Belgrade  - A star-studded, award-winning movie adaptation of a best-selling German novel will open the Belgrade International Film Festival on Friday.

Stephen Daldry's adaptation of Bernhardt Schlink's best-selling novel, The Reader, will feature Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, and David Kross, in a love story set in post-war Germany.

Fiennes will bring star power to the opening of the 37th Belgrade International Film Festival.

Belgrade  - Serbia's women's tennis team will be a strong favourite against Spain when the two countries meet in the Fed Cup World Group play-offs this April, Serbian tennis officials said Tuesday.

The matches will be played on April 25 and 26 and the four winning nations will qualify for the 2010 World Group, while the four losers will start in World Group II in 2010.

"I think our opponent is all right... I'm happy with the draw," Serbia's Fed Cup representation selector Dejan Vranes was quoted as saying.

Belgrade - The global financial crisis and a shortage of funds would probably scupper Serbia's plans to privatize big companies in 2009, reports quoting officials and experts said Wednesday.

"We need no additional revenue for the budget, so we should not sell under the price," Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic told the daily Blic.

A day earlier, Dinkic announced the government's plan to invest 130 million dollars in the mine and smelter RTB Bor - which already went through a failed privatization
- instead of selling it.

Belgrade  - Greek authorities banned Serbian hauliers from entering Greece on Sunday, in a row over higher road charges for foreign firms using Serbian roads, Belgrade media have reported.

Ten days ago Athens again warned Belgrade that it would not renew Serbian permits because Serbia continues to violate a treaty on road tolls that it signed with Greece in
2002. According to the treaty, charges were to be the same for both Greek and Serbian drivers.

Although Belgrade has not implemented the treaty, Serbian officials said they were surprised by the Greek move.

Belgrade - Thousands of Albanians in southern Serbia protested Monday asking for an immediate release of a group of Albanians arrested in December over crimes against Serbs, Belgrade media reported.

Around 3,000 Albanians gathered in Presevo town in southern Serbia, near a border with Kosovo, demanding the release of members of the so-called Gnjilanska group suspected of murdering, torturing and raping Kosovo Serbs from 1999 to 2001.

Belgrade - The governor of Serbia's central bank on Saturday welcomed a 530.3-million-dollar standby loan from the International Monetary Fund to help it weather the global financial crisis, calling it a "positive mark" for Serbia's economy.

The IMF approved the loan on Friday. Under the deal, 353.3 million dollars would be immediately available to Serbia. However, the government has said it only plans to tap the 15-month standby arrangement if absolutely necessary.

"There is still no need to use those funds," central bank governor Radovan Jelasic told Belgrade media.