Belgrade - Several Serbian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) protested on Tuesday against the withdrawal from sale of the controversial book, Jewel of Medina, written by American author Sherry Jones.

Publisher Beobook last week pulled the book from the shelves following protests by the Islamic community and Muslim party in Serbia.

"Islamic community in Serbia cannot order what one can read," a statement signed by eight NGOs said.

Belgrade  - Around 10 people were injured in an explosion in an ammunition factory in the central Serbian town of Krusevac, local media reported on Tuesday.

Amsterdam - The International Criminal Tribunal for Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) has named judges Patrick Robinson (Jamaica), Iain
Bonomy (Britain) and Michele Picard (France) to preside over pre- trial
proceedings in the case against former Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, it
was revealed Friday.

Robinson released the information on behalf of the ICTY. The
judges' assignment deals strictly with the pre-trial proceedings. It
may take many months until the actual trial against Karadzic starts.

On Thursday, ICTY president Judge Fausto Pocar announced trial
chamber 3 had replaced trial chamber 1 in the case against the former
Serb leader.

The tribunal explained the change as "a better redivision of the work load."

The Hague  - The trial against former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic will be presided over by a new judge, the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) located in The Hague said on Thursday.

In a press statement ICTY president Judge Fausto Pocar said the trial was originally assigned to trial chamber one because of its assumed connection with the proceedings against Momcilo Perisic, one of the most senior generals under late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

The prosecution had originally planned to combine the two cases, the ICTY said, which justified the cases being brought before the same chamber.

Belgrade - President Boris Tadic's Democrats and their Socialist partners in Serbia's ruling coalition were due Tuesday to tie up loose ends still dangling three months after elections by appointing the Belgrade mayor.

Former foes, the Democratic Party (DS) and the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) in June buried their hatchets to form a pro-European Serbian government, but the agreement remained elusive on the local level in Belgrade.

Instead, days after May 11 parliamentary and local polls in Serbia, The Socialists announced a coalition to rule Belgrade with the nationalist bloc, comprising the Serbian Radical Party and former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia.