Velimir Ilić

Opposition New Party member and former Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic told BIRN that prosecutors should launch an investigation into health minister Zlatibor Loncar over his alleged connections with the notorious Zemun Clan, whose members were found guilty of murdering Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003.

The Nova Srbija (New Serbia, NS) party will sign a coalition agreement will this coming weekend with the SNS, in order to go to early elections together.

NS leader and cabinet minister Velimir Ilic announced this on Friday.

PM "takes responsibility - but doesn't know what for"

OBRENOVAC -- Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic says the Serbian Army (VS) is conducting "a professional investigation" into the crash of one of its helicopters last week.

The results will be published "soon," Vucic told reporters in Obrenovac on Tuesday.

CACAK - A total of 36,000 landslide sites have been registered in Serbia, Minister for Emergency Situations Velimir Ilic has said in Cacak, expressing concern that new ones may appear once the snow melts.

Serbia has 36,000 landslide sites - minister

CACAK -- A total of 36,000 landslide sites have been registered in Serbia, Minister for Emergency Situations Velimir Ilic said on Thursday in Cacak, central Serbia.

He added he was worried that "new ones may appear once the snow melts."

Bogoljub Karic's big return

Bogoljub Karic, businessman and leader of "Serbian power movement" will be back in Serbia only if indictment against him about "Mobtel" affair is withdrawed.

According to "Blic", Karic, who lives in Moscow, where he escaped from Interpol's wanted list, has no intention of coming back to Serbia and risk of being arrested on the airport.

Serbians welcome in "Orthodox" New Year

BELGRADE -- Tens of thousands of people across the country on Tuesday celebrated the beginning of the new year according to the Julian calendar.

This is the calendar adhered to by the Serbian Orthodox Church, so the January 13 festivities are sometimes referred to as the Orthodox, or Serbian New Year.

CACAK - Wreaths and flowers were laid on Tuesday at the memorial to the soldiers of four faiths at the city cemetery in Cacak, central Serbia, in memory of the WWI fallen in that area, and to mark the anniversary of setting up the memorial.

Serbia's Minister without Portfolio Velimir Ilic noted that the memorial was erected on the initiative of female residents of Cacak in 1934.

VRNJACKA BANJA, KRALJEVO – Serbian government Minister without Portfolio responsible for emergency management Velimir Ilic has said that the rehabilitation following the May flooding in the country should be faster and more efficient and the people who have suffered damages and losses rightly expect it to be so.

BELGRADE - Velimir Ilic, Serbia's minister without portfolio responsible for emergency situations, has said that, in the flood-affected areas he toured, 1,500-2,000 housing facilities should be torn down.

Ilic told the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti that he toured over 80 percent of the flood-hit areas.