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Hopes for a peaceful conclusion to the declaration of Kosovo's independence were fading as the European Union announced it had withdrawn its staff from the north of the fledgling country in the face of increasingly angry Serb protests. The civilian staff were meant to be preparing for the EU to take over responsibility for security in Kosovo from the United Nations. The announcement of the withdrawal came as the United States - which backed Kosovo's drive for independence - began to evacuate its American staff and their families from Serbia, offering US citizens the chance to join a convoy of...

BELGRADE, Serbia - A handful of protesters broke into the U.S. embassy in Belgrade on Thursday, cheered on by crowds outside, in a protest at U.S. support for Kosovo's independence.

SEVERAL hundred protesters threw stones and flares at riot police protecting the US embassy in Belgrade today after Kosovo's declaration of independence, witnesses said. One policeman was injured during scuffles as riot police fought to keep the protesters, mainly hardline football fans, away from the embassy building, the witnesses said. One embassy window was smashed. The protesters marched through the middle of the capital towards the US embassy chanting "Kosovo is Serbia" and anti-American slogans. They waved Serbian flags and vowed to protest "until Kosovo is returned to Serbia". After the scuffles, protesters dispersed in nearby streets, while the police...

BRUSSELS, KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Beta says an analysis shows Kosovo's unilateral declaration will first be recognized by some Islamic countries. The news agency has had insight into the document, put together "by some EU countries", that says the province's independence declaration, rejected by Serbia, will be recognized in "three waves". Albania, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and some other Muslim countries will lead the way, the report says. This will be followed by Austria, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and, the document speculates, France, Great Britain, Germany and Italy. The United States is also likely to recognize Kosovo very soon. The "second wave"...

The Kosovo War isn't over. At the moment, Serbian ballots take precedence over bullets; democratic electoral politics are a blessing in Serbia and Kosovo, just like they are in Iraq. But make no mistake: Sunday's first-round 2008 presidential vote in Serbia was another battle in the Kosovo War, and it will not be the last. Tomislav Nikolic, a radical Serbian nationalist and "Euro-sceptic," finished ahead of current President Boris Tadic. Tadic is a Serb nationalist but prefers regional political moderation and (despite occasionally rabid campaign rhetoric) favors EU membership. The runoff is scheduled for Feb. 3. Nikolic is the protege...

Introduction: The Missing Link Why did the US support the separatist and terrorist so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, or UCK in Shqip), which sought to create an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo based on ethnicity? Why did the US sponsor a criminal and illegal separatist movement that sought to ethnically cleanse non-Albanians and create an independent state of Kosova? Why was the US supporting and sponsoring the re-establishment of a fascist-Nazi Greater Albania that Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had initially created? ... The recruitment of the former Nazi-fascist members of the Balli Kombetar by the CIA and MI6 in 1948...

The writer is ambassador of Serbia in Israel. If I were to say that Israel deserved to qualify for the European championship, most local football fans might agree. Israel played really well - the best ever. However, England deserved to qualify too - especially if you look back in history: They invented the game, after all. Nevertheless, neither of them will be heading to the championship because there are certain rules and conditions which preclude that from happening. If someone came along insisting that Israel and England take part in the finals anyway and made room for them by excluding...

Kosovo Albanians refused to give up the dream of independence Wednesday during the final round of talks on the future status of the province. Serbia, however, is refusing to grant anything more than autonomy. German papers fear the consequences for the region and the EU. Last-ditch efforts to find a solution to the problem of Kosovo failed on Wednesday -- as expected. Three days of talks involving Serbia, the Kosovo-Albanians and envoys from the European Union, the United States and Russia had failed to produce an agreement for the future status of Kosovo that would be palatable to both sides....

ANALYSIS: Tensions Rise in Balkans By DUSAN STOJANOVIC BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Facing a possible loss of Kosovo, Serbian nationalists are re-igniting tensions in the Balkans, a region still reeling from brutal civil wars in the 1990s. They're sending out dark hints about coming to the aid of their Serb brethren in neighboring Bosnia — a prospect that could unleash a new wave of ethnic violence. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and his nationalist followers have launched a campaign against the international administrator for Bosnia, accusing him of seeking to dissolve the Serb mini-state carved out in a 1995 peace...

KIEV, Ukraine, Oct. 22, 2007 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today thanked fellow participants in the Southeast Europe Defense Ministerial conference for their support in Iraq and Afghanistan and told the group he plans to press NATO to live up to its commitments in Afghanistan. Gates, speaking with SEDM members at their 12th conference, expressed frustration that some NATO countries still haven’t followed through with troop commitments made at the 2006 NATO session in Riga, Latvia. “I am not satisfied that an alliance whose members have over 2 million soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen can’t find the modest...

