By: James Ker-Linsday

The apparent decision of a Latin American state to revoke its recognition of Kosovo shows the diplomatic struggle over Serbia’s former province is far from over.

It is hard to believe that it has been almost a decade since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, on 17 February 2008. At the time, it was an extraordinarily controversial move.

Ordinarily, the international community has a strong aversion to unilateral acts of secession.

Discussing the role of the Kosovo Specialist court at the public presentation of the report “Public Perception of the Kosovo Specialist Court: Risks and Opportunities”, organized by NGOs PAX, Integra, and Center for Peace and Tolerance, President Thaçi criticized the one-sidedness of the “mono-ethnic” court and slammed the international community for falling short of fulfilling their part of the “bargain”.

At the retrial of three Kosovo men accused of trafficking in human organs, a nurse who worked at the Medicus clinic near Pristina denied a statement she signed ten years ago about the removal of patients’ kidneys.

Mendehie Hajdari, who used to work as a nurse at the Medicus clinic until the day investigators closed it down in 2008 over the allegations of organ trafficking, appeared at Pristina Basic Court on Wednesday but retracted her previous statement to police.

War victims’ clothes and other personal possessions, stored at the Institute of Forensic Medicine since 2003, are being transferred to a better location after calls to ensure that they are preserved.

Thousands of items that were owned by Kosovo war victims whose bodies have been found in mass and individual graves since the conflict are being transferred to a more appropriate location after having been stored for years in poor conditions.

The move comes after pressure by the director of Kosovo Forensics, Arsim Gerxhaliu, and victims’ families.

Returning Islamic State fighters pose a threat to their countries of origin, including Western Balkan states, says a new report from an NGO dealing with global security issues.

Of around 900 people from the Western Balkans who have gone to fight in Syria or Iraq, some 250 have returned to their home countries, according to a report published on Tuesday by the Soufan Centre, a US-based NGO dedicated to increasing awareness of global security issues.

Kosovo's Central Electoral Commission is yet to announce preliminary results from local elections. However, some 17 municipalities are set to pass into runoffs.

As Kosovo waits for official results from Sunday’s local elections, some 17 municipalities already seem set for runoffs, according to preliminary data from local NGO Democracy in Action (DIA), which monitored the process.

As people throughout Kosovo get ready to vote in Sunday's municipal elections, surveys show that most of them hope the result will bring about positive changes for their families and communities.

http://bit.ly/2xX1nV9

The campaign for the local elections in Kosovo's 38 municipalities draws to a close on Friday at midnight as citizens get ready to vote on Sunday.

Kosovo marks the last day of the local election campaign on Friday, as it prepares for Sunday’s elections, now being held for the second time since 2013 also in the northern Serb-majority towns.

New research conducted in Tirana and Belgrade shows that while newspapers in both countries have a neutral tone when writing about each other, the tone becomes bitter when the subject turns to Kosovo.

Serbia's former province of Kosovo remains a hot issue between Albania and Serbia, judging by the tone that the media in both countries use when writing about each other.

By: Armend Bekaj

October’s local elections in Kosovo will likely be free and fair – the real test of this young country’s democratic health is what happens after the election.

However, Kosovo’s longer-term challenge with democratization is not the election day. The chances are that this time, too, the elections will be organized in line with international standards.