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BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia's prime minister dissolved the government Saturday and called for new elections after clashing with his pro-Western coalition partners over Kosovo and EU membership. Vojislav Kostunica said that he will convene a government session Monday that will propose to parliament that new elections be held May 11. He accused pro-Western ministers of failing to support his efforts to preserve Kosovo as part of Serbia. "There was no united will to clearly and loudly state that Serbia can continue its path toward the EU only with Kosovo," Kostunica said. The new elections could determine whether Serbia continues toward...

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Sweden's foreign minister said Saturday that the United Nations will have to stay in Kosovo to act as a buffer between nations that recognize Kosovo's statehood and those that do not. Carl Bildt said the U.N., European Union and NATO would need to adjust their plans in Kosovo after the U.N. was sidelined last month when Kosovo declared independence, due to a deadlock caused by Russia's opposition and U.S. and key European countries' backing for the new country. "We are operating in a somewhat different situation from the one that we were planning for," Bildt told...

Several thousands members of Sydney's Serbian community have rallied in the city this afternoon calling on the Federal Government to reverse its decision to recognise Kosovo as an independent state. The protesters marched from Martin Place to the Federal Government offices in Sydney this afternoon. They carried signs saying "Kosovo is Serbia" and the "United Nations is dead". They are angry the Australian Government recognised Kosovo's declaration of independence last month. The protesters, who were mostly members of the Serbian community, are calling on the Federal Government to reverse its decision to recognise Kosovo as an independent state. They say...

Mr. Steve Greenberg Republican candidate for the United States Congress 8th District, IL P.O. Box 894 Mundelein, IL 60060 March 5, 2008 Open Letter RE: A Bean by any other Name is still a Bean. Dear Mr. Greenberg, There is so much wrong with your Press Release of February 27th, 2008 that each point deserves to be addressed, and perhaps that’s a good thing for you, because that means you are getting the voters’ attention. I hope that this response to your press release gets some attention as well, for I intend to circulate it as widely as possible. The...

America's hasty recognition of an independent Kosovo has upset powerful interests, most notably Russia. Serbia, though far from Moscow, has long been Russia's "Israel": an embattled sister nation on the frontier of the Islamic world. The Iraq war eclipsed Kosovo in the public's consciousness. The United States fought a 78-day air war over Serbia in 1999 and maintains 7,000 troops today as part of a U.N. occupation force. Though American casualties have been mercifully low, the rationale for the campaign has proven even less durable over time than the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Specifically, claims of Serbian...

Oil has a peculiar smell. It has been described as a stench, which assails the nostrils. But it does much more than irritate the membranes in the human nose. It greases the machinery of geo-politics and lubricates the revenge and envy that nation states harbor towards each other. It makes and destroys states and peoples and befouls humanity. It is still a necessary evil, but much of this black gold happens by fate to lie under the sands of the Arab Middle East and thus morphs into a terrible weapon wielded by Arab despots and Islamo-fascist fanatics. The insane rush...

"EXIT Festival has never cancelled any artist's performance because of their political point-of-view or statements." Photo by Bernhard Kristin/ILC Following the shake-up last week surrounding Björk's politically-charged Kosovo song dedication and the subsequent (and, apparently, consequent) cancellation of a purported appearance at the EXIT Festival in Serbia, festival organizers have stepped forward with a statement. To recap: Björk dedicated her song "Declare Independence" to Kosovo-- which recently declared its own independence from Serbia-- at a pair of Tokyo concerts in February. The singer rather plainly suggested the EXIT cancellation was the result of her remarks when she told Icelandic newspaper...

03 March 2008 Paris _ A majority of French people polled by an influential web portal say France made a mistake in backing Kosovo's independence. Out of the 3,167 visitors to the Expression-Publique portal, 46 percent criticised Kosovo's secession from Serbia and 43 percent objected to France's recognition of Kosovo's independence. On the other hand, 37 percent welcomed Kosovo's recognition by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who previously headed the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. France was a key supporter of Kosovo’s independence within the European Union and among the first EU countries to recognise the...

ATTENTION L.A. FREEPERS! RALLYAgainst the independence of the new Islamic state of Kosovo in the middle of Europe Sunday March 9th LOS ANGELES In front of the FEDERAL BUILDING in West L.A. 11000 Wilshire Blvd. Time: 2:00 PM Bring American flags and signs showing that AMERICANS DO NOT SUPPORT KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE What will be next? An Islamic state of Dearborn Michigan? Or a Mexican state of San Diego? NO! Non-Muslims in Kosovo today are being attacked and forced to flee, will regions of America one day suffer the same fate? SEE YOU ON SUNDAY IN WEST L.A.! Contact: losangeles@unitedamericancommittee.org for...

