BELGRADE (AP) - The mother and sister of Serbia’s assassinated prime minister have received death threats, just days after the start of court proceedings for the slaying’s alleged mastermind, a lawyer said yesterday. Mila Djindjic, the mother of Zoran Djindjic, the leader who was slain by a sniper in March 2003, and his sister, Gordana, have asked for police protection due to telephone threats by an unidentified person, said their lawyer, Radivoj Paunovic. Both women have been outspoken in their support of swift justice in the case.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen have killed a Turkish worker and his driver in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, an Iraqi party official said yesterday. Suayip Kaplani, an employee of Turkish construction firm Yuksel Insaat, and his driver Ahmad Khalan Humod were shot and killed on Tuesday, said a spokesman for the Iraqi Turkmen Front office in Turkey.

Serbian police seized 1,315 fake EU passports from a truck on the border with Bulgaria, a Serbian newspaper reported yesterday. Citing unofficial sources, the Belgrade daily Ekspres said the counterfeit blank passports were found in a Bulgarian truck near the town of Zajecar on Serbia’s eastern border. (Reuters)

Bulgarian police have released a Bulgarian suspect in the Madrid train bombings, identified as Tony Radev, because he is not directly linked to the attacks, the chief state prosecutor said yesterday. Anguel Alexandrov announced the release, saying Radev “did not take part directly in the attacks, but circumstances relating to his lifestyle link him” to the preparations for the attacks. (AFP)

An epidemic of Q fever was reported yesterday in the Bosnian-Serb town of Banja Luka, where 138 people have contracted the animal-transmitted illness with symptoms similar to severe influenza. It is the most serious outbreak of the disease recorded so far in Bosnia’s Serb-run half, Zeljko Rodic, head of the Banja Luka hospital department of infectious diseases, told AFP. (AFP)

Several hundred nuclear workers from 15 countries yesterday began a two-day protest against the planned closure of two nuclear reactors in Bulgaria’s city of Kozloduy. The World Council of Nuclear Workers is holding a 300km (186-mile) marathon, run in relays by workers from countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Sweden and Romania. The runners left from Pleven in northern Bulgaria and will pass through Kozloduy on their way to the capital Sofia, where the marathon will come to an end in front of Parliament today, Andre Maiesseau, the president of the group, told AFP. (AFP)