Sarajevo - A high-ranking Bosnian Serb politician was murdered Sunday in what appears to be a soured business deal, local newspapers said on Monday. Branislav Garic, deputy chief of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) and deputy mayor of Doboj, a town 100 kilometres north of Sarajevo, was gunned down in his office Sunday afternoon.

Police confirmed they had detained Rajko Savic, a businessman and SDS supporter under suspicion of Garic's murder.

Sarajevo - Bosnian prosecutors on Friday charged the former prime minister of Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovin, Edhem Bicakcic, and his deputy Dragan Covic, with abuse of power and embezzlement.

The two ex-leaders of the Muslim-Croat entity are charged with illegally using budget funds to buy 22 apartments for political and army officials.

They are also accused of siphoning off money to refurbish 44 other apartments. In all, the total loss to the state was more than 1.8 million euros (2.3 million dollars), according to the charges.

Sarajevo - Prime Minister of Federation of Bosnia- Herzegovina Nedzad Brankovic was charged for abuse of power, the Court in Sarajevo said Friday.

Brankovic and former prime minister of the Muslim-Croat entity Edhem Bicakcic are charged with abusing their powers in order to buy Brakovic an apartment in Sarajevo in 2000.

Sarajevo - An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team was due in Sarajevo Monday to start talks on a 1-billion-euro (1.31 billion dollars) standby arrangement Bosnia needs to cover its budget shortfall. The former Yugoslav republic, consisting of two largely independent entities, faces a dramatic shortage of funds after the international crisis also cut into its state revenues .

Sarajevo  - Management of the Sarajevo public transport company (GRAS) reached an agreement late Monday with the drivers' union to end a crippling work stoppage.

After a day of negotiations, GRAS promised to clear the backlog, including salaries for the last few months and payments to health and pension funds that are owed from last year.

The drivers launched their strike at 4 am Monday. Students and employees had to drive, take cabs or walk, contributing to already chaotic downtown traffic in the city of more than 500,000 people.

Sarajevo - Bosnia will need 10 years and 400 million euros (541.3 million dollars) to clear the 220,000 mines remaining from the 1992-95 war, Bosnian Mine Action Centre (MAC) said Monday.

Bosnian government hoped that a third of the money, 125 million euros by 2019, would come from donors - mainly governments of United States, Canada, Austria, Germany, Norway and Sweden, MAC spokeswoman Sjvetlana Trifkovic told the German Press Agency dpa.

The rest of the money would come from Bosnian government or through various loans, she added.