Podgorica

BELGRADE - At this point, bilateral relations between Serbia and Montenegro are better than ever in the past 20 years, Montenegrin PM Dusko Markovic said on Friday, adding that Podgorica was not making decisions against others, but that it had to pursue its own interests.

Montenegrin police have launched night-time patrols, raids and security checks on the streets of Podgorica after a series of car bombs and attempted murders in the capital as a result of clashes between rival drug gangs.

Gay activists took to the streets of Montenegro's capital Podgorica on Saturday to demand that rights for sexual minorities, such as anti-discrimination regulations - and others rights still not enshrined in law - be implemented by the Montenegrin authorities.

A five year old child from the village of Besnik near Rozaje, in northeastern Montenegro, has died from etiol poisoning.

The child passed away at the Podgorica Clinical Center despite the doctors' efforts to save her. The clinic also sought help from the Belgrade-based military clinic VMA and the Institute for Mother and Child in the Serbian capital, the daily Blic is reporting.

Under an agreement with former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's party to secure a majority in parliament to form a new government, the country's ethnic Albanian coalition has succeeded in securing a number of political concessions it has been demanding over the past ten years and which the authorities have continuously avoided implementing.

BELGRADE - Montenegrin lawmakers have approved a new pro-NATO government led by Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, a former head of intelligence and a close ally of longtime leader Milo Djukanovic.

The vote on November 28 came as Markovic pledged that his government would complete, by the end of 2017, the years-long process of Montenegro's integration into NATO.

Concerns have been raised by Montenegro's civil sector, the opposition and security experts about the deteriorating security situation in the country after several towns were hit by bomb blasts over the past few months.

Targets included the cars or flats of senior police officers and bars and restaurants owned by businessmen reportedly close to former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic. 

In a statement released Thursday Montenegro's opposition — made up of a coalition of parties — slammed the court's decision and said that proved that the alleged "coup" was staged by the authorities to ensure Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, won the October 16 general election.

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska's Central European Aluminium Company, CEAC, is suing Montenegro for "hundreds of millions of euros" over the failure of its plant in the capital Podgorica, the firm said in a statement on Monday.

The statement said the case will be heard in Cyprus, where the Russian company has its headquarters.

An international military exercise called "Montenegro 2016", involving servicemen and women from the 32 NATO member and partner countries, started in the capital Podgorica on Monday

The consequence management field exercise, organized jointly by the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre, EADRCC, and the Montenegrin Interior Ministry, ends on Friday.