ASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama approved the deployment of 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan, a surge in numbers promptly welcomed by the Kabul government Wednesday as it battles a Taliban insurgency. Stressing that “the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention and swift action,” President Obama ordered …

Thousands of Albanians took to the streets with flags and banners to celebrate the first anniversary of Kosovo’s declaration of independence on Tuesday, but excitement was dampened by the realisation that the secession from Serbia was not a quick fix to the nation’s many problems. Car horns, traditional music and …

While Kosovo’s Albanians celebrated the one-year anniversary of their declaration of independence on Tuesday, Serb and Kosovo Serb politicians gathered defiantly in the northern Kosovo town of Zvecan on Tuesday to proclaim their rejection of the secession and flaunt Belgrade’s reach in Serb-controlled parts of Kosovo where Pristina has no …