26 August 2019 - A stunning photograph of the Đurđevića Tara Bridge, as a well-known landmark in Montenegro, is featured in the Windows Spotlight, a Windows 10 lock screen slideshow service.

Windows Spotlight is a feature included by default in Windows 10 that downloads pictures and advertisements automatically from Bing and displays them when the lock screen is being shown on a computer running Windows 10. Users are occasionally allowed to mark whether they wish to see more or fewer images of a similar type, and sometimes the images are overlaid with links to advertisements. In 2017, Microsoft began adding location information for many of the photographs.

For most of the images, no photo credits are available, but some do display information about where the picture was taken. Many are of well-known locations, or famous historic or natural landmarks, and therefore can be identified.

One of the identified images is the photograph of the remarkable Đurđevića Tara Bridge.

Tara is a river that flows through Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The total length of the river is 144 km, of which 104 km is in Montenegro, making it the longest river in the country. When describing the river, Montenegrins like to emphasize that the Tara is wild, capricious, and the most beautiful and cleanest river in Europe! The cleanliness of the river is recognized internationally, and that is how the Tara got its glory as “the tear of Europe”.

Đurđevića Tara Bridge is a concrete arch bridge over the Tara River in northern Montenegro. It is located at the crossroads between Mojkovac, Žabljak and Pljevlja, between the villages of Budečevica and Trešnjica. Built between 1937 and 1940, Tara Bridge represents one of the most visited landmarks in Montenegro. The bridge offers a magnificent and unique view of the surrounding mountains and untouched nature. Back when the Tara Bridge was first built in the 1940s, it was the most prominent vehicular concrete arch bridge in Europe. Even today, renowned architects and engineers from all over the world come to Montenegro to admire this beautiful structure.

No wonder Microsoft has decided to spread this stunning image of Đurđevića Tara Bridge around the world for everyone to admire.

Read more about River Tara, its canyon, Đurđevića Tara Bridge and explore rafting options at TMN's dedicated page. 

26 August 2019 - Tivat Culture Centre (CZK) completed filming a short documentary "Peace of Our Lady", scripted and directed by Vladimir Perovic, on 21 August, said CZK producer Jelena Bozovic. The film was supported by funds from the Municipality of Kotor, through last year's competition of the Municipal Secretariat for Culture, Sports and Social Activities to support individual cultural creativity.

It is the Lady of the Rocks, a magnificent islet in front of Perast, where, according to tradition, more than four and a half centuries ago, when it was an ordinary cliff, sailors found a holy image of the Virgin with her child. The Perast people then supplemented the cliff for decades bringing stones, created an islet and erected a church there, a holy place for believers, pride for all the inhabitants of Boka, an unavoidable tourist destination made by pilgrims from all over the world, all cultures, nations, religions.

Our Lady's Peace is not about legend or tourist promotion, though it does carry both. The film, defined by the author as a creative documentary or as a visual essay, places the centuries-old peace of this unique cultural, historical and religious destination in the context of a booming tourist season. Crowded as if in a hive, the sea around the islets as a crowded thoroughfare of a metropolis. Speedboats, scooters, yachts, sailing boats, boats, water carriages, and of course huge cruisers, wandering through Verige like some prehistoric beasts, and their enormity and sluggish creep - as if threatening purity, beauty, peace, all that the spiritual atmosphere that Our Lady carries…

The team worked intensively, sometimes even 15 hours a day, from dawn until late into the night. The extremely efficient team consisted of Vladimir Perovic, Ivan Cojbasic, Jelena Bozovic and Neno Bubonja, and great help and support were provided by Blažo Krivokapić and don Srecko Juric, who has given permission for the film to be made on and around the islet.

If both editing and post-production goes as planned, as it was on set, the Culture Centre expects the film to premiere at the end of November.

On August 15, the same crew completed the final stage of shooting another short documentary, Ognjilo, which stretched to almost three years due to the extension of the transmission line through Katunska nahija (an integral part of the film).

Throughout his days, seasons, and the year, this film follows a highlander from the Katun karst, a man into whose landscape, into whose space, into whose life move strange, huge metal neighbours. He continues to live his life as he has lived it and as generations of his ancestors have lived.

