February 12, 2002	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 28, 1422

BELGRADE, Feb 11: Having three functional kidneys could help a poor Serbian factory worker to finally get a home of his own, presuming he finds a buyer for his surplus organ, a Belgrade newspaper reported Monday.

Ratomir Ristic, 58, told the daily Danas that he has offered to swap his extra kidney, discovered by doctors who treated him for an injury in 1974, for an apartment.

Ristic, who works at a packaging factory in the town of Krusevac, said he and his wife have been living in a converted pigsty for the past four years.

“I received a total of 8,000 dinars (130 dollars) in the last five months,” Ristic said. “I only want to build something so I can die like a human being and this is the only way.”—dpa