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BELGRADE, Serbia: Serbia must reject Kosovo's independence and cut all ties with countries that recognize it as a separate country, Serbia's ruling party has demanded as a condition for joining the new government, officials said Wednesday. The hardline demand by outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's conservative Popular Coalition comes two days before a formal presentation of a U.N. plan for Kosovo which is likely to grant the southern Serbian province internationally supervised independence. Kostunica's "platform for Kosovo" was handed to President Boris Tadic on Tuesday during key talks on the formation of a new Cabinet. The document, made public Wednesday,...

Pristina, 12:27 The UN Security Council will come up with a new resolution leading to Kosovo's independence if Serbia rejects Martii Ahtisaari's proposal, Kosovo's newspapers said. Pristina's daily Koha Ditore quotes unnamed Western diplomats as predicting such an epilogue to the Kosovo status process. Koha Ditore quotes Western diplomats as saying that in the next two months they will try to convince Serbian authorities to accept the Kosovo status plan due to be presented by the UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari. The paper also claims that Russian mediators have already handed over the Ahtisaari's plan to the authorities in Belgrade, adding...

The comparisons of the destruction of Yugoslavia with the destruction of Israel are chilling and instructive. The sub-title “Were the Serbs the criminal aggressors, as the official story claims, or were they the victims?� could equally be asked regarding Israel, “Are the Jews the criminal aggressors, as the world claims, or are they the victims?� He conclusively proves that “ Alija Izetbegovic, the leader of a minority Bosnian Muslim faction, the one that NATO supported, who wrote a book calling for the slaughter of infidels so that a Muslim takeover could install an Islamist theocracy in Bosnia.� was the villain...

The plan submitted by Martti Ahtisaari, U.N. envoy for Kosovo, is expected to fall short of granting full independence, but it should allow Kosovo more control over its own affairs and open it to membership of institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. So, what brought on this "western spinelessness", asks Jonathan Steels in Britain's Guardian. After all, NATO countries readily went to war with Serbia in 1999 over the issue of Kosovo and now the same countries are wavering over Kosovo's independence. There are three reasons for this, according to Steele. First is Western "post-bombing...

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Last week, Sarajevo's Jesus Heart cathedral was packed for Christmas mass. This week its King Fahd mosque is filled ahead of the Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice. The Bosnian capital is still a mix of Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and Islam. Since the Bosnia war ended in 1995 the Muslim faith dominates, but not all adherents are happy with the increasing numbers of people following the puritanical Sunni Muslim Wahhabi sect. "Wahhabism has seriously divided children and parents, spiritual leaders and priests, professors and students, neighborhoods," says lecturer Adnan Silajdzic, who teaches comparative religions at Sarajevo...

Awaiting the Parliamentary Elections, scheduled to take place on January 21, the Gay-Straight Alliance and the Anti-Trafficking Centre organized a debate on the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination and regulations on status of sexual minorities. Only the representatives of the Democratic Party, the LDP-GSS-SDU-LSV Coalition and G17 Plus answered the invitation and appeared at the event. Snezana Stojanovic-Plavsic from G17 Plus said that her party was prepared to support registration of same-sex unions. The LDP-led coalition and the Democratic Party emphasized the need for a Law on Prohibition of Discrimination that would include instruments for protection of human rights of...

The breakaway British region of Scotland could be among the beneficiaries of this week's expected UN recommendation that Kosovo be granted provisional independence from Serbia, leading in time to full sovereign status. If the plan backed by the US, Britain and Germany is formally accepted by the UN security council, it will be taken as an important international legal precedent by would-be separatist movements from Georgia to Moldova to Chechnya, and possibly also the Scottish National party. Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president who is the UN's point man on Kosovo, will put forward his proposals on Friday, when he...

Saturday, January 20, 2007 The U.S. decision to hold Kosovo like a Sword of Damocles over Serbian reform ers' heads is about to backfire as Serbs go the polls Sunday, angry and disaffected. With no Serbian reform party likely to get close to a majority of the vote, Western pressure on Belgrade to give up Kosovo looks likely to blast apart the center-left coalition that has kept Serbia on a reform path since Slobodan Milosevic's ouster in 2000. The threats over Kosovo also feed public apathy and heighten antipathy toward the West. Serbian politicians battle over nearly everything, but have...

