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Monday December 10 1:58 PM ET First Kosovo Assembly Session Marred by Walkout By Fredrik Dahl PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Kosovo's vaunted new multi-ethnic assembly held its inaugural session on Monday, only to see a walkout by the second largest party and the delay of a presidential election. The 120 deputies from across the Yugoslav province's ethnic divide, hailed by the United Nations as its first democratically elected legislature, were chosen last month in Kosovo's first general election since NATO bombs ended harsh Serb rule in 1999. But the message of reconciliation was overshadowed when members of the Democratic Party ...

Tuesday December 11, 12:15 AM Kosovo inaugurates historic parliament Kosovo's bitterly divided Serbs and Albanians inaugurated their new power-sharing parliament amid tight security and some protest over speaking privileges. The first multi-ethnic assembly since the Yugoslav province came under UN control in 1999 following NATO's war on Yugoslavia opened for business with no party in command of a majority. Haans Haekkerup, the UN administrator for the southern Serbian province, struggled to keep order after beginning the session Monday with a brief speech to the 120 deputies elected last month. "This is a historical day for Kosovo," Haekkerup told the chamber ...

Slovenia accepts EU ban on post-entry labour movement LJUBLJANA, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Slovenia said on Friday it would accept the European Union's proposed temporary ban on the free movement of workers from new member states, closing another chapter ahead of its planned entry to the bloc in 2004. The EU had said it would restrict labour movement from candidate countries for up to seven years after accession but Slovenia had asked for an exemption, arguing its two million citizens would not seek work in the EU countries. "We concluded that negotiations on this issue were exhausted and further ...

Kosovo's multi-ethnic parliament ran straight into trouble at its first ever session when deputies backing a former ethnic Albanian rebel leader walked out briefly after a row that marred the opening. Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party (PDK) -- the second largest in the assembly -- left the chamber for 10 minutes after the UN administrator for Kosovo prevented Thaci from speaking "to ensure the order of proceedings was respected", a member of the UN official's entourage said. He said Hans Haekkerup wanted deputies to respect the planned order of the session, which was supposed to start with the election of the ...

<p>KOSOVO, Yugoslavia - Haxhere's grave is clearly visible on the side of the hill overlooking her tiny village in eastern Kosovo. The fresh mound of earth stands out among the tiny cemetery's more weathered, grassy plots.</p> <p>The cemetery appears the perfect resting place from a life of toil in the surrounding fields. But its tranquil air is disturbingly out of place for a 20-year-old woman who had celebrated her wedding only hours before dying in an ''honor killing.''</p>

The first multi-ethnic assembly in post-war Kosovo holds its first session this week, without any clear idea how power-sharing between its political parties will function. None of the four main political forces has a clear majority in the 120-seat Kosovo parliament, which is supposed on Monday to elect the first president of the Albanian-dominated south Serbian province. The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) of moderate Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, which won 47 seats in the November 17 elections, still needs at least one partner to form a government. Rugova's main Albanian political foe, former guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci, whose Democratic ...

Saturday December 8, 2:45 AM Putin urges global conference on Balkan "headache" Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a global conference that could help solve what he called the "Balkans headache" before it unsettled security across Europe. "We think that there should be an international conference on southeastern Europe that focuses (on the region's) political and economic development," Putin told an audience at Athens University. "Europe cannot be safe until the Balkans headache is solved," said Putin, who added that economic underdevelopment in southeastern Europe served as "fertile soil for extremism and conflict." Speaking on the second day of his ...

Saturday December 8, 1:03 AM Chirac calls on Kosovo, Montenegro to work to renew Yugoslavia French President Jacques Chirac has called on Montenegro and Kosovo to put aside their secessionist aspirations and work to renew Yugoslavia. "The collapse of countries cannot be a peaceful and stable solution in the modern world," Chirac said on Friday in his keynote speech at Belgrade University. "The solution cannot reside in a policy of secession, in an approach which, turning its back on others, is based on confrontation," he said in remarks that were directed at Montenegro and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Montenegro, Serbia's ...

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- French peacekeepers clashed with Serb protesters Friday in a tense town in northern Kosovo. One soldier was slightly wounded, a NATO official said. The attack happened at about 4 a.m. as a group of peacekeepers searched the homes of two suspected Serb extremists in the town Kosovska Mitrovica. About 200 Serbs gathered outside to protest the search, said Squadron Leader Daz Slaven, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force in the southern Yugoslav province. Serbs in the city said a 30-minute clash ensued, during which the demonstrators threw stones and peacekeepers fired tear gas and stun grenades. ...

