Five charged over Croatia killing

Police in Croatia have charged five suspects in connection with the murder of a prominent journalist.

Police said three of the suspects are Croats; the other two are a Serb and a man with both Bosnian and Croatian passports, who are still at large.

Ivo Pukanic was editor of political weekly Nacional, which has often covered organised crime in the Balkans.

He was killed by a bomb in the capital Zagreb on 23 October, along with the paper's marketing director.

"Three suspects - all Croatian citizens - were brought before an investigative judge at the Zagreb county court while the two other are on the run," police official Krunoslav Borovec said. International warrants had been issued for the two fugitive suspects, he said.

The murder was one of a series of mafia-style killings that prompted Croatia's new justice minister to declare a crackdown against organised crime this week.

Tackling organised crime is one of the key criteria Croatia must meet on its path towards membership of the European Union, which Zagreb hopes to join by 2010.