Hashim Thaci

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci announced on Thursday that Kosovo had applied to join the UN's culture arm, UNESCO, marking another step to achieve full recognition of its independence.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikolaos Kotzias held a joint press conference in Pristina on Tuesday with his counterpart, Hashim Thaci, in what is seen as a landmark in relations between the two.

Greece has yet to recognize Kosovo's independence, proclaimed in 2008.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has arrived at the Kosovo capital Prishtina for an official visit.

He will be meeting with the country's Prime Minister Isa Mustafa and his colleague and Vice PM Hashim Thaci.

With Grexit now slowly receding in the rear view mirror, Greece’s radical leftist government is returning to more normal international contacts, as Greek FM Nikos Kotzias begins a tour of Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina this week.

On Tuesday, Kotzias will head to Pristina, where he will be received by Kosovo PM Isa Mustafa and his counterpart  Hashim Thaci.

On her visit to Kosovo on Sunday, Nuland is expected to try to persuade MPs to back unpopular constitutional changes that will allow for the establishment of a special court to handle war crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, in the 199os conflict.

Nuland will meet President Atifete Jahjaga, Prime Minister Isa Mustafa and Foreign Minister Hashim Thaçi.

The Commission for Legislation in the Kosovo parliament said it will proceed with amendments on transforming the current lightly armed security forces into a regular army, recommending that parliament ratify them.

Deputies from Hashim Thaci's party will not vote for the forming a war crimes court that should deal with the KLA, write Albanian language media in Pristina.

This is the case "although Thaci promised German Chancellor Angela Merkel" that members of his party, the PDK, would vote in favor.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he was convinced that the progress made in Tuesday's latest Serbia-Kosovo talks in Brussels would enable Serbia to open the first chapters in the EU accession process by the end of the year.

The Kosovo parliament passed a resolution on Thursday asking for the return of wartime Kosovo Liberation Army commander turned political party leader Haradinaj, who was detained at Slovenia's Brnik Airport on a warrant issued by Serbia and Montenegro in 2004.

Naser Oric arrested in Switzerland

Swiss police arrested Naser Oric, Bosniak wartime commander of Srebrenica, at the airport in Bern today, because he is on Serbian Interpol's wanted list.

Oric was arrested on the basis of the indictment against him by the Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes in Belgrade in 2014, based on court records transferred to the Tribunal in The Hague.