WORLD IN BRIEF
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BOSNIA
Reforms Open Path to E.U.
The European Union on Tuesday will initial an agreement putting Bosnia on the road to membership after the country's rival ethnic leaders agreed to a set of long-delayed reforms, the E.U.'s enlargement chief said.
Commissioner Olli Rehn stressed that a formal signing of the accord would depend on further reforms proving that the country's ethnic halves -- the Serb Republic and Muslim-Croat federation -- can work together.
Bosnia was the only country in the Balkans without formal links to the bloc. Rehn's decision rewards a last-minute agreement to reform, and eventually unify, the country's ethnically divided police forces.
IRAQ
Ministry to Oversee Guards
The Iraqi government has ordered the Interior Ministry to take command of 12,000 neighborhood guards on patrol in and around Baghdad and to begin paying their wages, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a ministry spokesman, said Monday.
The order suggests that the Shiite-led government is becoming more comfortable with an initiative backed by the U.S. military that has put about 60,000 mainly Sunni men on the streets of Iraq to guard their communities.
Court Takes Orphanage Case
The manager of a Baghdad orphanage where U.S. forces found children naked and malnourished in June will face court, a government official said Monday.
Hamid al-Zaidi, general inspector of the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, said a government inquiry had found the manager, two child-care workers and a guard at the orphanage guilty of negligence. An investigative judge will review evidence and decide whether to send the case to trial.
EGYPT
Activist Back on YouTube
The video-sharing Web site YouTube has restored the account of a prominent Egyptian anti-torture activist and said Monday that he may repost graphic images of purported rights abuses if he puts them in proper context.
Wael Abbas said last week that YouTube had suspended his account and that about 100 images, including clips of police brutality, voting irregularities and antigovernment protests, were no longer accessible.
