Slavoljub Stijepovic

Ex-mayor Slavoljub Stijepovic (right) at a Democratic Party of Socialists meeting. Photo: Democratic Party of Socialists

Serbia

Serbian citizens who have been protesting weekly against Vucic's regime stormed the building of the Serbian national broadcaster RTS on March 16. Photo: BIRN.

The president of the Atlas group, Dusko Knezevic, who is wanted for arrest in Montenegro, is taking the state to an international arbitration court, demanding 500 million euros in compensation, his company said on Friday.

Opponents of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic protested again in the capital on Saturday, accusing the country's long-time leader of presiding over poverty, a loss of human rights and media freedoms and corruption.

Djukanovic on Monday presented the five new ministers to the leaderhip of his ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS after months of speculation about changes within the government.
 
It is expected that parliament will vote on the new Education, Culture, Health, Justice and Labour ministers at its session scheduled for Tuesday.

The Montenegrin parliament's Committee on International Relations on Thursday failed to agree on the candidacy of the former Mayor of Podgorica, Miomir Mugosa, for the post of ambassador to Slovenia.

Opposition MPs and deputies from the junior ruling party, the Social Democratic Party, SDP, boycotted the session.

The Union of Education has announced that it will hold a one-hour warning strike on Tuesday, saying that the government was still failing to make progress in a long-running dispute over pay.

The union is asking for pay rises, a bigger food allowance and transport bonuses. It is also calling for full-time employment for teachers currently working under temporary employment contracts.

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic has set May 25 as the date for local elections, which will be held in accordance with the new EU-backed electoral law.

Elections will duly take place in Podgorica, Bar, Bijelo Polje, Danilovgrad, Zabljak, Kolasin, Plav, Pluzine, Pljevlja, Rozaje Savnik and Gusinje, Vujanovic said.

After months of speculation about who will succeed Mugosa as mayor of the capital, the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, on Thursday named the Minister of Education, Slavoljub Stijepovic, as head of the list in the Podgorica local elections scheduled for May.