Anti-Albanian sentiment

The four who died in the collapse of scaffolding in the northern German city of Hamburg were not Bulgarians, but Albanians, Albanian media reports, citing German media. A fifth Albanian was seriously injured.

The Kosovo government told BIRN that more satellite images are needed of the Stavalj mine near Sjenica in south-west Serbia, where Kosovo Albanian victims of the Kosovo war are suspected to have been buried, in order to reach a definitive conclusion about whether excavation work at the site should continue or stop.

Heavy rain cut short Besim Deliu's work at the memorial site in the village of Rezalla where he had gone to clean up his father's grave.

The grave has been left empty for more than two decades while he was waiting for the body of his father Xhelil to be found, and he has often had to remove water that has gathered there during downpours.

President Aleksandar Vucic told a press conference on Wednesday that a total of 21 suspected mass grave locations have been examined so far in Serbia and that "we found the bodies of, it's assumed, killed Albanians at four of the 21 locations - we did not hide anything".

Missing persons officials from Serbia and Kosovo on Wednesday announced the completion of exhumation work at the former Kizevak open-cast mine, near the town of Raska, where victims' bodies from the Kosovo war have been found.

Salih Mustafa, a former Kosovo Liberation Army commander accused of committing war crimes, must remain in detention after a judge said he could interfere with witnesses or escape.

The head of Kosovo's Missing Persons Commission, Kushtrim Gara, told BIRN that exhumations were carried out at ten locations in Kosovo and Serbia this year and "the mortal remains of at least 11 persons, victims of the war, were found and exhumed".

There are no road signs pointing to the mine, which is surrounded by forests and fields. Nor are there many houses on the way. But Kizevak is currently a hive of activity.

Another former member of a notorious Serbian paramilitary group has been released early from prison by a court in Belgrade having spent 12 years of a 15-year sentence for war crimes behind bars.

Miodrag Solaja fought with a unit known as the Scorpions during the 1998-99 war in Serbia's then southern province, Kosovo.

Two suspects got arrested in the morning hours on the crossing checkpoint "Bela Zemlja".
They were assigned police custody, Kosovo police stated.