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MOSCOW, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is not opposed to an EU mission replacing the UN force in Kosovo, but the move should have the formal backing of the UN Security Council and Serbia, a senior Russian diplomat said on Monday. "We are not opposed to the European Union taking on part of the responsibility for what is happening in Kosovo," Vladimir Chizhov, envoy to the European Communities, said adding a European mission should be approved by a UN Security Council resolution and Belgrade. Chizhov said UN Security Council Resolution 1244 was currently the only legal basis for an...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2007 – With elections nearing and the question of independence uncertain, the next few months will be a “telling time” for people in the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo, NATO’s top military officer said at a Pentagon news conference today. Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe and commander of U.S. European Command, conducts a news conference at the Pentagon, Oct. 10, 2007. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly A. Burgess, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe, said the...

28 Mar 2006 17:33:36 GMT Source: Reuters MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro, March 28 (Reuters) - A Serb man was stabbed in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica in Kosovo on Tuesday and hundreds of Serbs gathered at the scene to demonstrate, hospital officials and witnesses said. The 19-year-old Serbwas "seriously wounded" when he was stabbed in the stomach, hospital director Milan Ivanovic told Reuters. Witnesses said he was attacked on the main bridge by two men who had crossed from the mainly Albanian south. Mitrovica, in the north of Serbia's United Nations-run province, has been divided at the river between Serbs...

Released : Mar 02, 2006 2:03 PM PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-The president of Kosovo's assembly accused U.S. diplomats on Thursday of orchestrating a political reshuffle in the province which led to his dismissal. Nexhat Daci, who was also part of the team negotiating Kosovo's final status with Serbia, was replaced by his party, the governing Democratic League of Kosovo, on Wednesday. Parliament will have to choose a new leader for his dismissal to take effect. Daci was dismissed as part of a broader reshuffle within the governing coalition, which also included the resignation of Kosovo's Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi. But the parliament...

In the talks about Kosovo's future, the former Yugoslavia is being treated as a carcass to be dissected by Western diplomats. by Philip Cunliffe This year promises to be a testing one for politics in the Balkans. Talks on the administrative devolution of Kosovo finished in Vienna earlier this week, between representatives of the Kosovo Albanians and the Serbian government. The talks, conducted under the aegis of the six-nation 'Contact Group' (composed of America, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia), are seen as stepping-stones to resolving the 'final status' of the province, since it was left in political and legal...