BANJA LUKA (AFP) – Posters of Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian-Serb leader being tried for genocide, appeared yesterday in the Serb half of the country to mark his 64th birthday. “Happy birthday president!” read the posters bearing the image of Karadzic, who was captured in Serbia’s capital Belgrade last year, after 13 years on the run. “With these posters, we wanted to give support to our first president, Radovan Karadzic,” Dane Cankovic, whose organization was behind the campaign, told AFP. “We don’t want to forget Karadzic, who deserves the biggest credit for the existence of Republika Srpska,” he said of the Serb-run entity which makes up post-war Bosnia along with the Muslim-Croat Federation.

SOFIA (AFP) – Bulgarian police busted a heroin-trafficking gang and seized 35 kilograms (77 pounds) of the drug at the border with Turkey, the interior ministry said yesterday. The drugs were hidden in the floor of a Bulgarian car that entered the country from Turkey through the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint, said a ministry statement. Customs officers confiscated the heroin, while prosecutors and police tracked down two Bulgarian men who had organized the traffic and arrested them on the southern Trakia highway, where they were supposed to pick up the drugs, prosecutor Petar Midov said. The interior ministry said the heroin was intended for the Western European market.

LONDON (AFP) – Former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis has withdrawn from Wimbledon with a knee injury. Baghdatis was due to play Spanish 21st seed Feliciano Lopez in the first round at the All England Club next week, but his place now goes to Slovakia’s Karol Beck. The Cypriot was beaten by Roger Federer in the 2006 Australian Open final and also reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2006. Baghdatis is the second high-profile star to pull out after France’s Gael Monfils opted not to play due to a wrist injury suffered at Queen’s Club tournament in London last week.

Turkey’s transportation minister says rescue workers have recovered the body of one of two missing Turks after a firefighting helicopter crashed into a reservoir in southwestern Turkey. Binali Yildirim says divers were still looking for another missing body in the reservoir near the Aegean coastal town of Milas yesterday, a day after the crash. Three Ukrainians on board survived the accident. (AP)

Slovenia will launch one-week and one-month motorway passes next month in response to EU criticism that longer-term permits discriminated against foreign visitors, the government said yesterday. The price of the one-week toll was set at 15 euros (21 dollars) at 30 euros for one month, the government said in a statement. However, the price of a 12-month vignette was increased to 95 euros from 55 euros currently. Stickers for motorcycles will cost half the price of those for cars. Slovenia introduced six-month and 12-month motorway stickers for cars and motorbikes a year ago, in a bid to boost highway use and simplify traveling in the Alpine state, which borders Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Italy. But the European Commission criticized the move in October, arguing that it discriminated against foreign visitors, who had to pay for a six-month pass even if they used the Slovenian motorway network for a short period of time. (AFP)