Oksana Toskic

BELGRADE - The Crvena Zvezda basketball team defeated its rival Cedevita in Belgrade on Sunday evening, clinching a 69-65 victory (22-8, 18-24, 18-16, 11-17), and thus upping its lead to 2-0 in the finals of the ABA League playoffs.

Zvezda is now just one step away from triumphing in this regional tournament. Zvezda will next travel to Zagreb to face Cedevita in its home town.

BELGRADE - The Eurovision Song Contest will take place at the Vienna City Hall from May 18 to 23, under the slogan "Building Bridges", and Austria's national broadcaster ORF, which will host the event, expects 110,000 visitors.

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic said on Friday that she expects that the reconstruction of around 500 kilometres of rail lines will be completed over the next three years and that the public railway company will be fully reformed.

BELGRADE - The award of the International Federation of Film Critics Fipresci Serbia for the best movie made in Serbia in 2014 went to Top je bio vreo (The Cannon Was Hot) produced by Tihomir Stanic.

The award for the best director went to Slobodan Skerlic, while the award for the best actress was presented to Anita Mancic both for The Cannon Was Hot.

BELGRADE - The Chinese Embassy in Serbia and the Chinese Center at Megatrend University have opened a photo exhibition titled "Recollections of the People's Republic of China" (Secanja Narodne Republike Kine) and staged a special program to mark the coming of the Chinese New Year.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Kori Udovicki said Tuesday that the rationalization of the number of employees in the public administration by cutting it by five percent would be completed by June, adding that she expected half of those employees to leave the sector through "natural outflow," i.e. through retirement.

BELGRADE - Chinese companies have sent 18 letters of interest related to the sale of 11 Serbian companies that include agricultural and industrial enterprises, but also spas, Tanjug has learned.

China National Electric Engineering Technology Corporation Ltd. is interested in the privatisation of both tractor manufacturers located in Belgrade, IMT and IMR.

BELGRADE - A new hotel, Radisson Blu Old Mill, has opened in Belgrade, and Mayor Sinisa Mali expects it to boost the hotel supply in the Serbian capital, which he says is becoming increasingly attractive to tourists.

BELGRADE - Serbian society is unsafe today, the 1990s are returning and it is clear to everybody that freedom of the media is under threat in our country, and censorship and self-censorship are increasingly common, Konstantin Samofalov, spokesman for the Social Democratic Party (SDS), said Wednesday.