Balkans

Two Kosovo Serbs were attacked by a group of Albanians in Mitrovica, local police say, the latest skirmish in the tense divided town. The town of Mitrovica has been a flashpoint since Kosovo’s Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in February. Some 20,000 Serbs live in the north of the …

Kosovo’s ethnically-divided town of Mitrovica could face bloody conflict if inter-ethnic tensions continue unchecked, a local Serb politician says. The town of Mitrovica has been a flashpoint since Kosovo’s Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in February. Some 20,000 Serbs who live in the north of the town reject the …

BOSANSKI BROD, Bosnia (Reuters) – A flare at the top of a 50-meter high tower in the Balkans shows Russia building political capital in a notoriously fractured part of Europe. The flame in late November marked the restart of operations in Brod, Bosnia’s sole oil refinery which had been out …

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Russian natural gas supplies to Romania remained at reduced levels on Monday as a result of the Russia-Ukraine gas row, the head of the Black Sea state’s state-controlled pipeline operator Transgaz said. “Gas inflows are still around 30 percent lower than contracted levels,” Transgaz director Ioan Rusu …

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Negotiations over disputed gas contracts cannot resume because there has been no relevant response from the Ukrainian side, Gazprom’s export head Alexander Medvedev said in Prague on Saturday. Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on January 1, and the impact has been felt in some European …

Three months from a deadline for the completion of Macedonia’s new presidential residence, President Branko Crvenkovski’s cabinet is accusing the government of deliberate delays to the works. The president, who previously led the opposition Social Democrats, has in recent months clashed publicly with the current government led by the centre-right …

urkey will support Kosovo within the United Nations when it becomes a temporary member of the Security Council in January 2009, a senior Turkish official said. “From the beginning of 2009, Turkey will be a temporary member of the UN Security Council … and wishes that Kosovo become a member …

A United States court found the three brothers Dritan, Shain and Elvir Duka, ethnic Albanians born in western Macedonia, guilty of a conspiracy to kill U.S. soldiers at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey last year, local media said on Tuesday. A Jordanian-born and a Turkish-born U.S. citizen …

The Czech Republic is considering withdrawing its troops from the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, due to opposition objections in Prague over the country’s presence in military missions abroad. The some 400 Czech soldiers serving in Kosovo play a major role in KFOR operations as they operate along the border …

n independent expert has disputed the conclusion of the official investigation, saying the mosque in the village of Fazlagica Kula was not razed by accident but in “professionally planed and executed” arson attack. “Our suspicions have been confirmed because the findings of this expert are completely different from the findings …