This week, Kosovo became Europe's newest state, a distinction held for the last two years by Montenegro - which declared independence from Serbia in 2006.
Russian money is transforming parts of Montenegro But Montenegro keeps another record - it gets more foreign investment per capita than any other country in Europe, well over $1,000 (£515) for each of its 650,000 people. Much of it comes from Russia.
Excerpted
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7255240.stm
Serbs hint future secession move from Bosnia
Feb 22, 2008
BANJA LUKA (Bosnia-Herzegovina) - THE Bosnian Serb Parliament said their entity had the right to secede from Bosnia if a significant number of the United Nations and most European Union countries recognise Kosovo's independence.
'If a significant number of the UN members, notably the EU members, recognise the independence of Kosovo ... In that case the Republika Srpska assembly believes it has the right to launch a referendum to reconsider its (Bosnian Serb entity's) statehood status,' a resolution adopted by an overwhelming majority in the Parliament said on Thursday.
Kosovo's independence proclamation has raised concerns about the future of Bosnia, which since its 1992-1995 war has been split into two entities - the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.
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http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/World/STIStory_209199.html
BELGRADE — Violence flared on the Kosovo-Serbia border on Thursday, when several hundred former Serbian army reservists angered by Kosovo's independence attacked police with stones and burning tyres.
As Italy joined other major European powers in recognising Kosovo and Serbs poured into Belgrade for a rally to protest against the independence declaration, the group attacked around 100 Kosovo riot police at the southern Serbian border crossing point of Merdare. Serbian police estimated around 300 reservists were involved in the assault.
The violence was the latest in a series of incidents that followed Sunday's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament -- a move vehemently opposed by Belgrade. Thick black plumes of smoke billowed from the border crossing and a NATO helicopter hovered overhead after the attack by the reservists, which lasted 20 minutes until they retreated. The reservists, civilians who once served in the Serbian army, had crossed a Serbian checkpoint unhindered.
In another incident, a UN-run court was stoned overnight in the Serb-populated half of the tense northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica, police said. On Tuesday, two other border crossing points at Banja and Jarinje were closed for 24 hours after they were ransacked and torched by at least 1,000 Serbs from Kosovo and Serbia.
Excerpted
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibt0DET9_s3CGXQZ7uBVaqlwYTrQ
Posted a few months ago, but now as important as it was then.
Al-Qaeda in Kosovo
November 27, 2007
A reliable analysis carried out by NATO and KFOR marks the southern Serbian province as a transitional route for extremists from Islamic countries into Europe.
Since the arrival of international forces in Kosovo two parallel worlds have emerged there. The first is the official world. It has its so called institutions, political parties, judiciary, media, crime, terrorism, etc….
The second does not officially exist, but it can be sensed in the hundreds of newly built mosques, whose creation is being financed by Arab countries, and Wahhabi Saudi Arabia in particular. To peer into that parallel world of Islamic extremism, Wahhabism, the Mujahedeen, and terrorists is very difficult and extremely dangerous.
Members of KFOR and UNMIK don’t peer into it themselves, or do so quite rarely. The knowledge of its existence is gained mostly through the information they receive from whistleblowers and through spying on certain Islamic extremists.
Excerpted