Kosovo

US lawyer David Schwendiman has been appointed as the chief prosecutor of the new Hague-based Special Court which is expected to try former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters.

BELGRADE - Montenegro has recognised Kosovo as an independent state and now they are in a dispute over a part of a territory that belongs to neither, but to Serbia, the chairman of the Serbian parliamentary committee on Kosovo-Metohija Milovan Drecun said Friday.

The trial of ten former Yugoslav Army troops for a massacre of 118 Kosovo Albanian villagers in 1999 was postponed a second time after witnesses from Kosovo did not appear in court.

A lack of trust in institutions and unfair taxation systems in Southeast Europe have contributed to the widespread problem of the "shadow" economy and undeclared work, a recent survey by the Sofia-Based Center for the Study of Democracy, CSD, for the Southeast Europe Leadership for Development and Integrity, SELDI, has concluded.

Kosovo political analyst Ilir Ibrahimi told BIRN that the failure of parliament to vote on a border demarcation deal with Montenegro, which Kosovo's international partners had advocated, had set back its relationship with the international community, especially with the US.

BELGRADE - The normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, which is being insisted on in Serbia's EU accession process, does not mean official recognition of Kosovo's independence, European Parliament rapporteur for Serbia David McAllister said in Belgrade Thursday.

BELGRADE - Sponsors of Kosovo's independence and those who back moves against Serbia cannot expect Serbia to shut its doors to friends and impose sanctions on them, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Thursday.

BELGRADE - The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will be the most efficient support to anyone who wants to strengthen the European policy in Serbia, but it does not necessarily have to be in the government, LDP leader Cedomir Jovanovic said Tuesday.

Germany and France oppose granting visa liberalization to Kosovo, and also Ukraine and Georgia, a Pristina-based Albanian language daily is reporting.

Beta agency said, quoting Zeri newspaper, that the two EU countries fear "increased number of asylum seekers."

Serbia condemns in the strongest terms the territorial pretensions expressed by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in Pristina on Friday.

This has been stated by the head of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Djuric.