Zoran

Family, friends, party colleagues and citizens paid homage to Zoran Djindjic over the weekend, assassinated on March 12, 2003 while serving as prime minister.

They took part in a wreath-laying and candle-lighting ceremony at his grave in the Alley of the Greats in New Belgrade on Saturday.

The Democratic Party has been ruined by those who took over after the assassination of Zoran Djindjic, says philosopher and theater director Zlatko Pakovic.

Djindjic was a leader who played a major role in the awakening of subjectivity and enthusiasm, Pakovic also told B92 TV on Friday, a day before the anniversary of Djindjic's murder on March 12. 2003.

The Serbian National Assembly late on Wednesday voted to elect Zoran Djordjevic as the country's new defense minister.

Djordjevic previously served as state secretary in the Defense Ministry.

The Serbian National Assembly will be dissolved on Thursday, March 3, paving the way for the calling of early parliamentary elections.

On the same day, deputies are expected to elect a new defense minister. Zoran Djordjevic, who is now the MoD's state secretary, has been proposed as the candidate.

New Party (NS) leader and MP Zoran Zivkovic said on Thursday that it is "obvious" the opposition will not go to early elections "in a single column."

He said his party is ready to participate in the parliamentary election, yet to be called, either independently or "in some natural coalition, where we won't have to explain why we're a member ."

Macedonians are waiting to see whether parliament on Tuesday uses its last chance before its expected dissolution on Wednesday to postpone elections planned for April 24 on joint EU-US advice.

While the opposition insists that the election date must be pushed back, the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party maintains that there are no credible reasons for postponement.

United States and European Union envoys to Macedonia have cast doubt on whether an early general election could be held in the country on April 24, 2016, as planned.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic late on Saturday proposed to the National Assembly to elect Zoran Djordjevic as the new defense minister.

Djordjevic currently serves as state secretary in the Ministry of Defense.

Macedonia's politial crisis took a new twist on Wednesday, after a pro-government TV interviewer accused the head of the opposition Social Democrats of lying - and predicted he would end up in jail.

Opposition and ruling party MPs clashed in Serbia's parliament on Tuesday about potential wrongdoings in the forthcoming parliamentary elections broadly scheduled for late April.

Zoran Zivkovic, president of the opposition New Party, said that his party, like most citizens in Serbia, feared electoral fraud.