MOSTAR (AP) - Bosnians and foreign dignitaries gathered yesterday to celebrate the reopening of an ancient stone bridge that became a symbol of the senseless brutality of Bosnia’s war when shells destroyed it in 1993. Britain’s Prince Charles (photo) and other leaders were on hand to reopen the bridge over the Neretva River, which for centuries had served as an emblem of Mostar’s ethnic diversity. Celebrants said they hoped the rebuilt span would help reunite Muslims and Croats in this picturesque southern town. “The opening of the Old Bridge opens a new page in Bosnian history,” Bosnian Prime Minister Adnan Terzic told AP.

ANKARA (AP) - Turkey’s Supreme Court yesterday rejected a parliamentary motion that empowered it to prosecute former Premier Mesut Yilmaz and another former minister on charges of rigging the privatization of a state-owned bank in a scandal that led to the collapse of his government. Parliament voted overwhelmingly last week to send the case against Yilmaz and Gunes Taner, a former minister, to the Supreme Court. But the court rejected the motion on technical grounds, saying lawmakers should have held two votes — one for each case.

Forensic experts unearthed the bodies of 51 Bosnian Muslims yesterday from a mass grave believed to contain the remains of up to 300 people killed during the 1992-95 war. After nine days of exhumations, the Bosnian Muslim Commission for the Search for Missing Persons found the bodies in the mass grave in Bratunac, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of Sarajevo. (AP)

Five months after it was torched by Serb mobs infuriated over ethnic violence against their kin in Kosovo, work began yesterday to rebuild an 18th century mosque in this central Serbian city. Local authorities allocated 3.1 million dinars ($52,000 or 43,000 euros) for the reconstruction of the Islam-Aga Mosque in Nis, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of the capital, Belgrade. The work is expected to be completed by the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, in October. (AP)

FYROM’s Parliament voted yesterday to extend its participation in the US-led mission in Afghanistan by another six months and raise the number of troops to 19. (AP)