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The Remains of Saint Lazar at Ravanica Monastery Saint Lazar the Great Martyr of KosovoPrince Lazar was born in 1329 in Prilepac to the aristocrat family Hrebeljanovic. His father Pribac was a Logotet-secretary doing very confidential work for King Dusan the Powerful in the royal palace. Young Lazar was raised in the palace, and was respected by the King who entrusted him with the rule of two parts of his kingdom: Srem and Macva. Lazar married Milica the daughter of an important aristocrat named Vratko also known as Yug Bogdan - a very wise and honorable man from the Nemanjic...

Next story »   Today in Military History: June 23, 1389The dating of this battle is somewhat disputed. Under the old Julian calendar used by the Serbians in 1389, this fight took place on June 15, St. Vitus' Day. Modern Serbians celebrate this battle on June 28. However, when converting dates to their Gregorian calendar counterparts, the date for this battle is actually June 23.One of the problems with profiling this particular conflict is the lack of contemporary reporting. The Serbians have several later chronicles about the battle, some of which read like historical revisionism. The Turks had the same...

Aleksandra's Note: On October 25, 2010, Lt. Col. Milton Friend (USAF, ret.) and his wife Shirley embarked on a very important trip overseas to Serbia. It would turn out to be the trip of a lifetime and the first time Milton Friend was returning to Serbia since World War Two! The main objective of the visit to Serbia was for Halyard Mission veteran Lt. Col. Milton Friend to testify at the October 29th hearing in Belgrade regarding the Rehabilitation of General Draza Mihailovich. Following this note you will find a photo essay courtesy of Milton and Shirley Friend of this...

The skeletel remains of ancient warriors with spears and daggers have been uncovered in an archeological site during the construction of the Corridor 10 highway project in south-east Serbia. According to experts the remains date back 2,500 years and were found in the ancient district of Pirot named Suburbium where the ancient Roman road, Via Militaris, headed to what is now the border of modern day Bulgaria. ''We have found three skeletal remains of warriors with spears, daggers and bronze ornaments, and decorations of various kinds,'' said Mirjana Blagojevic, archeologist from Serbia's institute for the protection of cultural patrimony. Predrag...

Thousands of demonstrators massed on streets surrounding Istanbul's central Taksim Square, long a venue for political unrest, while protests erupted in the capital Ankara and the Aegean coastal city of Izmir. Broken glass and rocks were strewn across a main shopping street near Taksim. Primary school children ran crying from the clouds of tear gas while tourists caught by surprise scurried to get back to luxury hotels lining the square. The unrest reflects growing disquiet at the authoritarianism of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP). Riot police clashed with tens of thousands of May...

ISTANBUL — Police officers attacked a group of peaceful demonstrators on Friday in Istanbul’s Taksim Square with water cannons and tear gas, sending scores of people, protesters and tourists alike, scurrying into shops and luxury hotels and turning the center of this city into a battle zone at the height of tourist season.

<p>Hundreds of mourners including Serbian government officials have attended a state funeral for deposed King Petar II Karadjordjevic decades after his death in exile.</p> <p>The reburial of the king and other members of the former royal family is seen as an important act of national reconciliation.</p>

The gilded lifestyle of MEPs has been compared to the uncontrolled excesses of ancient Rome after research showed their perks have not been dented despite biting austerity measures. From Italian MEPs who enjoy free haircuts to Maltese ones who get 52 free gallons of petrol a month, the perks—and expenses—continue unabated for the representatives of European Union nations. MEPs from the 27 EU nations are paid salaries of £137 million ($207 million) a year, according to research by German pricing watchdog Preisvergleich.de, and some earn 740 percent more than the average citizen. …

The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables in a move described by one of Britain’s top cooks as authoritarian and damaging to artisan food makers. The small glass jugs filled with green- or gold-colored extra virgin olive oil are familiar and traditional for restaurant goers across Europe, but they will be banned from 1 January 2014 after a decision taken in an obscure Brussels committee earlier this week. From next year, olive oil “presented at a restaurant table” must be in prepackaged factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labeling in...

BELGRADE – Serbian army, after more than two decades, will receive new fighter aircraft. Although the type of the aircraft that will strengthen the Serbian air force has not yet been officially announced, it has been speculated for some time about Russian aircraft “Mig 292M”. Photo from: www.novosti.rssia Specific announcement that Serbia is buying new planes was made on Sunday by The First Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who visited the 250th air defence missile brigade. “I have good news for Army of Serbia”, said Minister Vucic in the “Major Dragutin Gavrilovic” base in the village Zuce...

