Kosovo

BELGRADE - Serbia's government collapsed yesterday over an impasse between the nationalist prime minister and the pro-Western president on how Kosovo's independence affects the Balkan country's pursuit of European Union membership. "The government, which does not have united policies, cannot function," Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said as he announced the fall of his Cabinet. "That's the end of the government. " Kostunica said he will convene a session of the caretaker government tomorrow, which will propose to President Boris Tadic to dissolve the Parliament and call new elections...

Serbia's war crimes court has acquitted two former policemen who were accused of involvement in the 1999 execution-style slaying of three Albanian-American brothers. In a retrial of the case, the court ruled Wednesday that there was not enough evidence to convict the two Serbs of war crimes for handing over Illy, Mehmet and Agron Bytyqi to members of a special Serbian police unit that subsequently shot and killed them. The retrial was held after Serbia's Appeals Court overturned an initial acquittal.

UNITED NATIONS - Russia tried to block Kosovo's independence during a closed-door emergency session of the UN Security Council yesterday, saying it is deeply concerned about the safety of Serbs living in the territory. The discussion among members of the 15-member council continued to expose their divisions on the future of Kosovo. Russia backs its close ally Serbia, while the United States, Britain, France, and other European Union members support Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians.

NATO's peacekeeping force will do all it can to prevent tensions in Kosovo from escalating because of this weekend's election in neighboring Serbia, the alliance's top official said Friday. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the force's "mission is to preserve a safe and secure environment for all people of Kosovo in an impartial way. " Serbia is holding a general election on Sunday. Tensions have intensified on the eve of the ballot as Kosovo sought to block voting in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, saying these would undermine its sovereignty.

Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on normalizing border procedures, one of the thorniest issues in current talks between the two rivals. An EU statement late Friday said, "The parties will gradually set up the joint, integrated, single and secure posts at all their common crossing points. " Kosovo broke away from Serb rule in 2008, but Belgrade never accepted its independence. Progress in the EU-mediated talks is seen as a key condition for Serbia to be granted candidate status for EU membership.

PODGORICA, Montenegro - Montenegro and Macedonia recognized Kosovo's independence yesterday, despite opposition from Serbia, which called the moves by its Balkan neighbors a betrayal and expelled the Montenegrin ambassador from Belgrade. The moves represent a major blow to Serbia's diplomatic efforts to maintain a claim over Kosovo, considered by Serbs to be the cradle of their Orthodox Christian religion and statehood. Montenegro and Macedonia - both seeking membership in NATO and the European Union - have been under pressure from the United States and some EU countries to recognize...

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo’s incumbent prime minister, Hashim Thaci, claimed victory yesterday in the first general election since the province declared independence from Serbia. An independent exit poll showed his Democratic Party of Kosovo 6 percentage points ahead of the next party. “This is a vote for a European Kosovo,’’ Thaci said. “It is a referendum for good governance.’’ According to the poll, conducted by Gani Bobi Center of Kosovo, Thaci’s party won 31 percent of the vote, with its former coalition partner, the Democratic League of...

PRISTINA, Kosovo - Kosovo's government took control of the newly independent nation yesterday as the country's constitution went into force after nine years of UN administration. The charter, a milestone accomplished four months after leaders declared independence from Serbia, gives the government in Pristina sole decision-making authority. But it threatens to worsen ethnic tensions between Kosovo's majority Albanians and Serb minority. Security in the divided northern town of Mitrovica was high a day after a gunman attacked a police station, wounding one officer.

A senior US official says Kosovo’s partition along ethnic lines would plunge the Balkan region back into violence. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon says that redrawing borders as suggested by Serbia’s senior officials would be “a recipe for disaster.’’ Gordon’s remarks Thursday follow a statement made recently by Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic who said that Kosovo and Serbia could overcome their differences...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - Serbia's hard-line leaders yesterday called the United States "the main culprit" in the violence that has broken out since Kosovo declared independence. Several thousand Serbs chanting "Kosovo is Serbia!" and "Russia, Vladimir Putin!" protested peacefully in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica, the sixth day of demonstrations against Kosovo's break with Serbia. Russia backs Serbia's fierce resistance to Kosovo's secession. On Thursday night, protesters in the Serbian capital Belgrade set fire to the US Embassy, angered by Washington's recognition...

