquilizer,” said Aurel Iordache, one of the hunters. Television footage broadcast by Realitatea TV showed the bear with her head stuck in the canister. She was seen waddling into the forest, woozy from the effects of the tranquilizer. (AP)

Kurdish rebels killed one Turkish soldier and wounded another in an overnight attack on a Turkish military outpost in southeastern Turkey, authorities said yesterday. The attack with automatic weapons occurred near the city of Bitlis and troops were searching for the assailants, local authorities said. (AP)