PRISTINA - A total of 13 police officers, 6 protesters and 2 reporters were injured in the protest in southern Kosovska Mitrovica near the main bridge on the Ibar River on Sunday. Spokesman of the Kosovo Police Service for southern Mitrovica Avni Zahiti said that 5 people have been arrested so far but the police reports are not final yet, media reported. As the consequence of the use of flammable substances by protesters, four vehicles were set on fire, two of them belonging to the Kosovo Police Service, one owned by EULEX and one more in UNMIK possession, Zahiti said. Two reporters were in

BELGRADE - The rule of law remains a priority for Eulex, as does the implementation of what has been agreed in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, the head of the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo, Bernd Borchardt, has said. Borchardt, whose mandate has been extended until June 2016, told Monday's issue of Vecernje novosti that Eulex staff will no longer head the major judicial institutions in Kosovo, and that the mission's judges will be a minority in Kosovo's courts. The mission's prosecutors will be working at the Kosovo special prosecution office, but the institution will no longer be headed

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Several people have been injured and a number of cars set on fire in the riots that broke out during the protest of ethnic Albanians at the southern side of the main bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica on Sunday, over the Peace Park being built at the bridge. Ethnic Albanians gathered around 3 p.m. CET near the main bridge over the Ibar River in the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, chanting “U-C-K'' (Albanian language acronym for the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army) and waving Albanian and U.S.

BELGRADE - Head of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) Marko Djuric said Sunday that Serbia's negotiations with the European Union will not be conditioned by the actions of Pristina and stressed that the time has come for the community of Serb municipalities to be formed. "Items of crucial importance for us will now be on the agenda - articles 4, 5 and 6 of the Brussels agreement, relating to the formation of the community of Serb municipalities with certain important powers, and that is what we will be working on in the coming period," Djuric said for the Radio and Tele

 Marko Djuric, director of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM), promised on Thursday that the state will assist citizens of Orahovac and Velika Hoca, the Serb enclaves in south-western KiM, and called on people of goodwill to invest efforts in the preservation of Serb enclaves in KiM. Djuric said in Orahovac that the socio-economic situation in that town is extremely difficult, noting that citizens of Orahovac are in a kind of isolation.

Zeljko Bojic, regional head of the operative Kosovo police, has said that the night was peaceful after the removal of a barricade on the bridge between northern and southern Kosovska Mitrovica. Bojic said that the police presence in the city will be stepped up. A cultural heritage fair will be held on Thursday evening so the police presence in the downtown and near the main bridge on the Ibar River will be stepped up, Bojic told Tanjug. After removing the barricade on the main bridge on the Ibar River, which connects the Albanian and Serb parts of the city, a peace park was built.

BELGRADE - The head of the Office for Kosovo-Metohija Marko Djuric will meet with European Commission officials in Brussels on Monday to discuss topics relevant to the situation in Kosovo-Metohija following the recent elections there. Djuric will discuss matters related to the implementation of the Brussels Agreement and the continuation of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, the Office for Kosovo-Metohija has announced. The Serbian government has appointed Marko Djuric as the head of the Serbian part of the committee for implementing the Brussels Agreement, as well as the head of the task force

PRISTINA - Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo Jean-Claude Schlumberger and OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic opened in Pristina on Friday the regional conference on the ways to respond to instances of hate speech without violating the freedom of expression. The OSCE one-day conference was attended by over 50 reporters, lawyers, representatives of civil society and institutions from the Western Balkans who discussed legal regulations and experiences from the region in an effort to counter hate speech. According to an OSCE release, they underscored that active partic

BELGRADE - The visit by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to Berlin and his meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel shows a new foreign policy activity of Germany, which wants to become more involved in matters concerning the Western Balkans, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Belgrade Henri Bohnet said Thursday, adding that Germany is interested in the stability of the region. Speaking at a conference on the question of EU Enlargement after the European Parliament elections, Bohnet said that the EU was incomplete without the Western Balkans and Germany had an interest in seein