Three BBC World Service language broadcasts end

BBC Serbian news website (grab) The BBC created separate Serbian and Croatian teams during the Yugoslav conflict in the 1990s
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Three of the BBC language services are going off air later, as a result of cuts to the World Service budget.

The BBC Serbian and Latin American services end more than 70 years of broadcasting on radio, but the Latin American service continues online.

The Portuguese for Africa service, which is widely listened to in Angola and Mozambique, has also been closed.

The BBC Yugoslav service began in 1939 at the start of World War II. Later it split into Serbian and Croatian.

The Croatian service was closed in 2005 and BBC managers say Serbia now has reliable media, diminishing the need for the BBC's service.

BBC Spanish broadcasts began in 1938, in an effort to counter Nazi propaganda, but faced their greatest challenge during the UK war against Argentina in 1982 over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).

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