BELGRADE – Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica went on national television on Thursday to tell Serbia to brace for the imminent secession of Kosovo province, which their government would never accept.

MOSCOW – The near 100 percent support for the Kremlin’s United Russia party in parliamentary elections last year in the North Caucasus were legitimate and vindicated Kremlin policies, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

PRISTINA, Serbia – The last time Kosovo declared independence in 1990 it went unrecognized and ignored. When it splits from Serbia this weekend, it will have the support of the West, which sees no way back.

Serbia’s breakaway Kosovo province is preparing to declare independence this weekend after eight years under United Nations stewardship. Here is a look at the main economic challenges facing the new state.

MOSCOW – Following are highlights of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments in an annual question and answer session on Thursday.

PRISTINA, Serbia – After a decade struggling to prove it deserves independence, Kosovo’s hardest task is still ahead: proving it can afford it.

ISLAMABAD – Pakistanis vote in an election on Monday that could bring about the downfall of President Pervez Musharraf if it returns a hostile parliament with a prime minister who wants to be his own man.

LAHORE – Security fears may have kept Pakistani politicians off the streets, but their faces can be seen every way one turns in the city of Lahore.

Here is a chronology of some of the main events in Lebanon since former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was killed on February 14, 2005, along with 22 others.

BEIRUT – Three years after Rafik al-Hariri’s assassination, the crisis unleashed by his death opens ever deeper rifts in Lebanon and threatens the state and society the leader tried to rebuild after the civil war.