KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Stickers proclaiming the EU mission in Kosovo was the enemy of the Serb people and calling on it "to go home" have appeared in Kosovska Mitrovica.

The messages, plastered on traffic signs across Kosovska Mitrovica overnight, show the EULEX logo and the swastika, along with the message, "EULEX - enemy of the Serb people. "

Some of the stickers read "EULEX go home," and also appeared at several locations in the town of Zubin Potok, also in northern Kosovo.

"The author" of the posters is unknown, Tanjug reported.

BELGRADE - The leader of the Citizens' Initiative "Freedom, Democracy, Justice" (GI SDP), indicted for war crimes against ethnic Albanians recently, will have to remain in remand custody until the end of his trial despite the Serbian government guarantees that he will be available to the judicial authorities at all times if released pending trial, Belgrade-based daily Politika reports in its Tuesday issue.

BRUSSELS - The first chapters in Serbia's EU accession process should not be opened before the beginning of the next year, Tanjug learnt from diplomatic sources in Brussels.

The current mood among member countries is that additional efforts are still needed in the implementation of the Brussels agreement before an intergovernmental conference on the opening of chapters can be organised, Tanjug learnt in the EU seat.

The British Ambassador to Kosovo, Ian Cliff told Tanjug that part of the Brussels agreement, relating to the recognition of diplomas, does not function and that issue with recognition of diplomas issued by North Mitrovica University should be improved. 

PRISTINA - The Independent Liberal Party (SLS) re-elected in Pristina on Sunday Slobodan Petrovic as their president.

Petrovic is also the minister of administration and local government and deputy prime minister in Kosovo's provisional government.

The SLS has close to 8,000 members, he said in a report presented at the election meeting, adding he hoped SLS officials would be in Kosovo's next government as well.

BELGRADE - Germany is not setting new requirements for Serbia's EU integration, member of the Bundestag Josip Juratovic has said, adding that the agreements signed by the EU are well thought out and are not changes according to anyone's whim.

Germany is a partner that can always be counted on to make the maximum effort to implement whatever has been agreed, Juratovic told the Blic daily from Belgrade, adding that all the requirements had been known for a long time and were the same as for Slovenia and Croatia.

Mayor of North Kosovska Mitrovica Goran Rakic has called on the international community to invest maximum efforts into dealing with security issues and providing a safe environment for all the people in Kosovo.

His appeal came after an unexploded hand grenade was found and cleared by the police in North Mitrovica on Saturday, an area where Serbs make up the majority of the population.

BELGRADE - Oliver Ivanovic, one of the Serb leaders in northern Kosovo-Metohija (KiM), against whom a criminal indictment for crimes against ethnic Albanians has been issued recently, said he had been arrested so that his political action could be prevented.

“My arrest had only one goal: to exclude me from political and public life,” Ivanovic said in an interview he gave to Belgrade-based daily Politika in writing on the day before the indictments against him was issued.

 Tomislav Nikolić says he wishes to see an end to hostilities in Ukraine, "not only because of Serbia's specific position - but for the sake of people there."

 "If they reach an agreement, it will be for the good of the people. If not, then it will be bad for the people, people in eastern Ukraine will suffer, it's obvious. I had a chance how people suffer on the example of the former Yugoslavia and what it's like when big (powers) get involved and start deciding alone on someone's fate."