BERLIN, Jan 19 (Reuters) - A looming decision on the fate of Kosovo must bring "maximum" satisfaction to the citizens of the province without stirring turbulence in Serbia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Reuters on Friday. "We need maximum satisfaction in Kosovo but also satisfaction, or at least no turbulence, in Serbia," Merkel said in an interview ahead of Serbian elections on Sunday. "First we want to see the democratic powers in Serbia strengthened after the election and then we will do everything we can to negotiate astutely while still moving ahead with political decisions." A report by U.N. Kosovo...

January 20, 2007 1:28 PM BELGRADE, Serbia-Serbian war crimes prosecutors launched an investigation Friday into an ethnic Albanian man's alleged role in the 1998 killing of 25 Serb civilians during the Kosovo war. Sinan Morina, who was arrested last month in neighboring Montenegro and extradited to Serbia, is being held "on suspicion of being responsible for the murder of 25 Serbs in 1998" in central Kosovo, said the prosecutors' office in Belgrade. The group of Serb villagers, including an 11-member family, were missing for years until their bodies were found in 2005 in the rural Volujak cave and were identified...

REL-BOSNIA-ISLAMIC-SCHOOL Bosnia-Herzegovina marks 1st Islamic school anniversary in Balkans SARAJEVO, Jan 8 (KUNA) -- A grand ceremony was held here Monday marking the 470th anniversary of the establishment of the first Islamic school in the Balkans. The ceremony was inaugurated by Muslim Representative of the Bosnian Presidency Haris Silajdzic, who said Islam entered the country through righteous call for Islam and conviction, rather than the use of sword. The Islamic school was established by Khesro Bey, the first Ottoman ruler of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who was mainly interested in science and culture. Islam was an option, albeit a challenge to the Bosnian...

Sarajevo, 27 Dec. (AKI) - Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has accused Euro-MP and chair of the European Parliament's Delegation for South-East Europe, Doris Pack, of being a "liar" and a "Serb hater," saying he doesn’t ever want to meet her. In an unusual, undiplomatically worded statement issued on Tuesday, Dodik, who is prime minister of the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska (RS), described Pack as "an enemy of the RS and of Serbs as people." His vehement reaction came in response to an interview Pack gave to Sarajevo daily Dnevni avaz on Monday in which she alleged that Dodik...

- Ahtisaari has failed, and his supporters are getting very nervous. As Misha Glenny confided to the former U.S. ambassador in Belgrade William Montgomery on December 7, “I am seriously worried about the Kosovo situation… entre nous, I am very disappointed with Martti’s performance.� - President Boris Tadic’s chief foreign policy advisor Vuk Jeremic, one of very few Serbian enthusiasts for John Kerry’s victory in November 2004, came to Washington on 18 May 2005 to testify in Congress on why Kosovo should stay within Serbia; but in his off-the-record conversations he assured his hosts that the task is really to...

A sticking point in the Kosovo status talks is that of cultural heritage between the Kosovo Albanians and the Serbs. During the seventh round of talks in July, the two-day meeting focused on the protection of religious and cultural heritage. The two sides remain deadlocked on a number of issues, including Serbia's calls for protection zones around 39 Orthodox monasteries, churches and other sites. The Serbs see the province as both the cradle of their state and their spirituality since the Middle Ages. Kosovo was once considered Serbia's cultural centre. The Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when Serb nobles stood...

PRIŠTINA -- The Kosovo PM has rejected any possibility that his cabinet was behind the appearance of masked men setting up check points. “We have started building a state which will be ruled by law. Kosovo will soon have its security forces which will secure the safety of all citizens�, Agim Cekusaid. Ceku’s comments represent an indirect reaction to the public emergence of a small, anonymous group of masked gunmen in western Kosovo. The Kosovo interim government president was in fact answering opposition leader Hashim Thaci’s accusations that it was Kosovo government’s “parapoliciess� that led to the appearance of the...

The trial began yesterday of four young Muslims who had been picked up in terror raids last October in Copenhagen. Most of these were worshippers at a mosque in Noebbro district, headed by the notorious Palestinian-born preacher Abu Laban. He made a name for himself after he deliberately provoked the Danish cartoon crisis when he showed the Jyllands-Posten cartoons, with three fake cartoons to Middle East leaders. Seven people had been arrested last year. Four had been apprehended on October 28, with two more arrested on October 29, with another apprehended shortly after. The suspects have been named as Abdul...

