Kosovo

BELGRADE - Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia's outgoing first deputy prime minister, called on citizens in Kosovska Mitrovica on Tuesday to cast ballots in the greatest possible number in the February 23 mayoral elections and thus speed up the formation of the community of Serb municipalities in Kosovo-Metohija.

BELGRADE - Serbia will never recognise the independence of its southern province and for the Belgrade government, both the current and the future ones, Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) will remain a part of the Republic of Serbia forever, the Serbian government Office for KiM underscored once more, six years after the unilateral and illegal declaration of independence by Kosovo.

BELGRADE - Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Cedomir Jovanovic said that his party does not want to wage a war in the election campaign but instead to collaborate with the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its leader Aleksandar Vucic.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA – Goran Rakic of the Citizens’ Initiative Srpska has voiced doubt about the regularity of the final electoral register for mayoral elections in north Kosovska Mitrovica, protesting over illegal entry of voters of Albanian nationality into the register.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - The Citizens' Initiative Serbia, Democracy, Justice (SDP) pointed out that despite the fact that the mayoral campaign is in full swing in Kosovska Mitrovica, the head of the SDP electoral list Oliver Ivanovic is still in custody in Pristina under unfounded accusations and his health has deteriorated.

BELGRADE - Serbian Defense Minister Nebojsa Rodic and his Azerbaijani counterpart Zakir Hasanov have signed a defense cooperation agreement.

After signing the document in Belgrade on Monday, the two ministers expressed satisfaction about good relations between the two countries further improving.

BELGRADE - UN officials spoke in high terms of Serbia's participation in international peacekeeping missions, said Vladimir Bozovic, state secretary at the Serbian Ministry of the Interior (MUP), who had recently visited the U.S.

PRISTINA - The campaign for the mayoral election in northern Kosovska Mitrovica will begin on February 17 and last only 5 days, the Central Election Commission of Kosovo has decided.

The commission adopted on Wednesday a list of voters in northern Kosovska Mitrovica that now has 28,429 names, member of the commission Nenad Rikalo stated.

BELGRADE - Serbian Defense Minister Nebojsa Rodic said on Thursday that Serbia's citizens place the greatest trust in KFOR when compared to other international actors present in Kosovo-Metohija, and that by maintaining its status-neutral position, NATO will back the implementation of the Brussels agreement.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - The leader of Citizens' Initiative Serbia, Democracy, Justice Oliver Ivanovic will be transferred from a detention unit in Pristina to northern Kosovska Mitrovica, Ivanovic's lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic said on Thursday.