A Kosovo court has cleared a senior Kosovo politician and three of his associates of allegations that they tortured and killed Serb detainees during the 1998-99 Kosovo war. A panel of three judges — two from the European Union and one from Kosovo — dropped the case against Fatmir Limaj, a former commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army that fought a separatist war against Serbia. Limaj said the verdict proved that the KLA fought "a just and clean fight. " The case — run by an Italian prosecutor in the 3,000-strong EU rule of law mission in Kosovo — was largely based on the...

Germany will deploy a quick reaction force of several hundred troops to Kosovo to strengthen the NATO mission there amid heightened tensions ahead of next month's election in neighboring Serbia, an official said Saturday. About 550 German soldiers and 130 Austrian troops will be deployed to the region by May 1 at NATO's request in a bid to strengthen its KFOR peacekeepers mission, said German Central command spokesman Hauke Bunks. Serbia will hold parliamentary and local elections May 6, which could re-ignite tensions between minority ethnic Albanians and...

HARILAC, Kosovo - Demining experts have resumed the slow process of clearing Kosovo of the many NATO cluster bombs and Serbian military land mines left behind from the 1998-99 war. Since the conflict ended, the hidden devices have killed 114 people and wounded more than 450. Members of the Kosovo Security Force donned protective gear and visors Thursday to pick up where they left off last year after the first snowfall. In Kosovo, demining is suspended until spring approaches and the ground softens to resume scanning for explosives.

Atifete Jahjaga, the president of the Republic of Kosovo (below left, with Karambir Singh Kang), was at the Taj Hotel in Boston over the weekend with a business delegation. Her next stop is "Women in the World: Stories & Solutions," a conference where she will meet with Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, and Madeleine Albright.

Officials say four more bodies have been found after an avalanche struck a mountain village in southern Kosovo, bringing the death toll to at least seven. Three people are still missing, but a 5-year-old girl was pulled alive from the snow. Local district official Behar Ramadani said the girl was rescued from the 10-meter-deep (33-feet-deep) snow after the avalanche destroyed seven houses in the village of Restelica in the region bordering Macedonia and Albania on Saturday. The rescuers — mostly local villagers using shovels — first dug out the bodies...

Serbia's war crimes prosecutors have denied a human rights group's claim that the country's new army chief of staff committed war crimes against civilians in Kosovo during the 1998-99 war. The prosecutors' office said Wednesday an investigation has shown "there is no basis whatsoever to suspect the criminal responsibility" of Gen. Ljubisa Dikovic. They said if there were any doubts about his role during the war, the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia would have investigated him. Belgrade's Humanitarian Law Center said Tuesday that Dikovic should be replaced...

PRISTINA, Kosovo — This Balkan city is perhaps the ugliest, and most fun, capital in Europe. Once synonymous with war and ethnic tensions, Pristina is now the peaceful, vibrant, and fast-growing seat of government for Kosovo, the world’s newest country after its leaders declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. The city still faces challenges — the prevalence of white United Nations SUVs on the streets attests to the international community’s continued monitoring of relations between ethnic Albanians and Kosovo’s 7 percent ethnic Serb minority, for example.

TAMPA - A Kosovo-born Muslim man was charged with plotting to attack crowded locations around Tampa, including nightclubs and a sheriff's office, with a car bomb, assault rifle, and other explosives, federal authorities said yesterday. According to a federal complaint, 25-year-old Sami Osmakac recorded an eight-minute video shortly before his arrest explaining why he wanted to bring terror to his "victims' hearts" in the Tampa Bay area. Osmakac is a naturalized American citizen.

A Russian convoy carrying aid for Kosovo Serbs has been stopped by US soldiers guarding the Kosovo border, rising tensions in the volatile region. Russian officials escorting the convoy of some 25 trucks are accusing an EU rule of law mission in Kosovo of blocking the passage. EU officials say the Russians can pass if they allow an international police escort. Russia's ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandr Konuzin, who is leading the convoy, has refused an EU escort and accused the peacekeepers of a "political blackmail.