You have a problem. It’s a problem shared by Jews in Hebron, Serbs in Kosovo, Hindus in the Kashmir, Catholics in Lebanon, and Americans walking the streets of New York. Consider the inter-connectedness of the following incidents, all of which took place in the past few months: In Indonesia, three Christian schoolgirls were beheaded. In Iraq, a Syrian Orthodox priest was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. In Somalia, a nun was shot to death as she left the hospital where she worked, tending the sick and dying. In Lebanon, just days ago, a cabinet minister was assassinated. In Britain, authorities uncovered...

Fairfax County officials have issued a ringing non-endorsement of the bells at St. John Neumann's in Reston, ruling that they must toll within the limits of the county's noise ordinance or not at all. The Board of Supervisors asked the zoning staff this year to see whether the law could be amended to accommodate the church, whose bells ring at a volume slightly higher than the 55-decibel maximum permitted in residential areas.<snip> follow story [here]

WASHINGTON -- The agency analyses the situation in Kosovo and Serbia proper, and paints a grim picture. The analysis says that while Albanians have grown weary of waiting for independence, Serbs consider Kosovo to be the birthplace of their national identity. The consulting intelligence agency points out that the delayed final U.N. decision will almost certainly recommend some version of independence for Kosovo. The November 28 unrest by Kosovo’s Albanians is likely to be repeated until the province is granted independence, the report says, adding that it expects the situation to deteriorate from that point on, as it believes the...

LONDON, November 25 (IranMania) - Two high-ranking Bosnian military officers who founded the Cultural Society for the Defense of Bosnian Combatants have asked the Literature and Art of Resistance Office of Iran’s Art Bureau for assistance, MNA reported. In a meeting with Art Bureau director Mohammad-Hassan Bonyanian, brigadiers Fikret Muslimovic and Abdullah Kaiovic stated that the society needs to learn from the Iranian office’s achievements and experiences in recording and preserving the values of the Sacred Defense (1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war). Muslimovic noted that members of his organization are worried that the memory of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war may fall into...

B92: All the messages that we hear from the international mediators say that Serbia should move forward with or without Kosovo, that it should focus on itself. Here now, in the answer to my previous question, you refer to our history, who started it first, and you tell us to forget about our history. How are we to understand that? Polt: Well it’s not a matter of forgetting your history. History is important for any people or any country. No one is asking Serbia to forget about Kosovo. For that matter nobody is asking Serbia to give up Kosovo. The...

Tehran -- An Iranian news agency says Bosnia expressed "regret and sorrow " over publication of an "insulting" article in a Bosnian weekly. Fars agency reports that the Bosnian ambassador to Tehran said in a letter addressed to the Institute for the Publication of the late Imam Khomeini's Works, that the measure taken by the Slobodna Bosna weekly is an "insult to all the Bosnian Moslems who consider Imam Khomeini to be the symbol of Islam, justice and even beyond justice". The Bosnian ambassador to Tehran further added in his letter that "Slobodna Bosna is not a widely circulated publication...

BELGRADE, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica warned NATO members on Sunday of serious consequences if they unilaterally recognize the independence of the Serbian southern province of Kosovo. "The fact that NATO bombed Serbia without the UN Security Council's approval is its huge mistake, big enough for the last and this century," Kostunica told a meeting of his ruling Democratic Party of Serbia. Any new, even the slightest, mistake of the NATO regarding Kosovo would have serious consequences, the prime minister warned. Serbia announced a new constitution earlier this month, which enshrines Kosovo as an "inalienable" part...

The problem of Wahhabism, the Salafist doctrine which originated in Saudi Arabia, which makes few compromises with anything other than its own doctrines, has led to conflict with the Muslims of Bosnia. Wahhabism was an alien ideology to the Muslims of former Yugoslavia, though in the Bosnian war of 1992 - 1995, it became imported by radical Muslims. These had been invited to the region by then-president Alija Izetbegovic. Muslim fighters had flocked from various Muslim countries, including Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Izetbegovic was president of Bosnia-Hercegovina from 1990 onwards. When the civil war...

Belgrade, Nov 14, 2006 - Coordinator of the state team for negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic said today that it is evident that at the meeting of EU Council of Ministers, UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari failed to win support of EU countries for Kosovo's independence. Samardzic told the Tanjug news agency that this is one more in a series of Ahtisaari's failures, in addition to those in the Contact Group and the Security Council. Now it is clear that there are very opposing opinions on the issue in the EU, Samardzic said, and added that...

