Belgrade

BELGRADE - The deputy prime ministers of Serbia and Croatia, Aleksandar Vucic and Vesna Pusic respectively, have said that the two countries will not drop mutual lawsuits for genocide before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), but they agree that this is the issue of the past which must not encumber the present relations.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday Serbia and Croatia would make an effort to let courts decide about issues from the past, while the authorities on both sides would focus on the present and future.

OSCE: Elections conducted successfully

PRIŠTINA -- The OSCE in Kosovo has expressed satisfaction that the repeat mayoral elections in northern Kosovska Mitrovica they facilitated were carried out successfully.

BELGRADE - Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ioannis Kasoulides will visit Serbia on Monday and confer with the country's senior officials.

During his stay in Belgrade, Kasoulides will confer with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, the Serbian president's office for Cooperation with the Media released.

Rakic, the candidate from the Belgrade-backed ‘Srpska’ list, took 52.6 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s re-run polls to win the mayoralty, according to preliminary results published by the Kosovo Central Election Commission.

Serbia's Electoral Commisssion, RIK, told BIRN that early parliamentary elections due on March 16 will be organized also in the former province of Kosovo.

"There will be three members of the committee at each polling station in Kosovo and ballots will be taken for counting at voting centres in Vranje and Raska [in Serbia]," the RIK said.

BELGRADE - Serbia will start the qualifications for the UEFA European Championship in France in 2016 with an away match against Armenia on October 11 this year, and three days later the team will face Albania at home.

BELGRADE - The Social Democratic Party of Serbia (SDPS) staged a congress in Belgrade on Sunday during which the party leader Rasim Ljajic said that the coalition around the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) needs to score a convincing victory in the forthcoming parliamentary elections so as to carry out reforms successfully.

BELGRADE - Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic will participate in the high-level regional conference of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) which will be held in London on Monday under the title 'Investing in the Western Balkans'.

BELGRADE - Head of the Serbian government office for the relations with the media Milivoje Mihajlovic has said he believes the Serbsin Kosovska Mitrovica, northern Kosovo, will vote in the rerun of the local election in the greatest numbers possible and elect one of their candidates for mayor.