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...“One comment,” writes Malic, “on the bottom of the first page, caught my eye. I reproduce it here, because there is no direct link to it. It is from PaulAndrewKirk of Redmond, Wa.”: I have served two tours in Kosovo with the US Military and I can tell you the following as factual: 1. Almost all facets and levels of the provisional government in Kosovo are corrupt. In fact its the worst I’ve ever seen and I’ve had to deal with some pretty corrupt governments during my career. 2. Supervised independence or even full independence will not improve the miserable...

UNITED NATIONS - Kosovo's declaration of independence has led to the "de-facto partitioning" of the Serb-dominated north from the rest of the territory - just as Russia repeatedly warned would happen, Russia's U.N. ambassador said Tuesday. While ethnic Albanians account for nearly 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, Serbs dominate a number of enclaves and a large part of northern Kosovo. They have refused to recognize any separation from Serbia, with daily protests taking place in the northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica. Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin said Moscow has been saying "quite openly" inside and outside the U.N. Security...

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - The newly independent state of Kosovo will need an estimated $2 billion dollars in foreign aid over the next few years, about half of which should be provided by Europe, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday. The rest of the money could come from the United States and such institutions as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried said. He was testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Helping the fledgling state, which declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17 with strong backing from Washington, will require top-level...

They have bought the fireworks to celebrate their first Independence Day, but Kosovar Albanians' dreams are once again being deferred. Repeated attempts to persuade Serbia, and its key ally Russia, to agree to a U.N. sponsored independence plan for the Balkan province have failed. Now, despite promises this spring that the plan would be approved in May, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Dan Fried has told Kosovar leaders that they may now have to wait until 2008 before their dream is fulfilled. Nor is that a sure thing. Kosovo's Prime Minister and former rebel commander Agim Ceku...

By pure coincidence, next month brings not one but two major turning points for Serbia. First, there’s the Ahtisaari plan for Kosovo. As we all know, the plan would give Kosovo de facto independence. On one hand, that’s just recognizing reality on the ground; 90% of Kosovo’s population wants nothing to do with Serbia, and they’ve been running their own house for almost a decade now. On the other hand, it would involve UN approval of the involuntary dismemberment of an unwilling member state. That’s never happened before, and it would be a big step into the unknown. The plan...

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears appeared in a tattoo parlor in California with her head shaved completely bald. Video on KABC-TV showed the newly shorn Spears with tiny tattoos on the back of her neck as she sat Friday night for a new tattoo — a pair of red and pink lips. "She just wanted something real small on her wrist, something dainty," Max Gott, the tattoo artist at Body and Soul in Sherman Oaks, told the TV station. "She got some cute little lips on her wrist." Story continues below ↓ advertisement Derrik Snell, who works at the tattoo...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was wounded and an aide was killed in a clash Thursday with Iraqi forces north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said. The clash occurred near Balad, a major U.S. base about 50 miles north of the capital, Brig. Gen Abdul-Karim Khalaf said. Khalaf said al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri was wounded and his aide, identified as Abu Abdullah al-Majemaai, was killed.

CERSKA, Bosnia (Reuters) -- The 18-year-old gunman who shot five people to death in a Salt Lake City, Utah, shopping mall was a survivor of the siege that ended in the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Bosnia's 1992-95 war, a cousin said on Wednesday. Sulejman Talovic, who was killed by police after Monday's shooting spree in which he also wounded four people, fled his village with his family during the Bosnia war to Srebrenica, a U.N.-protected enclave, Redzo Talovic said." "They spent two years in the town, during which Bosnian Serb forces besieged the enclave and Talovic's grandfather was...

Kosovo: a hypothetical question by Doug Muir Because we just can’t get enough. Imagine the US and Europe went to Putin tomorrow and said, “Vladimir, this Kosovo thing has gone on long enough. We want to get it off the table." “So, we’ll agree to letting you annex Transnistria and those dangly bits down in Georgia. Abkhazia and, what, South Ossetia, right? All yours -- they can join Russia tomorrow. All by free and fair referendum of course, cough cough." ” In return, we want you to sign off on Kosovar independence. No veto, no nothing. And full independence, too...

Associated Press Balkan expert Tim Judah stated: "There is a real potential for renewed violence in Kosovo. If there is a delay or if the resolution is unclear, (Kosovo) Albanian hard-liners will start to lose patience." Since the United Nations and NATO began the international administration of Kosovo in 1999, similar Muslim Albanian violence has resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of non-Albanians, the destruction and desecration of hundreds of Serbian Orthodox churches and the deaths of thousands of non-Albanians. AntiWar.com columnist Christopher Deliso also reported on the rise of jihad terrorism in the Serbian province and the...

A judge denied bond today for a Lyons man who fled the country after being accused of the videotaped rape of a Naperville teen. Burim Bezeri made his first appearance in a Cook County courtroom since ending a 27-month run that began when he and another defendant fled to Europe. Bezeri, 21, returned to Chicago with FBI agents Thursday after surrendering to them one day earlier at an embassy in Tirana, Albania. His return came several months after two friends won acquittals. “I’m very happy he’s back,” his uncle, Gjukaj Bezeri, said outside of court. The defendant’s mother, Nushe, also...