BELGRADE -- Aleksandar Popovi? says Ahtisaari’s postponement of Kosovo status due to Serbia’s elections is an excuse. “Ahtisaari’s plan to secretly, working behind our backs, draft a paper on Kosovo’s independence fell through. The real reason why it fell through is Russia’s firm and principled position that UN Charter cannot be breached, and it would appear Ahtisaari understood the Russian ‘no’ quite clearly”, science minister Aleksandar Popovi? says. Popovi?, of prime minister Koštunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), believes that the best option Martti Ahtisaari has at this time is to step down and let an impartial and objective international...

November 5, 2006 -- At least two people have been shot and one held in custody on charges of attempting to commit a murder, after the shooter was attacked by members of the Wahabi sect in a southwestern Serbian town of Novi Pazar. Izet Fijuljanin, 37, was attacked by three members of a Wahabi Islamic sect, certain Gicic and two members of Smajilovic family who begun pounding with sticks on Fijuljanin's car that was parked in front of the Arab Mosque in the city's center. Fijuljanin then shot several times in the direction of the attackers. Witnesses say that the...

BRUSSELS, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Russia is against an imposed solution for Kosovo because any decision must be acceptable to all parties to work, Moscow's foreign minister said on Friday. "It can only be a compromise, it has to be a decision which is acceptable to all parties," Sergei Lavrov told a news conference after talks with the European Union in Brussels. An imposed top-down decision in the breakaway Serbia province would "just simply fall apart" and there was no point in taking a decision that would not be adhered to, he said. The United Nations, which has run Kosovo...

PRISTINA, Kosovo All expectations are that, in the next few months, Kosovo will claim an internationally sanctioned independence, concluding a titanic struggle by the United Nations and Western governments to close a chapter that began with its bloody ethnic war. But it is unlikely to be the conclusion the United Nations hoped for, after having invested seven years supervising the enclave at a cost of about $1.3 billion a year. That is because it seems increasingly evident that the West will need to retain far greater responsibilities than it wanted. "I think the EU is going to be in for...

Serbian voters have approved a new constitution that, among other things, reaffirms sovereignty over Kosovo, which, since the bombing of Serbia in 1999, has been administered by the United Nations with the help of NATO troops. The weekend referendum result will further complicate efforts of Western policy-makers to grant independence to Kosovo since, to do so without Serbia's consent, would violate the UN Charter on territorial integrity and inviolability of borders. Nevertheless, there have been indications that UN special envoy Marrti Ahtisaari will soon recommend that Kosovo be separated from Serbia and become an independent country. This would be a...

Serbia set itself against the international community and Kosovo's ethnic Albanians yesterday by endorsing a new constitution declaring Kosovo for ever part of Serbia, only a few months before it is expected to lose the province. The new constitution, Serbia's first as an independent state since 1918, was rushed through by the nationalist prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, to pre-empt a UN security council decision on the status of Kosovo due by the end of the year. US, EU and Kosovo Albanian officials dismissed the vote as irrelevant, but Mr Kostunica insisted the new constitution would safeguard Serbia's "territorial integrity". "We...

BERLIN -- Less than a week after he urged the German Army to play a more active role in resolving regional conflicts and fighting terrorism, Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said Germany would begin as early as December to withdraw troops from Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former republic of Yugoslavia that was ravaged by civil war from 1992 to 1995. Article Tools Printer friendly E-mail to a friend World RSS feed Reprints & Licensing Save this article powered by Del.icio.us More: Globe World stories Latest world news It is the first time Jung has publicly raised the idea of pulling...

In the municipality of Strpce, in Kosovo, in which about 10,000 Serbs live, there have been power cuts for the last ten days, for as many as 20 hours a day. This is causing disturbance among the Serbian community. Restrictions have been in place since October 14th and a possible humanitarian catastrophe may develop, warns the Strpce Red Cross. "As a consequence of power cuts, where residents have been left without power for 20 hours daily, for the last ten days, it has disrupted ordinary life, and it looks like the Serbian community is being deprived of the basics of...

BBC closes door on newsreaders in muslim veils Judging by some of the headlines over the past week, there are people out there who think the BBC is dominated by trendy, Left-leaning liberals who are biased against Christianity and in favour of multiculturalism ...

