• Kosovo bus slides off road in Serbia, nine injured (media)
• Konjufca, Hovenier vow to strengthen Kosovo-U.S. relations (media)
• Appointment of Hovenier-Hill duo to boost dynamic of Kosovo-Serbia dialogue (Koha)
• Kosovo to have liaison officer at State Department (media)
• Kosovo Veterans’ Deputy Leader: ‘Nothing New’ in Leaked War Court Files (BIRN)
• Kosovo's former chief negotiator charged for inaccurate declaration of assets (media)
• COVID-19: 356 new cases, no deaths (media)
• Covid: Half of Europe to be infected with Omicron within weeks - WHO (BBC)

 

 

Kosovo bus slides off road in Serbia, nine injured (media)

A bus carrying passengers from Kosovo to Austria slid off the road near the Serbian town of Krusevac resulting in nine persons sustaining injuries, media report. They add that the accident is most likely a result of icy road conditions.

The Government of Kosovo said the nine persons have been hospitalised but not in a life-threatening condition. "Our liaison officer is on the way to the Krusevac hospital to visit the injured. We wish them a speedy recovery," the Government stated.

Konjufca, Hovenier vow to strengthen Kosovo-U.S. relations (media)

Kosovo Assembly Speaker, Glauk Konjufca, met the new United States Ambassador, Jeffrey Hovenier. The two pledged to work on strengthening relations, coordinate objectives, and deepen cooperation.

A statement issued by the Kosovo Assembly quotes Konjufca as thanking Hovenier for the continuous support the U.S. provides to Kosovo, including the donation of over half a million doses of coronavirus vaccines. Konjufca also noted that the future of Kosovo is in EU, NATO, and other international organisations.

Appointment of Hovenier-Hill duo to boost dynamic of Kosovo-Serbia dialogue (Koha)

"Appointment of Jeffrey Hovenier as U.S. ambassador to Kosovo and Christopher Hill to Serbia is aimed at empowering the U.S. influence on the processes that these two countries are going through," political analysts told Koha Ditore.

Violeta Haxholli from the Kosovo Democratic Institute said that the U.S. administration has applied a more increased focus on the region and the experience of diplomats like Hill and Hovenier should be used to conclude yet-open processes. "Every step we take in the dialogue should be in close consultation with the United States as it has been proven that the U.S. is the only partner that has firmly stated that mutual recognition is its end goal in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia," she said.

Meanwhile, former Serbian diplomat Zoran Milivojevic expects to see an added intensity on Kosovo this year. "The new U.S. ambassador to Kosovo, Jeff Hovenier, is the first of a trio of new ambassadors expected to arrive to the region, alongside Christopher Hill and the new ambassador to Sarajevo. This is part of the new strategy of the U.S. foreign policy headed by Biden, to resolve the outstanding issues in the region, the so-called unfinished business, namely Kosovo and Bosnia."

Kosovo to have liaison officer at State Department (media)

Merdiana Leci will be serving as Kosovo's first liaison officer at the State Department, media report quoting the U.S. Ambassador Jeff Hovenier.

"This program will strengthen U.S.-Kosovo understanding & cooperation on shared foreign policy priorities," Hovenier said on Twitter following a meeting with Kosovo's Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla and diplomat Merdiana Leci.

Kosovo Veterans’ Deputy Leader: ‘Nothing New’ in Leaked War Court Files (BIRN)

The deputy leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army Veterans’ Organisation, Nasim Haradinaj, told his trial in The Hague that there were no new revelations in leaked documents from war crimes cases that caused the charges against him.

Nasim Haradinaj testified on Tuesday at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague that the information in documents from the Hague court that were leaked to the Kosovo Liberation Army Veterans’ Organisation was already known to the public.

“There was nothing hidden,” Haradinaj told the court.

Haradinaj told the court that the documents from the Kosovo Specialist Chambers that were sent to the KLA War Veterans’ Organisation office in Pristina in 2020 contained “what had been spoken about [in the media] two months previously and looked like the draft indictment of [Kosovo’s former President Hashim] Thaci”.

Haradinaj told the court that he read the names of Thaci and his co-accused, former Kosovo guerrillas turned politicians Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi, in the files. The four men have since been charged with war crimes and have pleaded not guilty at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.

Haradinaj insisted that he has never mentioned any other name from the confidential files in public.

Haradinaj and the leader of the KLA War Veterans’ Organisation, Hysni Gucati, are accused of obstruction of justice and witness intimidation because they received the documents, which contained confidential information about protected witnesses in the cases against KLA ex-guerrillas, and urged the media to publish extracts from them. They have both pleaded not guilty.

During his testimony on Tuesday, Haradinaj said he and Gucati were justified in distributing the documents to media at a series of press conferences in Pristina for the sake of transparency. He said that the facts about the documents had been “manipulated by journalists, which is not our responsibility”.

Haradinaj also told the court he never tried to contact any of the witnesses that were mentioned in the documents.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3FhN14q

Kosovo's former chief negotiator charged for inaccurate declaration of assets (media)

Skender Hyseni, Kosovo's former chief negotiator in dialogue with Serbia, has been indicted by the Basic Prosecution in Pristina for not accurately reporting his assets with the anti-corruption agency.

According to the prosecution, Hyseni did not disclose in the form ownership of a vehicle, registered under his wife's name, Betimi per Drejtesi portal reported.

Hyseni has denied allegations saying the failure to report the vehicle was a "technical slip".

COVID-19: 356 new cases, no deaths (media)

356 new cases with COVID-19 were confirmed in the last 24 hours in Kosovo, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. 53 persons recovered from the virus during this time.

There are 2,083 active cases with COVID-19 in Kosovo.

Covid: Half of Europe to be infected with Omicron within weeks - WHO (BBC)

The World Health Organization has warned that half of Europe will have caught the Omicron Covid variant within the next six to eight weeks.

Dr Hans Kluge said a "west-to-east tidal wave" of Omicron was sweeping across the region, on top of a surge in the Delta variant.

The projection was based on the seven million new cases reported across Europe in the first week of 2022.

The number of infections has more than doubled in a two-week period.

"Today the Omicron variant represents a new west-to-east tidal wave, sweeping across the region on top of the Delta surge that all countries were managing until late 2021," Dr Kluge told a news conference.

He quoted the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as forecasting that "more than 50 percent of the population in the region will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks".

He said European and Central Asian countries remained under "intense pressure" as the virus spread from western countries into the Balkans.

Read more at: https://bbc.in/3qi2qNO