Vetevendosje party

MPs from the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, physically attacked Prime Minister Albin Kurti and government ministers during Kurti's speech in parliament on Thursday, as a physical fight erupted between the two groups.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told media on Thursday that he had "begged" locals in the north of Kosovo, protesting for the fourth day in a row in front of municipal buildings in the Serb-dominated area, "in their determination to persevere in the fight for law and justice, to do so always, above all, in relation to KFOR, in a peaceful way".

Kosovo Serbs gathered in front of municipal buildings in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo early on Monday, protesting against newly elected ethnic Albanian mayors, while Kosovo Police and NATO's peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, upped their presence to secure the area.

Local and international media organisations expressed concern on Wednesday after Kosovo's parliament voted Luljeta Aliu-Krasniqi as member of the board of the Independent Media Commission, IMC.

Kosovo authorities have been installing containers in four Serb-dominated northern municipalities to be used as polling stations on Sunday, when voters are called to cast ballots in disupted local elections that most locals are likely to boycott.

The arrest of the director of the Kosovo Energy Corporation, KEK, has drawn completely different reactions from the ruling and opposition parties.

Members of the former deemed it "revenge" by the acting Chief State Prosecutor while the opposition described it as proof of government abuse in the energy sector.

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and his three co-defendants went on trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers on Monday morning, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed between at least March 1998 and September 1999 in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania during and just after the war with Serbian forces.

Sejdi Zymeri's house in the village of Likovc/Likovac is close to where the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA used to have its headquarters in the Drenica region, the guerrillas' wartime heartland.

On trial alongside Thaci will be Kadri Veseli, a former Kosovo parliamentary speaker and leader of Kosovo Democratic Party, PDK, Jakup Krasniqi, the chairman of the national council of the Social Democratic Initiative, NISMA party, and Rexhep Selimi, who was the head of the Vetevendosje party's parliamentary group of MPs at the time of his arrest.

Religious leaders in mainly Muslim Kosovo on Wednesday signed a joint declaration against a new draft civil code that would allow same-sex marriages, and will be discussed in parliament on Thursday.

The religious leaders condemned an article which paves the way for a special law allowing same-sex civil unions.