Diplomats and politicians on all sides expect a messy and inconclusive outcome, and fear further ethnic violence in Kosovo with peacekeepers from Nato caught in the middle. Few believe that Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president acting as UN mediator, can broker a compromise. This weekend Serbian voters are likely to approve by referendum a new constitution reaffirming Kosovo as part of Serbia, while the province’s ethnic Albanian majority overwhelmingly aspires to, and expects, full independence. As Russia reasserts itself on the world stage, the US and Europe are wondering what price President Vladimir Putin will exact at the UN...

Belgrade, 26 Oct. (AKI) - The United States is showing signs of jitteriness over the status of the breakaway province of Kosovo, as the international community moves away from granting Kosovo the independence wanted by most of its overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority, the Serbian government coordinator for Kosovo, Sanda Raskovic Ivic, has said. Raskovic Ivic was commenting on a "slip of tongue" by American envoy to Kosovo Frank Wiesner, who stated in the Kosovo capital Pristina on Tuesday that Washington wants the status issue resolved this year. "We will insist on independence – excuse me – we will insist on...

A senior U.S. official has dismissed Serbian efforts to portray its referendum on a new constitution as an opportunity to restore sovereignty over Kosovo. U.S. Kosovo envoy Frank Wisner told reporters in Pristina that what happens in Kosovo is an international matter and one to be decided by the people of the Serbian province. He said it is not a matter of Serbian sovereignty, which changed when the United Nations Security Council placed the area under U.N. administration in 1999. The new constitution declares Kosovo an inalienable part of Serbia. Authorities in Belgrade have been rallying voters to back the...

A conspicuous Reuters headline in Tuesday’s Washington Post: “Kosovo Islamic leaders join call for independence.� This wouldn’t have anything to do with helping form the eventual caliphate, would it? Noooooooooo, according to the article, which desperately fishes out distinctions between Muslims and Kosovo Muslims. Note the language used: “In a rare foray into politics, Islamic leaders in Kosovo on Monday added their voice to the Albanian majority’s call for independence from Serbia.� Nor is the following strident tone opposing any partition of the land or compromise with the Serbian infidel characteristic of Muslims either: “Marking the Eid al-Fitr feast in...

In an exclusive interview with ISN Security Watch, one of the men charged in Bosnia's first-ever terror case describes how his life of petty crime led him to mix with Muslim extremists. By Anes Alic in Sarajevo for ISN Security Watch (26/10/06) A former boxer, petty criminal and drug addict-turned-radical Muslim, Amir Bajric, a 28-year-old Bosnian from the Sarajevo suburb of Hadzici, never expected to find himself a key player in a terror plot against foreign installations in Bosnia. But his decision to sell explosives to a group of Muslim extremists of various origins meeting in Bosnia has landed him...

PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - In a rare foray into politics, Islamic leaders in Kosovo on Monday added their voice to the Albanian majority's call for independence from Serbia. Most of Kosovo's two million ethnic Albanians are nominally Muslim, but they are proud of the territory's secular tradition. This year's Ramadan passed with little trace of piety. PHOTOS The week's events from around the world, captured in pictures. » VIEW THIS WEEK'S PHOTOS Save & Share Article What's This? Digg Google del.icio.us Yahoo! Reddit Marking the Eid al-Fitr feast in the capital, Pristina, the head of the Kosovo Islamic community, Mufti...

Washington's Woodrow Wilson Center Friday brought together a panel of experts to analyze the Kosovo status negotiations that may conclude in the next few weeks or months. There is no expectation that Kosovo's Albanians and Serbia will agree on Kosovo's future. Serbia rejects independence while the Albanians refuse any other option. Kosovo is ruled by the United Nations and security is the responsibility of NATO led peacekeepers. Veton Surroi, a member of Kosovo's negotiating team, warned of the danger of an ambiguous outcome-partial independence, in which Kosovo would remain a weak and ill-defined territory. Kosovo, he said, must become a...