Amid growing calls from Tory MPs for David Cameron to respond to the Ukip threat by bringing forward legislation on an EU referendum, Farage warned that his party would not go away even if No 10 "starts singing the same song". William Hague, who famously suffered a major defeat in the 2001 election after tacking to the right, called for a cautious response to Ukip as he warned of the dangers of "quick fixes". Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said many Ukip voters were "frustrated Conservatives". As the Tories work out their response to Ukip, which won nearly a quarter...

Serbia’s president apologized Thursday for the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, but declined to characterize the killings as an act of genocide. “I kneel and ask for forgiveness,” President Tomislav Nikolić told Bosnian TV. “I apologize for the crimes committed by any person in the name of Serbia.” Nikolić came under fire last year short after he was elected by declaring, according to published reports, there was no “genocide” in Srebrenica. …

(AFP) Serbia's nationalist President Tomislav Nikolic on Thursday personally apologised for the first time for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims, but stopped short of calling it genocide.

A website prominently used by Russia’s North Caucasus rebels on Sunday denied any connection to the Boston Marathon bombings that have been blamed on two ethnic-Chechen suspects. “The command of the Vilayat Dagestan mujaheddin… declares that the Caucasus fighters are not waging any military activities against the United States of America. We are only fighting Russia,” the Kavkacenter.com website said in an official statement. The main suspects in the Boston bombings were Tsarnaev brothers, and police is still investigation any possible connections with known rebel and terrorist groups. Police and FBI are still conducting an investigation if the brothers acted...

Aleksandra's Note: One of the best publications ever issued about the Kosovo legacy is KOSOVO by William Dorich, published in 1992. If you can find the book, get it. Dorich's beautiful tribute includes an essay by Thomas Emmert which should be a must-read for anyone searching to understand what the legacy of Kosovo is all about. It should also be a must-read for Serbs who need to be reminded about this legacy and why it is essential to preserve and protect their sacred KOSOVO. Sincerely, Aleksandra Rebic ***** "THE KOSOVO LEGACY" By Thomas Emmert On 28 June, 1389 an alliance...

A shooting rampage early yesterday morning in a Serbian village near Belgrade has left 13 people dead, including six women and a child, The Guardian and other media outlets are reporting. “Although such random shootings are rare in Serbia, weapons are readily available mostly from the war in the Balkans in the 1990s and there is a tradition of possessing firearms,” the report continues. “Initial reports said the alleged killer had a license for the handgun he used in the shootings.” That ready availability is in spite of laws that GunPolicy.org, a website established and maintained by committed global “gun...

A shooting rampage early yesterday morning in a Serbian village near Belgrade has left 13 people dead, including six women and a child, The Guardian and other media outlets are reporting. “Although such random shootings are rare in Serbia, weapons are readily available mostly from the war in the Balkans in the 1990s and there is a tradition of possessing firearms,” the report continues. “Initial reports said the alleged killer had a license for the handgun he used in the shootings.” That ready availability is in spite of laws that GunPolicy.org, a website established and maintained by committed global “gun...

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. State Department, through the Agency for International Development (USAID), has announced that it will award up to $300,000 for “workforce development” in Serbia. The Republic of Serbia is in southeastern Europe, north of Greece and surrounded by Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Macedonia. It has a population of 7.26 million. “Currently, there is a mismatch between private sector needs and the capacity of the existing workforce, which continues to contribute to the high unemployment rate, especially among youth,” said USAID in a March 29 announcement. “Therefore, USAID/Serbia has identified workforce development as a means to address...

Thirteen people have been killed in Serbia after a man went on a gun rampage in a village near Belgrade, local media report. Six men, six women and a two-year-old boy died before the gunman tried to kill himself and his wife. The pair are now said to be in a serious condition. Police identified the gunman as Ljubisa Bogdanovic, a 60-year-old war veteran.

"...Outside my windows, the dark-browed Serbian peasants, the men in somber black, the women in their bright embroidered clothes, passed unhurriedly but more silently, more grimly than usual to the early Sunday market. I watched them thoughtfully as I began to pour my tea and turned the short-wave radio knob... ...I heard no sound but the jingling of milk carts in the streets and the shuffling of peasant feet. But it was coming, this raucously heralded doom. ...Bomb after bomb exploded all round us, some not more than twenty yards away. The effect was almost inconceivable. It wasn’t the noise...