The symbol of that life is the tinder from the title, a small, simple, old-fashioned accessory that makes sparks from flint stones. The film is scheduled to premiere at the end of November and then launch into festival life in the world.

The feast of all feasts that is two centuries-long, the traditional 2019 Bokeljska Noc, was held in the sea of Kotor Bay, at the foot of ancient Kotor in front of thousands of visitors.

Kotor City Music and the sailing boats of the Sailing Club “Lahor” announced the parade of decorated boats, which were presented to the audience in three rounds.

Forty-three boats took part in the parade.

According to the decision of the jury, the winning boat of Bokeljska Noc in 2019 is the "40 years since the earthquake" boat - by Mijo Milovanovic.

2019 Bokeska Noc, photo by Boka News

The second prize and €1,500 were awarded to the creations entitled “Demolition is still in progress” (No. 34) and “European Champions without a Pool” (No. 27).

2019 Bokeska Noc, photo by Boka News

Authors: Dragan Buzdovan and Zvjezdan Santic

2019 Bokeska Noc, photo by Boka News

The third place and the award of €1,000 went to the participants for the creations entitled “My Wonderful Blue Waves” (homage to Maja Perfiljeva - No. 7) and “Spiljari Church” (No. 24) by Marko Sevaljevic and Bozo Zornija.

2019 Bokeska Noc, photo by Boka News

2019 Bokeska Noc, photo by Boka News

The decision was made by a jury composed of Lana Bokan, MSc visual artist - jury president, prof. Marina Dulovic Secretary of the Secretariat for Culture and Social Affairs of the Municipality of Kotor and Academic painter Vladimir Jovicevic.

2019 Bokeska Noc, photo by Boka News

The feast then continued at the dozen squares in the old town until the early morning.

More photos can be found on the Facebook  page.

Text by Boka News, on August 25th, 2019, read more at Boka News

Over the past year, the region has seen 228.000 inhabitants leave, most from Albania (62,000) and the least from Montenegro (3,000).

From Bosnia and Herzegovina, 53.500 people went to EU countries, 51.000 from Serbia, 34.500 from Kosovo, and 24.300 from North Macedonia, as shown by Eurostat data.

Most citizens emigrated from Albania to Italy, Greece and Germany.

Most of them left BiH to go to Germany, Slovenia and Croatia.

Most citizens also emigrated from Serbia last year to Germany, Slovenia, and Croatia, as well as Slovakia.

From Kosovo, most people went to Germany, Slovenia, and Italy last year.

Most people from North Macedonia emigrated to Germany, followed by Italy and Slovenia.

The largest emigration in terms of population was from Albania, which has about 2.8 million inhabitants and from which about 2.2 percent of the total population left last year.

Text by Agencije, on August 26th, 2019, read more at CdM

There are currently 33.3 thousand tourists in Herceg Novi, 15 percent more than in the same period last year.

"Out of the total number of guests, 32.45 thousand are foreign, while 848 are domestic," according to the statement from the local Tourist Organization.

There are 7.63 thousand guests in hotels and 25.61 thousand in private households.

There are 60 campers.

Text by Boka News, on August 25th 2019, read more at CdM

Nikola, Stefan, and Filip have raised 1,200 euros for the treatment of the little boy Vanja after swimming from Skolj to Pizana.

Ten-year-old Nikola Bozovic and Stefan Sundek and eight-year-old Filip Bozovic, with their accomplishment modeled by their fellow citizen Luka Vuckovic, have shown that they have a big heart and that there is hope for today's society.

The brave young boys arrived to Pizana after half an hour of swimming, where they were greeted by Luka Vuckovic, Petar Antonioli and Dejan Pribilovic, who just a few days ago raised more than 10,000 euros by swimming a 17-kilometer route from Przno to Ploce.

Apart from them, the boys were also greeted by the director of WC Budva Nenad Franeta, their first coach Sandra Kapicic, families and citizens.

Vanja Jovanovic suffers from a rare disease that requires a series of surgeries in France.

