Montenegro

BELGRADE - Belgrade has been proclaimed the best tourist place in South Eastern Europe (SEE) in a tourism action to pick the best in SEE tourism in 2013 carried out by Sacen International, an international center for tourism and hospitality development based in Serbia.

Montenegro is to get a new 23rd municipality after parliament verified a government decision adopted last December to grant municipal status to Gusinje.

The small town in northern Montenegro, near Albania, which has only around 2,000 inhabitants but a large diaspora in the US, is mainly home to ethnic Bosniaks and Albanians.

Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev will pay an official visit to Montenegro, the President press office informed.

Montenegro's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Igor Luksic, said Montenegro had no option but to join NATO, if only for reasons of cost.

Maintaining military neutrality would involve building a defence system that would be more expensive for Montenegro than joining NATO, he said on Thursday.

Ex-president denies he "worked against Montenegro"

PODGORICA -- Boris Tadić denied accusations made by Montenegrin officials that was "working against the interests of Montenegro" while serving as Serbian president.

The leader of the newly-formed New Democratic Party (NDS) also denied that he tried to "disqualify" Montenegro in the international community.

The threat of a boycott was unleashed after the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, on Tuesday voted against six EU-backed election laws aimed at curbing abuses in the electoral process.

The laws mainly address suspected irregularities in voter lists and abuses in the use of budgetary funds for party purposes during elections.

BELGRADE - Queens of the Stone Age, one of the greatest rock bands of today, is coming to Serbia on June 11.

The Americans will be headlining a new one-day rock festival introducing EXIT ADVENTURE, and as a special treat, the festival's most devoted fans will have a chance to choose a city in Serbia in which the event will be held.

PODGORICA - Unidentified vandals again demolished and stole the bust of Novak Milosev Vujadinovica in Orljevo, near Podgorica, which was put up by the Serb National Council in Montenegro.

The Serb Nation Council set up a new bust a year ago, after the previous one was also pulled down and stolen.

PODGORICA - Montenegro's President Filip Vujanovic has said Montenegro and Serbia will improve their cooperation further, especially in economy and EU integration.

PARIS - Serbia ranks 54th among 180 world countries according to the degree of freedom of the media, while Macedonia and Montenegro are the lowest ranked countries in the Balkans according to the Press Freedom Index for 2014, Reporters without Borders organisation released.

Last year, Serbia claimed the 63rd place on the list.