Balkans

BELGRADE – Scores of protesters smashed their way into the U.S. embassy in Belgrade on Thursday in anger at Kosovo’s independence, ransacking rooms and setting fires before riot police dispersed the crowd.

GATE 3 BORDER POST, Kosovo – Hundreds of Serb army veterans protesting against the independence of Kosovo burned tires and threw stones at Kosovo riot police on Thursday at a border crossing between Serbia and the new republic.

VATICAN CITY – Serbia took its campaign against Kosovo’s independence to the Vatican on Thursday when its ambassador told Pope Benedict that “moral principles” alone showed it was an injustice.

BELGRADE – When Serbs rally against Kosovo’s independence on Thursday, it may look like Serbia has gone back to the virulent nationalism that stoked war in the 1990s under the leadership of the late Slobodan Milosevic.

AMSTERDAM – The U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague will appoint four more judges to increase the number of trials it can hold and help it wrap up its work by 2010, the court said on Thursday.

LJUBLJANA – The government of current EU president Slovenia said on Thursday it wanted to recognize Kosovo’s independence from Serbia and asked parliament to approve its decision.

GATE 3 BORDER POST, Kosovo – Several hundred Serb army veterans protesting against the independence of Kosovo threw rocks at Kosovo riot police on Thursday at a border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia, a Reuters reporter said.

Europe’s major powers and the United States said on Monday they recognized Kosovo’s new independence, as Serbs reacted with anger and some states warned that its secession from Serbia set a dangerous precedent.

UNITED NATIONS – If the U.N. Security Council does nothing to stop Kosovo from seceding, it will tell the world that no country’s sovereignty and borders are safe, Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Monday.

SARAJEVO – Ethnic Serbs in Bosnia and Montenegro reject Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia and will try to block its recognition by their own countries, officials said on Monday.