SARAJEVO, Dec 3, 2001 -- (dpa) No radioactive material was found in central Bosnia-Herzegovina's region of Kiseljak, the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) said Friday, contradicting earlier reports that said Italian peacekeeping troops found parts needed to make nuclear weapons. SFOR spokesman Captain Daryl Morrell confirmed only that SFOR was involved in an operation supporting the local police in Kiseljak, 20 kilometers north of the capital Sarajevo. Since the operation is still continuing, Morrell refused to comment on its nature. Meanwhile, local police detained three persons after discovering in their houses suspicious materials believed to be used to produce explosive ...

Vast investigation in Bosnia Herzegovina The FBI suspects that one of the terrorists in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon possessed a Bosnian passport &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;On September 18, 2001, Sarajevo officials received a request from Interpol to investigate the identities of 19 terrorists who participated in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. It is suspected that these terrorists belonged to Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist organization. After only two days, the BiH Foreign Ministry, stressing that the same request was sent to other countries as well, responded that there was no trace connecting any of ...

NATO put the fight against terrorism at the top of its agenda and agreed to upgrade relations with Russia, as it tried to raise its profile despite playing only a bit part in the US-led campaign in Afghanistan. In a statement, NATO foreign ministers said their 19 nations will sketch up a program of anti-terrorism measures in time for the next NATO leaders' summit in Prague late next year. "There has to be zero tolerance of terrorism," said NATO Secretary General George Robertson as he opened the first NATO ministerial meeting since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United ...

SKOPJE, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The United States has barred members of two ethnic Albanian extremist groups that reject August's peace deal for Macedonia and has frozen any U.S.-based assets they may have, the State Department said on Tuesday. It said financial and travel curbs had been imposed on the Albanian National Liberation Army (ANA), a fringe group that spurned Macedonia's Western-sponsored accord with the main NLA rebel movement and vows to open a new conflict. Also banned under a seven-month-old executive order of President George W. Bush was the National Committee for the Liberation and Defence of Albanian ...

European intelligence officers believe Albanian insurgents are preparing to renew their war with the Skopje government in an attempt to solidify their hold on the newly liberated zone of Northwestern Macedonia. Some two hundred former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army infiltrated Macedonia from Albania during the last week and are establishing positions above the insurgent capital of Tetovo. These shadowy fighters, operating under the Albanian National Army (ANA) banner, claim they will not permit the central government to reclaim this territory without a fight -- however their appearance may also signal increased political tension and maneuvering in Albania. David ...

Slovenia sets 2002, 2003 budgets, ups value added tax LJUBLJANA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The Slovenian parliament set budgets for 2002 and 2003 on Wednesday, hoping to narrow its budget deficit, and announcing an increase in value added tax (VAT) ahead of its planned 2004 European Union entry. Spending in 2002 was fixed at 1,348.5 billion tolars ($5.4 billion) against an income of 1,223.3 billion tolars leaving a deficit of around 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The 2003 budget sets spending at 1,454.7 billion tolars and income at 1,406.7 billion tolars with a budget deficit of 0.9 percent ...

<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO, stung into action by the September 11 attacks on the United States, will declare war on terrorism this week and consider how best to gird itself for a new kind of battle.</p> <p>The 19-nation alliance evoked a mutual defense clause in its founding treaty the day after the hijacked aircraft attacks on New York and Washington.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Three people who claim to be American citizens and who fought on the side of the Taliban militia are now in control of U.S. forces or U.S.-allied opposition forces in northern Afghanistan, senior defense officials said Monday.</p>

West haunted by Balkans blunder © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com As the war in Afghanistan goes on, the ghost of interventions past sits in a courtroom in The Hague. America can drop tons of explosives and send in the Marines to fight Taliban terrorism. But when the Serbs confronted a similar menace, they were demonized and bombed for 78 days, and had a province wrested from them and presented to Osama bin Laden's Balkan brigade. Slobodan Milosevic has been charged with complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Before the travesty is over, he will doubtless be convicted of running ...

The basic rights of non-Slovenes remained the main human rights concern in Slovenia in 2000. Problems included the reinstatement of citizenship or permanent residence for persons who were stripped of citizenship or removed from the permanent residents’ register in 1992, and the payment of pensions to former officers of the former Yugoslav People’s Army (YPA). Residence Permits At the end of December 1999 a three month deadline was set for requests for the reinstatement of permanent resident permits to former citizens of Slovenia who had had permanent residence in Slovenia prior to the declaration of independence on 25 June 1991. ...

Thursday, 29 November, 2001, 16:56 GMT Kosovo leads Europe in woman power Presidential candidate Flora Brovina: "Too high" By The BBC's Nicholas Wood in Kosovo When Kosovo's parliament is sworn in next month, it will not only be the region's first democratically elected assembly, but it will be the only parliament in Europe with an electoral system guaranteed to elect high numbers of women. The system has provoked criticism from male politicians and women's groups alike, and prompted accusations of hypocrisy as the United Nations administration in the province introduces rules that exist in barely a handful of Western democracies. ...