Serbia

Dačić's former cabinet chief released from custody

BELGRADE -- Branko Lazarević has had his passport confiscated and is under orders not to leave his place of residence without the court approval.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Minister of Energy Zorana Mihajlovic signed on Thursday a memorandum of understanding regarding the construction of storage facilities needed to hold the obligatory reserves of oil and petroleum products worth EUR 50 million.

The memorandum refers to the creation of a joint venture between the government owned Transnafta from Pancevo and Oiltanking from Germany.

BELGRADE - The American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia (AmCham) launched an educational project for young business managers and exceptional students in the country, which it titled "AmChamps - Young Leaders in Change", on Thursday.

AmCham Director Maja Piscevic told Tanjug that the program has an important reform component to it.

BELGRADE - The Embassy of Japan donated books, handbooks and other publications, mostly related to Japanese architecture, but to other fields of study as well, to the Belgrade Faculty of Architecture on Thursday.

BELGRADE - The 15th Guitar Art Festival in Belgrade will take place on March 11-16.

The international guitar festival was created in 2000 as a high-level musical event that gathers together classical and guitarists of other genres.

Naxos Trio will perform as the opening act for the event, and they will give the stage over to Brazilian artist Badi Assad.

BELGRADE - Ivica Dacic, Serbia's outgoing prime minister, said at a meeting with Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport on Thursday that the Serbian government insists that the parliamentary elections should take place on March 16 in Serbia and Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) with the assistance of the international missions.

BELGRADE - The civil society in Serbia has to claim the role which societies have in well-developed democracies - the role of government work supervisor and instigator of democratic processes, participants concluded at the Thursday conference on the strategy for sustainable development of the civil sector.

Dačić promises to protect workers, fight tycoons

VALJEVO -- The coalition gathered around the SPS promised to voters during a rally in Valjevo that it will create new jobs and protect workers, farmers and pensioners.

VALJEVO - The coalition gathered around the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) promised to voters at a pre-election rally in Valjevo that it will create new jobs and protect workers, farmers and pensioners.

At the rally held late on Wednesday, SPS leader Ivica Dacic underlined that Serbia needs a law on labor that will be modeled after EU regulation

BELGRADE - Head of the west Sweden trade union office Krister Anderson said on Wednesday he believed Serbia would overcome all obstacles in EU integration stemming for the harmonization with EU standards, and he stressed that Serbia had strong trade unions.

He met with members of the Serbian parliament and said a joint project and cooperation would be of great use for both countries.