06 Oct 14 The delay in establishing new government institutions in Kosovo four months after the general elections is leaving Kosovo diplomats out of pocket. Nektar Zogjani BIRN Pristina At least five Kosovo embassies in Europe have not paid rents for their offices or salaries to their staff for more than two months as a result of the political deadlock in the country. An official who works in one of the embassies in Western Europe said staff in the embassy were suffering real hardship. "We have not received salaries for two months, or funds to pay the rent, which is causing another problem

03 Oct 14 The Court of Appeal in Pristina said there was no legal justification for keeping 11 people arrested for terrorism, including a well-known imam, in detention. Petrit Collaku BIRN Pristina Kosovo's Court of Appeal on October 1 approved the complaint of the defence of 11 men - seized in a roundup of suspected terrorist supporters - and ordered the Basic Court to review its order to keep them in detention them on remand. One is a well-known cleric, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Pristina, Shefqet Krasniqi, who some supporters say was arrested for political reasons. Another high-pro

03 Oct 14 More than 4,000 Kosovo refugees, mainly Roma, have just three months left to apply for residency in Montenegro or they could be reclassified as illegal immigrants and have to leave. Dusica Tomovic BIRN Podgorica Sejetin Hitari lives in a metal container in the rundown Konik refugee camp on the outskirts of Podgorica – a city that has become his home since he fled Kosovo because of the war in the late 1990s. “I’ve got nowhere to go back to; Montenegro is my homeland now,” the 36-year-old said. “My house in the town of Klina in Kosovo was burned down and the KLA [Kosovo Liberation

02 Oct 14 The supreme court in Pristina acquitted two Kosovo Serbs who were charged with raping a 16-year-old ethnic Albanian girl during the war in April 1999. Petrit Collaku BIRN Pristina The two suspects, former Serb policeman Jovica Dejanovic from Priluzje and Djordje Bojkovic from Babin Most, have been cleared of the rape charges, their lawyers said on Thursday. “The supreme court delivered the right decision which is in compliance with all positive laws in Kosovo,” Bojkovic’s lawyer, Miodrag Brkljac, told BIRN. Dejanovic told Serbian media that the case against them had been fabricat

02 Oct 14 Kosovo' political stalemate looks set to continue after the constituent session of the new parliament was postponed. Nektar Zogjani BIRN Pristina Flora Brovina, from the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, who chaired the constitutent session, said the session had been postponed to create “enough room to overcome the political crisis,” referring to ongoing discussions between the parties to end  the dispute over the election of a speaker. During the past few days, leaders of the two major camps - one led by the PDK and the other by a coalition uniting the Democratic Leagu

02 Oct 14 Kosovars are the keenest internet users in the Balkans, in national percentage terms, a global survey of internet and Facebook penetration shows. Sinisa Jakov Marusic Skopje BIRN The Internet World Stat, a comprehensive survey of internet use, says that 76.6 per cent of the 1.8 million people in Kosovo used the net in 2013. Kosovo is one of the few countries that is lacking data on Facebook usage, however. Second in the Balkans in terms of internet use was Croatia, where 70.9 per cent of the population went online.

01 Oct 14 While Kosovo remains without a government, the new special court to try Kosovo Liberation Army war crimes suspects cannot start work as planned in January, BIRN has learned. Marija Ristic BIRN Belgrade Sources within the EU have told BIRN that it is unlikely that the high-profile new court will be established and running as planned in January 2015 because Kosovo has been stuck in political deadlock without a government since elections four months ago. “The political situation in Kosovo is not close to being resolved and we need additional laws to be adopted by Kosovo parliament in

01 Oct 14 Judges in the trial of guerrilla commander turned politician Fatmir Limaj and nine other ex-fighters accused of abuses at the wartime Klecka detention centre were disqualified after claims of bias. Petrit Collaku BIRN Pristina The court of appeal in Pristina on Wednesday disqualified the trio of judges in the high-profile Klecka war crimes case after the defence team claimed that they were biased against the former Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas on trial. The case was interrupted on September 18 when the defence sought the disqualification of the judges because it said that the

26 Sep 14 As Kosovo tries to stop its sons from going off to fight in Iraq and Syria, sympathy for their cause remains strong among some hardline Muslims. Nektar Zogjani, Petrit Collaku and Nate Tabak BIRN Pristina The calls stopped coming more than three months ago. Even while fighting in Iraq and Syria for the militants of Islamic State, Musli Musliu still checked in with his family regularly. He used to post photos on Facebook, showing a beaming young man posing with his comrades.

25 Sep 14 Nikola Sainovic, the former deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia convicted of war crimes in Kosovo, will become the fourth Balkan war criminal to serve his sentence in Sweden. Marija Ristic BIRN Belgrade Sainovic will be sent to a Swedish jail after being found guilty by the Hague Tribunal of deportation, murder, persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds of ethnic Albanians during war in Kosovo in 1999. His conviction was upheld on appeal by the UN-backed court in January, but his sentence was reduced from 22 to 18 years in prison. According to the ruling, Sainovic i