23 Oct 14 The University of Prishtina has said it will review its textbooks following an outcry over a Faculty of Law work that describes women rape victims as 'usually immoral'. Nektar Zogjani BIRN Pristina NGOs in Kosovo are demanding the recall of a university textbook that makes light of women victims of sexual violence. Passages from the offending book, entitled “Kriminalistika” [“Criminology”], by retired Professor Vesel Latifi, refer to rape victims as “females who are easily fooled, careless, thoughtless, and immoral”. Igballe Rogova, director of the Kosovo Women’s Network, said su

22 Oct 14 For the sake of our own future, we Kosovo Albanians need to liberate ourselves from a destructive obsession with Serbia. Mikra Krasniqi Pristina

22 Oct 14 New momentum is needed in the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue after the timeout caused by elections in both countries, a report by Kosovo and Slovak think tanks suggests. Nektar Zogjani BIRN Pristina A new joint report by two think tanks has urged the governments of Serbia and Kosovo to revitalise the stalled EU-led dialogue between the two countries. The report is the work of the Pristina-based Democracy for Development, D4D, and its partner from Slovakia, the Central European Policy Institute, CEPI. Milan Nic, from the Bratislava-based CEPI, said they had predicted that 2014 would be m

22 Oct 14 Former high-ranking Serbian interior ministry official Vlastimir Djordjevic will be sent to a German prison to serve his 18-year sentence for war crimes against Albanians in Kosovo. Marija Ristic BIRN Belgrade The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia announced on Tuesday that Djordjevic, who was convicted of the murder and persecution of Kosovo Albanians during the conflict in 1999, will be transferred to Germany. The name of the prison where he will serve his sentence will be made public once the transfer takes place.

17 Oct 14 Kosovo must find ways to tempt its large diaspora community into investing its cash in industry back home. Mikra Krasniqi Pristina Kosovo received about 457 million euros in remittances from emigrants in 2012. The sum amounted to over 9 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, GDP, and the largest form of foreign financing. Despite the critical role that these flows have played over the years for almost 25 per cent of Kosovo households, business investment from the diaspora in productive industries, such as manufacturing, remains low or non-existent.

16 Oct 14 The chaotic scenes at the Serbia-Albania football match, which had to be called off, mark an inauspicious prologue to the Albanian Prime Minister’s visit to Belgrade. Besar Likmeta, Gordana Andric BIRN Tirana, Belgrade Edi Rama’s long planned official visit to Serbia next week - the first such visit by an Albanian Prime Minister to Belgrade in decades - will take place in a difficult atmosphere following the bizarre scenes at Tuesday’s Euro 2016 qualifier. After a drone flew over the stadium bearing a map of Greater Albania, fighting erupted on the pitch and some Albanian players

15 Oct 14 UEFA reaction awaited after Serbia-Albania Euro 2016 qualifier in Belgrade had to be abandoned amid fights on the pitch. BIRN Belgrade, Tirana, Pristina, Skopje, Podgorica The first football match ever held between Albania and Serbia in decades ended in chaos and violence in the 41st minute, after a small drone with a banner embossed with an Albanian flag flew over the pitch and Serbian fans erupted. The banner flown by the drone portrayed a map of “Greater Albania” covered with an Albanian flag and the portraits of independent Albania’s two founding fathers, Ismail Qemali and Isa

15 Oct 14 Albania, Serbia Euro 2016 qualifier was suspended after a drone flying Albanian flag over the pitch sparked a brawl between the teams. BIRN Belgrade First football match between Albania and Serbia in decades was halted and abandoned in 41st minute at 0:0, after a clash between the teams. The match was interrupted when a drone carrying banned Albanian flag was flown over the pitch. Serbian player Stefan Mitrovic pulled down the flag, which led to brawl between the teams, as Albanian players tried to take the flag from Mitrovic. Dozen of fans run to the pitch and as riot police mov

13 Oct 14 The remains of the 12 ethnic Albanians killed by Belgrade’s forces during the late 1990s war and buried in a mass grave near the Serbian town of Raska were repatriated to Kosovo. Petrit Collaku BIRN Pristina Exhumation at the Rudnica quarry. The remains were handed over at the Merdare border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia on Monday after being exhumed from a mass grave at the Rudnica quarry near Raska, not far from the border, where more than 40 bodies have been found. Prenk Gjetaj, the head of Kosovo’s missing persons commission, said that families of the victims held a memor

13 Oct 14 Politicians in Pristina and Belgrade condemned the spraypainting of Islamic State and Kosovo Liberation Army graffiti on the medieval Serbian Orthodox monastery of Visoki Decani. Nektar Zogjani BIRN Pristina Some of the graffiti on the monastery's land. Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga condemned the vandalism at the 14th century monastery in western Kosovo, a UNESCO world heritage site which has long been the focus for disputes between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians. Such acts of vandalism “do not contribute to building good relations among communities and are in conflict with the val