THE HAGUE (AP)--The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal Thursday called on U.N. officials in Kosovo to help exhume the bodies of 14 people killed in 1998, in response to a request by defense lawyers for the province's former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj. Haradinaj, the former commander of the Western-backed Kosovo Liberation Army, was charged in February 2005 with 37 counts of war crimes committed in 1998, several months before NATO's air campaign forced Serbian troops to withdraw from Kosovo and end a crackdown on ethnic Albanians. U.N. prosecutors say Haradinaj, who has been released pending the start of his trial, and...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal Thursday called on U.N. officials in Kosovo to help exhume the bodies of 14 people killed in 1998, in response to a request by defense lawyers for the province's former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj. Haradinaj, the former commander of the Western-backed Kosovo Liberation Army, was charged in February 2005 with 37 counts of war crimes allegedly committed in 1998, several months before NATO's air campaign forced Serbian troops to withdraw from Kosovo and end a crackdown on ethnic Albanians. U.N. prosecutors say Haradinaj, who has been released pending the start of his...

But Kosovo -- a Serbian province of 2 million people that experienced a NATO bombing campaign in 1999 -- is on the brink of bursting onto the world stage once again. With the United States and the European Union pressing for resolution of Kosovo's final status this year, it once looked like independence was assured. But now Serbia is trying to put that decision off, which could reawaken Balkan unrest. After seven years of United Nations control, the majority Albanian and Muslim population is clamoring for independence. But the Serbian, largely Christian, minority is campaigning to remain attached to Serbia....

BELGRADE -- More than two dozen Serbs, including women and children found in a mass grave in Kosovo, were laid to rest today. The 29 bodies — including an 11-member Serb family allegedly executed by ethnic Albanian separatists during the 1998-99 Kosovo war — were identified through DNA analysis and handed over Friday by U.N. authorities from the southern province. A few hundred people attended the funeral at the cemetery on the outskirts of the Serbian capital — mostly the victims' relatives, but also families of some of the 670 Serbs still missing from the conflict. Kosovo Coordinating Center chairwoman...

By Willard Payne Crossfire War - TEHRAN WATCH - Southeast Europe Theatre: Tehran - Mostar - Sarajevo - Ankara/Zagreb - Vienna - Brussels - Belgrade; Mosque in Mostar, Bosnia Heavily Damaged by Rocket Propelled Grenade - Mayor Appeals for Calm - Tehran's Timing Night Watch: MOSTAR - An unknown assailant fired a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) at a mosque in the Croatian section of the city of Mostar in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina. There were no casualties but a lot of damage. The head Imam Salem Dedovic said the timing of the attack was extremely disturbing since it has occurred during the...

Recent signs are strong that Kosovo, which the Clinton Administration demanded the NATO-run bombing of Serbia in 1999, will soon declare itself an independent sovereign nation. The Bush Administration may extend U.S. recognition. Talks are now ongoing between the predominantly Muslim Kosovo and Serbia over Kosovo’s independence. The Serbian parliament was recently briefed on the progress of the negotiations. In June, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warmly welcomed to Washington Prime Minister Agim Ceku, a former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander. According to the Washington Post, there is a “firm Western consensus� that the Serbian province “should be granted independence...

Iran has been successful in supporting and extending its Shiite influence in Iraq and, most recently, in Lebanon. Now, the "Land of the Aryans" as the name Iran means has embarked on spreading its brand of Islamic radicalism into another region that threatens all of Europe: The Balkans. In the mid-1990s, Iran quietly began supporting the mujahadeen along side Osama bin Laden and Hezbollah in Bosnia. They succeeded in providing needed arms, financial support and other logistics to the Muslim militants fighting against the Serbs. Iran and bin Laden then provided support to the Kosovo Liberation Army, which the Clinton...

Britain’s Royal United Services Institute Official Says Independence Drive Stalled Due to Russian Opposition and Serbian Resolve; Pakistan Leader Confirms Existence of Kosovo’s Jihad Terror Network; Muslim Albanian Violence Against Serbs Continues The UN’s and EU’s pragmatic thinking follows recent statements by international foreign ministers and policy experts on the dangers of Kosovo independence. In a BBC interview, Dr. Jonathan Eyal -- director of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute’s, one of the most prestigious strategic institutes in the world -- stated: I think that it is good that inadequately discussed proposals which were made in a hurry, will now be...

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead on Saturday at her apartment block in central Moscow, police said. "According to initial information she was killed by two shots when leaving the lift. Neighbors found her body," a police source told Reuters. Police found a pistol and four rounds in the lift. Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother of two, won international fame and numerous prizes for her dogged pursuit of rights abuses by Putin's government, particularly in the violent southern province of Chechnya. "The first thing that comes to mind is that Anna was killed...