Serbia and Montenegro

Following an emergency session of Serbia's Council for National Security, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksander Vucic on Saturday accused Kosovo of sending special forces to attack the first train in 18 years from Belgrade to the northern, Serb-run part of the Kosovo town of Mitrovica.

Trains will start traveling directly from Belgrade to Kosovska Mitrovica on Saturday for the first time since the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia.

A promotional ride will be organized in a new Russian-manufactured train, whose interior is decorated with the imagery of the Serb cultural and spiritual heritage located in Kosovo and Metohija.

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija, Marko Djuric, on Wednesday welcomed a decision by a part of Srpska lista members of the Kosovo assembly to again leave Kosovo's institutions.

Speaking to reporters in Belgrade, Djuric added he expected those who had meanwhile assumed office contrary to the policy of the Serbian government to resign irrevocably.

BELGRADE - In case Pristina fails to form the Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo-Metohija on its own, the Serbs have the full legitimacy and legality to do so, the chairman of the Serbian parliamentary committee on Kosovo-Metohija, Milovan Drecun, said Tuesday.

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic on Monday declined to give a definite answer whether the Kosovo Serbs will wait until February 15 and then establish the Community of Serb Municipalities on their own, as announced earlier in the day by Marko Djuric, head of the government Office for Kosovo-Metohija.

Aleksandar Vucic has not said definitively if Kosovo Serbs will wait until Feb. 15 and then establish the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) "on their own."

This was announced earlier in the day by Marko Djuric, head of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija.

Marko Djuric on Friday reacted to the protest note Pristina has sent to the EU over his visit to Kosovo the day before, to say it was "music to his ears."

The director of the Serbian Government's Office for Kosovo and Metohija explained this was the case "because those who stand against the basic human rights are undermining their own political credibility and position."

The 2017 Serbian budget bill envisions setting aside over 5 billion Serbian dinars (40.5 million euros) for Kosovo and Metohija, Milovan Drecun said on Friday.

According to the chairman of the Serbian National Assembly's Committee on Kosovo, this is "indication of Serbia's continued presence in Kosovo and Metohija."

ST PETERSBURG - Devastation of cultural monuments in Palmyra, Kosovo-Metohija, Sudan or anywhere else is an attack on the core of human civilisation that belongs to the entire world, irrespective of race, religion or cultural area, Serbian Minister of Culture and Information Vladan Vukosavljevic said at the 5th International Cultural Forum in St Petersburg on Friday.

ST PETERSBURG - Devastation of cultural monuments in Palmyra, Kosovo-Metohija, Sudan or anywhere else is an attack on the core of human civilisation that belongs to the entire world, irrespective of race, religion or cultural area, Serbian Minister of Culture and Information Vladan Vukosavljevic said at the 5th International Cultural Forum in St Petersburg on Friday.