15 Aug 14 A proposed rise of 5 per cent in the price of electricity could well galvanize street protests, critics of the measure say Pristina

14 Aug 14 Pristina Kosovo Police said the unnamed imam arrested in Gjilan was suspected of “encouraging jihad”, meaning “holy war”.

13 Aug 14 Kosovo Special Prosecutor on Monday issued an indictment against the prominent Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic. Oliver Ivanovic, a former Serbian government official and head of the Citizens Initiative Freedom, Democracy, Justice has been indicted for war crimes in Kosovo. The Office of the Kosovo Special Prosecutor raised an indictment against five people on Monday. Although the names of the accused have not been revealed, BIRN has learned that Ivanovic is accused of inciting war crimes in April 1999 and, a

13 Aug 14 Human rights campaigners hope that a new special court to prosecute suspected post-war crimes against humanity by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters will finally deal with allegations about abductions and organ trafficking.

11 Aug 14 After police on Monday arrested 40 suspected Islamist militants who they believe have participating in the fighting in Iraq and in Syria, the President said Kosovo will not allow itself to become a source of terrorism and instability. Nektar Zogjani BIRN Pristina The President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, on Monday praised the country's police for rounding up 40 suspected Islamist militants, saying that “Kosovo will not be a shelter for extremism.” “We will never allow our country to become a source of criminal and terrorist acts that threaten peace and stability,” she said. Poli

07 Aug 14 The authorities are restarting the search for the remains of Kosovo Albanian victims at a mass grave at the Rudnica quarry in southern Serbia, where 45 bodies have already been exhumed. Gordana Andric BIRN Belgrade The Serbian war crimes prosecutor’s office said it was resuming the search at two locations at the Rudnica quarry on Thursday for the remains of Albanians suspected to have been killed by Belgrade’s forces during the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo. So far, the bodies of 45 victims have been found buried at the quarry near the southern town of Raska, close to the Serbia-Kos

06 Aug 14 Kosovo Police are searching for a former MP who has admitted having killed a man on Monday and is now in hiding. Nektar Zogjani BIRN Pristina Police are hunting for Gani Geci, an MP when Kosovo declared independence in 2008, who has admitted killing Ruzhdi Shaqiri, a veteran of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, in his hometown of Skenderaj. The ex-politician has refused to surrender to the local authorities and has said he wants the EU law mission, EULEX, to handle the case. Geci told Rugova Press portal on Monday that he committed the murder in a heightened emotional state and in

Supporters of hardline Muslim group rally in Pristina demanding an end to killings of civilians in Gaza and attacking Israel’s ‘genocide’. Nektar Zogjani BIRN Pristina Around 100 Kosovars gathered on Friday in Pristina’s main Ibrahim Rugova square to protest against Israel’s iron-fisted military tactics against Hamas militants in Gaza. Fuad Ramiqi, the organizer of the rally, said that the people of Kosovo “have a moral obligation” to condemn what is happening in Gaza “where children, women, and elderly people are being killed. “An innocent population is being killed only because they belo

31 Jul 14 A total of 115,759 people in Kosovo have signed a petition urging the United Nations to produce a report about rapes committed during the late 1990s conflict. Edona Peci BIRN Pristina Kosovo’s outgoing deputy prime minister Edita Tahiri said on Thursday that the petition will be filed to the UN in September, with the aim of finally establishing the facts about rapes by Serbian fighters during the 1998-99 war. “We aim [to hand it over] to the secretary-general of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, but if he won’t have time, then we will want to meet [the secretary-general’s Special Representativ

30 Jul 14 Kosovo’s War Veterans Association said that a new EU report stating that senior Kosovo Liberation Army officials will be prosecuted for crimes against humanity was “ridiculous”. Edona Peci BIRN Pristina The War Veterans Association on Wednesday condemned the EU Special Investigative Task Force report into alleged crimes committed after the 1999 conflict, calling it “illogical, ridiculous and tendentious”. The association said that the report represented “the continuation of a special war against freedom fighters and against the Kosovo Liberation Army due to the interests of Serbia