Text by RTV Budva, on August 24th, 2019, read more at CdM

25 August 2019 - The Bella Boka project has had a good start this week. The idea to revive the tradition of using waterways in Boka Kotorska for the transportation of citizens and tourists, which has been almost forgotten during the past decades has received a warm welcome in the bay, both from guests and natives.

The solar vessel Elettra and hybrid Graziana as part of the Bella Boka project started their trips on the routes Herceg Novi-Tivat-Perast and Perast-Kotor this Tuesday and the first impressions are more than satisfactory, says the owner and general manager of Bella Boka, Riccardo Bonetti for TMN:

“I am very satisfied how it has started and the people who are using our boats are very happy, especially with the route Tivat – Herceg Novi and Herceg Novi-Tivat. We have very good feedback from the people, who have very good comments about their impressions of the connection between the two municipalities. Every day we have more people and in the following days, we will make better promotion, especially to the local people. We use our two boats to test how to connect Boka Kotorska in the best way.                                                                                                                                                             At the moment we are using the bigger boat, Graciana, also for the ride to Kotor, but it will be used to connect only Herceg Novi, Tivat and Perast in the final project, but at the moment we have included two boats and one boat is working with the small boat, full electric working in the area of Kotor municipality. With the bigger, Graciana we sail on a longer distance. I will check the best way to connect Herceg Novi, Tivat, Perast and Kotor. We will make the best solution, advised by the comments of our passengers.”

Graciana and Elletra will also be available to connect Bokelian municipalities and the lovers of sea routes during the winter: ”We intend to work during the winter also, but we will reduce our time-table and adapt it, for example, to transport students to school, people to work. 

At the moment we are not planning to do any private agreement, such as excursions for tourist agencies, this is a public line. We are only doing public transport with very low prices for all people, so the trip from Tivat to Herceg Novi costs four euros and Graciana can take up to sixty passengers. Since we have just started, there have been some situations with the times and routes. We also have to adjust the time table. This is a theoretical time table, because we have traffic in every port. We have reservations for our place, but especially in Kotor, for example,, it is very, very hard to have the place, because there are so many boats. Then you have to wait, and it’s not a good situation, it practically happens every day.”

The Bella Boka project - Sustainable water transport by solar trimarans in Boka Kotorska has been established to positively influence the problem of congestion in road traffic, especially during the summer season.

The total value of this project, unique in the Mediterranean, has been €4,259,000, while co-financing through the UNDP project for Low carbon tourism in Montenegro amounts to 150,000 euros.

The project is very significant, because it helps reduce the level of harmful gas emissions, including CO2, and offers passengers a truly exciting and inspirational experience. It was important to have a good idea like this, but as Ricardo says, it needed people to make it come true.

25 August 2019 - Budva won the City Games 2019 - Budva at the outdoor pools last night in Budva. The city was ruled by the great City Games euphoria broadcast live by the RTCG. The dramatic finale of the tenth season of popular water games was organized by the Budva Tourist Board and the Adria Events Agency. The version of the widely known Games Without Borders has once again justified its expectations with new scenery and numerous surprises for both the audience and the contestants in the final competition of Montenegro, as stated from the City Games Press Team.

In front of a crowded grandstand, six magnificent teams measured their strength and skill: Herceg Novi, Bar, Kotor, Podgorica, Tivat and Budva.

Teams competed in modern versions of fun traditional City Games such as wine, flying water polo, tourist rescue, ham, water basketball and paddle. The teams came with a great desire to win and represent their city in the best light. The fight was fierce, interesting and dynamic until the very end.

In the first game, where men have to bring grapes over barriers to a barrel where girls make wine, the Tivat team undoubtedly won the most points. In the next three games, the excellent team from Budva took over the safe lead as remained until the very end, with it winning gold medals, a cup and participation at the International City Games finals in Slovenia in 2020.

The Podgorica team woke up in the fifth game of water basketball, in which they scored the most points. The team from Herceg Novi lost most of the games in front of the Budva team, keeping the power for the last game paddle by scoring the most points, which also decided them to win second place. The bronze medals around the neck were proudly placed by the members of Tivat team who fought for third place with the team from Kotor.

