Atifete Jahjaga

Kosovo on Thursday commemorated its annual Day of Forcibly Disappeared Persons with events intended to remember those who went missing during the 1998-99 war and to reiterate demands for justice.

Last week, Kosovo police were attacked several times close to the border with Serbia, where a road used for smuggling contraband goods was recently closed.

Belgrade officials have rejected Pristina's claims that the attacks came from Serbian territory, while the European Union has warned against "unnecessary speculation that may add to further tensions".

Vjosa Osmani became Kosovo's fifth head of state in 13 years since the country declared its independence from Serbia on Sunday night when MPs in the Kosovo Assembly voted to appoint her as president.

Osmani, a 38-year-old lawyer, also became the second woman to hold the post, after Atifete Jahjaga, who was president from 2011 to 2016.

'Miredita, Dobar Dan' - the festival's name means 'good day' in Albanian and Serbian - is intended to showcase Kosovo culture to a Belgrade audience.

Flora Brovina apologised on Friday for showing the explicit photograph to media and claiming that it showed three Serbian soldiers raping an ethnic Albanian woman during the war.

"The photograph is probably falsified," Brovina told a press conference.

Flora Brovina, an MP from the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, sparked angry reactions on Thursday when she showed a photograph to media which she said showed three Serbian soldiers raping an ethnic Albanian woman during the war.

Analysts in Pristina told BIRN on Monday that Albania and Kosovo should take serious steps towards practical cooperation instead of the idea of a having a joint president, which was suggested by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama during a speech to Kosovo MPs the previous day.

Rita Ora, who was born to Kosovo Albanian parents in Pristina, will headline one of the biggest events being staged from Thursday to Sunday to mark the tenth anniversary of Kosovo's declaration of independence.

"I am so excited to be joining all of you in Kosovo to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Independence on Feb 17!" Ora wrote on Twitter on Wednesday evening.

Kosovo's Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, has asked the European Union to intervene after the country's former president was denied entry to Serbia on Thursday to promote her book on wartime rape victims.

Serbian tabloids have prepared a bruising welcome for the former President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, who plans to visit Belgrade on Friday to promote a book about women who were raped during the Kosovo independence war of the late 1990s.

Anita Mitic, from Youth Initiative for Human Rights, the NGO that organised the festival, said many of the tabloid headlines were "gruesome".