Immigration authorities are asking a court to let them sedate an Albanian restaurant owner before putting him on an airplane for deportation because they believe he will again fight attempts to remove him. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked a federal judge to give them permission to medicate Rrustem Neza of Lufkin, a 32-year-old asylum seeker agents couldn't deport in August because he was terrified and did not calm down. A physician from the U.S. Public Health Service would administer the sedative and a medical worker would accompany Neza during the flight. "Unless this Court enjoins Neza from any further...

While vacationing in Kos, Nick Kolyohin from Tel Aviv was cornered in alley and beat up by a group of youths yelling anti-Semitic epithets. Kolyohin stuck in Greece without his passport after attackers snatched his bag Ronny Gal Published: 10.05.07, 05:48 / Israel News While vacationing in Greece, Nick Kolyohin, 24 from Tel Aviv, was beat up by a group of youths, apparently from Albania, in a violent anti-Semitic attack. Kolyohin, who was visiting Greece with four friends aged 22-24, found himself hospitalized and fearing for his life, without his passport or any way to get home to Israel until...

This is a bit dated, but then, I had no idea... Did you realize that Albania is the first country to destroy its entire chemical weapons stockpile (18 tons!)?

In coming weeks, an international confrontation is likely to occur among the United States, the European Union, and Russia over an issue most Americans have long since forgotten: Kosovo, where a few hundred Americans remain deployed as part of a NATO force protecting a shaky interim peace that ended the 1999 U.S.-led intervention. For most Americans this obscure Serbian province, with its mainly Albanian Muslim population and its hundreds of Serbian Christian churches and monasteries, may be a little-remembered footnote to the breakup of Yugoslavia. However, now is the time for clear thinking about next steps if Kosovo is to...

The younger brother of the slain 11-year-old Pantelija Dakic was carrying the cross to mark his brother’s grave at the funeral. August 13, 2003, Gorazdevac, Kosovo-Metohija, Serbia.Four Years Later: Massacre of Serbian Children Unpunished Monday August 13 marks the four year anniversary since the brutal massacre of two Serbian children and wounding of four more in the Bistrica River, in the village of Gorazdevac, close to Pec in Kosovo province. The memorial service held each year for the slain boys was held today in the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God in Gorazdevac. Out of six Serbian boys...

Is the United States out of the intervention business for a while? With two difficult wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a divided public, the conventional answer is that it will be a long time before any American president, Democrat or Republican, again dispatches troops into conflict overseas. As usual, though, the conventional wisdom is almost certainly wrong. Throughout its history, America has frequently used force on behalf of principles and tangible interests, and that is not likely to change. Despite the problems and setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, America remains the world's dominant military power, spends half a trillion...

1 August 2007 AMSTERDAM – The police in Zuid-Limburg have arrested a gang of Albanian human traffickers. The three men are suspected of human trafficking, hostage taking, abuse and rape. One victim, a 36-year-old woman of Yugoslavian descent, was rescued by police. She had gone into hiding months ago in Limburg with the help of police because she had been forced into prostitution by the gang. But the gang managed to find her and took her into their control once again. It was five months before she was able to alert her contact person with the police by sms text...

So, the secret is out. The “premier” of the Kosovo government, the former ringleader of the terrorist “Kosovo Liberation Army” Agim Ceku has named the date, to which the Albanian leaders of the province would time their declaration of independence. That is slated for November 28,2007, when the neighbouring Albania will celebrate its principal state holiday - Day of the Flag. But the holiday has to do with Albania but indirectly. It has long been viewed by the Albanian diaspora scattered all over the world as Day of All Albanians. To understand what Kosovo separatists mean by selecting this particular...

The brotherhood of Zociste Monastery in Metohija has declined to remove the Serbian flag from their belltower after being asked to do so yesterday by international forces in Kosovo and Metohija. The request to remove the flag was made after Albanian threats that if the monks did not do this, the monastery would be attacked. Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren said that "if someone is bothered by the flag, then they should intervene" but that the monks would not remove the flag. Members of Austrian KFOR which secures the monastery advised the monks early yesterday morning that the Albanians...

Italy’s political forces of all color and hue are alarmed by the possibility of Kosovo’s proposed independence even though some prefer to pretend otherwise, Alleanza Nazionale Senator Alfredo Mantica, deputy chairman of the Commission on Foreign Affairs, told me in Rome earlier this month. Mantica, a veteran politician who was Italy’s deputy foreign minister in Berlusconi’s coalition government, favors a pause of several months “to reflect on this issue, and to consider the consequences of opening what may well prove to be Pandora’s box.” Mantica has no doubt that Kosovo’s independence would establish an important precedent, regardless of various assurances...