For more information, the official website is www.city-games.com and the games can be followed on Facebook.

25 August 2019 - In 2018, the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) in Podgorica issued 95 arrest warrants in total, while in the first six months of 2019, the Bureau issued 62 international warrants already, said acting chief officer of the International Police Cooperation Division for the sections INTERPOL - EUROPOL - SIRENE, Dejan Boljević, in an interview with the weekend edition of Dnevne Novine daily.

The INTERPOL database, according to Boljević, currently includes 292 international warrants issued by the INTERPOL Podgorica, but the number is changing daily.

“Of the total number of issued international warrants, around 198 of them were issued for the Montenegrin nationals. The INTERPOL’s public website currently has eight warrants issued by the Interpol Podgorica, three of which were issued for the Montenegrin nationals. It is important to note that majority of the international warrants, not only ours but of the other countries as well, is not being published on the Interpol’s public website, as they are used for the police and judicial purposes in the international police cooperation. Such international warrants are rarely publicly published, i.e. only when there’s an estimation that it might contribute to locating a fugitive,” acting chief officer Boljević clarified for Dnevne Novine daily.

As he explained, in 2018, on the basis of international arrest warrants issued by Montenegro, a total of 54 persons were arrested abroad (Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, France, Austria, etc.), and in the first six months of this year, a total of 20 persons were imprisoned (Serbia, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, etc).

“The largest number of individuals for which NCB INTERPOL Podgorica issued arrest warrants is located in countries in the region, most commonly in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in Western Europe. Germany and Hungary would be singled out from Western European countries," Boljević said.

The number of international arrest warrants received by the INTERPOL Europol SIRENE Department of International Police Cooperation from abroad is continuously changing, but in the last month, the largest number of international warrants has been issued by non-European countries.

“However, the most direct requests for locating wanted persons based on operational knowledge that persons are located in Montenegro (targeted searches), INTERPOL Europol SIRENE International Police Cooperation Section receives from countries in the region, mainly from Serbia, and in terms of Western Europe, the most requests of this kind come from Germany," Boljević said.

According to Boljević, the largest number of international warrants issued by INTERPOL Podgorica is in the area of property offenses, followed by criminal offenses in the area of drug abuse, criminal offenses against life and body and economic crimes.

24 August 2019 - A Novel about London, based on the novel of the same name by Miloš Crnjanski and directed by Ana Djordjevic will be played at the Purgatorije Festival in Tivat, as announced from the Culture Centre Tivat. The show will be performed in the Great Hall of the Tivat Culture Centre on Sunday 25 August at 9 p.m.

It has been produced by Beogradsko dramsko pozorište - Belgrade Drama Theatre and "Beo Art".

Cast: Milan Maric, Branko Cvejic, Milica Zaric, Ljubinka Klaric, Milan Cucilovic, Ivana Nikolic, Srdjan Dedic and Davor Perunovic.

Based on the personal experience of the writer, “A Novel about London” is the story of the troubled lives of expatriates abroad. It traces the lives of two Russian refugees, a married couple who, in the years after World War II, barely make ends meet in London, in an unknown, inhospitable, foreign city.
The question is, is there any place for happiness in the post-war world where there are no friends, but only acquaintances and passers-by, where even in the crowd, everybody is alone?

The friable and humid London apartments and rooms are a picture of the desolate souls of expatriates, married couples like Rjepnin and Nadja, in which in silence and poverty, they live with painful memories, feelings of non-attachment and anxiety. What is the existence in which, besides bare life, you miss everything: fatherland, friends, family, and even those who are right next to you?

Miloš Crnjanski (26 October 1893 – 30 November 1977) was a poet of the expressionist wing of Serbian modernism, author, and a diplomat. From his beginnings as a journalist whose social-political stance was at one moment openly opposed to freedom and progress, he gradually arose to become a poet and romanticist.

Ana Djordjevic (1977) completed theatre and radio directing at the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade. She has directed performances in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Skopje, Podgorica, Subotica, Sombor, Banja Luka, Krusevac, Vranje, Nis. She is the author or co-author of a number of dramatizations and authored texts she has directed. She has received several national and regional awards.