BELGRADE (AP) – Attackers have disrupted the broadcasts of a popular liberal radio show critical of Serb nationalism and hacked into its website, its editor said yesterday. Svetlana Lukic, one of the two authors of “Pescanik,” or “Hourglass,” told The Associated Press her car had also been vandalized in apparent attacks by ultranationalists. “We have definitely been jeopardized, we are no longer able to do our work properly,” Lukic said. The show is broadcast once a week on independent B92 Radio. It features interviews with liberal intellectuals as well as critics of Serbia’s conservative elite and the hardline Serbian Orthodox Church. “Pescanik” is very popular with pro-Western Serbs who are disappointed with the pace of reform after the ouster in 2000 of late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic. The nationalists consider the broadcasts to be anti-Serb. They have repeatedly broken into panels organized by “Pescanik,” attacking the participants. Police have not commented on the latest threats. Serbia’s pro-Western President Boris Tadic has demanded a probe into the matter. “Pescanik” has been targeted by extremist groups in the past, but Lukic said no attackers have ever been detained or questioned. She suggested the extremist groups enjoy the tacit approval of government hardliners.

BELGRADE (AFP) – Serbia has sought the help of nearly 80 nations yet to recognize Kosovo in its world court case on the legality of the breakaway province’s independence, it was reported here yesterday. In a letter from Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, the nations including old ally Russia were asked to submit to the UN court their stance on Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia almost a year ago. “I cordially invite you to consider submitting a written statement to the International Court of Justice expressing your country’s official position on this matter of absolute importance before April 17,” Jeremic wrote, as quoted by the Vecernje Novosti newspaper. Among those yet to recognize Kosovo are Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia and Spain, which along with several other countries including China fear the move could encourage separatists at home.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The bodies of five people believed to have been migrants trying to travel illegally to Europe have been washed up on the coast of southwest Turkey, the state-run Anatolia news agency said yesterday. Coast guard officials and police found the bodies in two places near the Aegean Sea resort town of Bodrum, Anatolia said. Authorities said more might be discovered. Fishermen have joined the search for possible survivors. Prosecutors were examining the bodies, and it was not yet clear how the five died or where they came from. Tens of thousands of people from Asia, the Middle East and Africa travel illegally through Turkey each year, often taking treacherous routes at sea or making dangerous overland trips, in an effort to reach the more prosperous Europe Union. At least 13 migrants from Myanmar and Pakistan suffocated in the back of a lorry that had carried them across Turkey from Iran to near the Greek border in July.

The state-run Anatolia news agency says a Turkish man sentenced to public beheading in Saudi Arabia for insulting Islam, but pardoned by the king, has returned home. Anatolia says a large crowd welcomed 30-year-old barber Sabri Bogdan back to his hometown of Hatay, in southern Turkey, yesterday. King Abdullah pardoned Bogdan following requests from the Turkish president and prime minister. He had been imprisoned for the past two years after being convicted of cursing Allah during a fight. (AP)

Serbian tennis stars Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic will be looking to make amends for early Australian Open exits after being named yesterday to face Japan in a Federation Cup tie next month. “I’m really excited that I’ll be playing in a competitive match for the first time in Belgrade,” Ivanovic said in a Serbian Tennis Federation statement. Serbia faces Japan in the first round of the Fed Cup’s World Group B on February 7-8 at the massive Beogradska Arena, where Novak Djokovic led his Davis Cup team to victory over Australia in 2006. Lining up alongside Ivanovic and world No 1 Jankovic, who crashed out of the year’s first Grand Slam in Melbourne in the third and fourth rounds respectively, will be Ana Jovanovic and Bojana Jovanovski. “Japan is a very dangerous team,” said Ivanovic. (AFP)