Tito's Widow Hospitalized in Serbia

The widow of the former Yugoslav communist dictator Josip Broz Tito has been hospitalized in Serbia in a critical state, a medical official said Friday.

Jovanka Broz, 89, was admitted to the Belgrade hospital "in an extremely critical state and doctors are fighting to save her life" said hospital director Zlatibor Loncar.

"Early tests show the onset of septicemia" that could have been caused by untreated bedsores, he said.

Suspected by Tito's political friends of plotting a coup, Jovanka Broz was placed under virtual house arrest a few years before her husband's death in 1980 and her identity papers were confiscated.

After spending around 30 years in isolation and poverty, Serbian authorities gave Jovanka Broz back her papers in 2009 along with a pension.