Serbia has retaken control of a stretch of railway line in northern Kosovo, a senior Serb official has said. Branislav Ristivojevic, who heads Serbia's state-run railway company, said Belgrade had restored control over the 50km (30-mile) Lesak-Zvecan line. Earlier, Serb rail workers stopped a train on the line, saying they would not work for Kosovo's rail firms. Belgrade and Kosovo Serbs refuse to recognise Kosovo's declaration of independence last month. Last week, some 150 Kosovo Serb police officers were suspended for refusing to take orders from the ethnic Albanian authorities in Kosovo's capital, Pristina. Serb police officers protested in the...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has enjoyed strong support from a lobbyist group that backs the Kosovo Liberation Army despite allegations the KLA is a Muslim terrorist group with ties to criminal drug networks and al-Qaida. The Albanian American Civic League, or AACL, regards the KLA as "freedom fighters," said the AACL's president, former Republican congressman Joe DioGuardi of New York. They're "not terrorist, like the Serbs and Greeks say," DioGuardi insisted in an interview with WND. But Islam expert Robert Spencer, editor of the popular website Jihad Watch, contends radical Islam is the driving force behind the Kosovo...

“He did everything that we asked of him, including arming the KLA”, said Albanian lobbyist Joe DioGuardi. The Albanians collected one million dollars for the presidential campaign of this senator. Americans of Albanian heritage collected a million dollars in one evening for the presidential campaign of Republican Senator John McCain, said the Albanian American Civic League yesterday, the lobby group headed by former Congressman Joe DioGuardi. A reception for McCain was held January 22 at the Saint Regis Hotel in Manhatten, and the senator, who is now leading in the runoff for the Republican party candidacy in the November elections,...

MITROVICA, Kosovo: Serbia reclaimed control of a 50-kilometer stretch of rail line in northern Kosovo on Monday, a senior official said, in defiance of the government in Pristina. The official, Branislav Ristivojevic, chairman of Serbia's state-owned railroad company and a senior adviser to Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, said that Serbia was restoring control over the 30-mile line "after a period of nine years." Earlier, a few dozen Serbian railroad workers blocked passage of a freight train on the line, saying they would not work for Kosovo's rail company and demanding to be transferred to Serbia's state-owned railroad. The surprise move...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, PRIŠTINA, -- Kosovo Serbs yesterday marked Zadušnice, a religious holiday dedicated to the souls of the dead. Orthodox Christian Serbs observe four such days each year, when families visit cemeteries to light candles and say prayers at the graves of their loved ones. For many Serbs in Kosovo, especially those whose relatives were buried in cemeteries that are now located in ethnic Albanian communities, observing the holiday has since 1999 been a practice that endangered their personal safety, but also brought with it a particular heartbreak – that of finding the grave of a loved one desecrated. Serb...

A group of 20 neo-Nazis were detained by police in Stockholm on Saturday. The neo-Nazis were on their way to disrupt a demonstration by 400 Serbs protesting Kosovo's independence. The neo-Nazis, members of the Swedish Resistance Movement (SMR), were stopped by police on their way to Myntorget in the Gamla Stan area of Stockholm on Saturday afternoon. "They were stopped near Riksbron. They were behaving badly and were armed with golf-clubs and stones," said police spokesperson Ann-Charlotte Wejnäs to TT. A demonstration arranged by the Serbian youth organization in Sweden was being held at the time on the nearby square....

Kosovo's independence has enflamed nationalism in Serbia, dividing its people into "patriots" and "traitors," as was the case during the 1990s rule of late president Slobodan Milosevic. "Radicalisation of the political scene in Serbia after the proclamation of independence of Kosovo has put in danger some human rights activists and politicians of liberal and democratic orientation," said Natasa Kandic, head of the prominent Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre. Kandic herself has been exposed to threats by some nationalists and attacked by several local newspapers for having attended the February 17 session of Kosovo's parliament when the unilateral declaration on independence was...

We must worry about the manner in which the birth of a new nation has been engineered It is difficult to shake off the feeling that the birth of Kosovo is really the culmination of a series of old and unhealthy trends in global politics. Major powers of Europe seem to relish the fact that for the first time a small Muslim majority state has been carved out in Europe, thus testifying to Europe’s progress. But the truth is that the birth of Kosovo is also a profound testament of the failure of the nation state form in Europe to...

The top U.S. intelligence official says Serbia's government ordered police not to interfere with rioters who attacked the Belgrade embassies of western countries, including the United States, for their recognition of Kosovo's independence. VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill, where Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell made his comments Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Serbia's government directed police not to intervene in the violent demonstrations in Belgrade last week. "We have good information that when the U.S. Embassy and the British Embassy and others were attacked, a decision was taken...

PRISTINA, Feb 28 (IPS) - After the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo on Feb. 17, ethnic tensions are rising dangerously again in the region, especially in Northern Kosovo and the other Serbian enclaves scattered around the province. Daily protests in northern Mitrovica, an area with an ethnic Serb majority, the attacks on border checkpoints Jarinje and Brnjak by thousands of Serbs, and regular damaging of buildings and vehicles used by United Nations staff indicate a Serb determination to counteract the proclaimed independence of Kosovo. But there is something more than raw anger that cultivates tensions in this case. A...

Last Sunday's unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, former warlord/commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), heralds the birth of a new European narco state. The illegal dismemberment of Serbia, completing the U.S./EU/NATO destruction of Yugoslavia, is proclaimed by ruling elites and their sycophants as an exemplary means to bring "peace and stability" to the region. This provocative move, outside the framework of international law, threatens any sovereign state with similar treatment should they deviate from the "Washington consensus." Far from bringing "peace" let alone "stability," an "independent" Kosovo will serve as a militarized outpost for...