Belgrade

Croatian Serb leaders condemned on Thursday two attacks by masked assailants on local Serbs watching a televised football match near the town of Knin.

The Serbs in the villages of Uzdolje and Djevrske were watching a game involving Red Star from the Serbian capital Belgrade when the attackers burst into the bars, media reports said. Five, including a minor, were lightly injured.

China's Footprint

China has been deepening its footprint in Serbia for years, primarily through infrastructure loans and construction projects, all packaged as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. There have also been some major investments, such as the Smederevo Steel Plant, or in the Bor mining complex.

Two cases of the West Nile Virus have been confirmed in Bulgaria, with one of the patients said to have lived in Cyprus during a part of the summer.

The new highway was opened for regular traffic two days ago at 10 PM, said the workers on Obrenovac toll both. Toll on the new-opened section is going to be charged from September.

A defence witness in the war crimes retrial of former Serbian state security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic said on Tuesday that the State Security Service, SDB, that they led was not involved in establishing a training camp in a Serb breakaway statelet in Croatia in 1991.

The main opposition political alliance of the day, the (sound familiar?) Alliance for Change, SZP, attempted to place itself at the helm of these protests. As ever, the opposition was divided and fragmented. Aside from the SZP, another force, the Serbian Renewal Movement, SPO, was also vying for leadership of the opposition.

As the Asian giant's global ambitions expand, Beijing is moving from just supplying Belgrade with loans to assuming a key role in its security arrangements.

The use of plastic bags will be completely banned in Belgrade from January 1st. The decision will be formally taken at a meeting of the Belgrade municipality by the end of the month, Serbian Deputy Mayor Goran Vesić said, quoted by Tanjug, BNR reported.

Ever since the dialogue stalled after Serbia succeeded in thwarting Kosovo's bid for membership in Interpol last autumn and Kosovo's former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj immediately retaliated by imposing a 100 per cent tariff on Serbian goods, we've been hearing similar entreaties repeatedly.

Parties in the opposition Alliance for Serbia are united in opposing the Progressive-led government - but not united on whether to participate in upcoming elections.

A majority of representatives have hinted that a boycott might be the best solution.