Serbia’'s Minister of Interior, Nebojsa Stefanovic, stated that 290 individuals, majority of them Albanians from Kosovo, who were trying to illegally cross the border between Serbia and Hungary, have been arrested during the last 48 hours. Criminal charges are raised against 256 individuals and 50 smugglers while 15 vehicles have been confiscated.
Stefanovic stated that he will discuss the issue of the illegal emigrants and false asylum seekers with the Director of German Police.

WASHINGTON - Head of the Serbian People's Party (SNP), which has no seats in the parliament, Nenad Popovic has met in Washington with head of US State Department office for Southern and Central Europe Steven Banks.

Popovic stated at the meeting that Serbia had invested over USD 17 billion in its southern province of Kosovo in the past 50 years, adding that property ownership was a universal and undisputed right in every civilised country, according to a statement from the SNP.

BRUSSELS -- Germany "is not hindering Serbia on its European integration path but it still insists on respect of fundamental enlargement process principles."

This is according to German politician and European Parliament Rapporteur for Serbia David McAllister.

Authorities in Pristina will request war reparations from Belgrade, shares of Kosovo enterprises that used to have branches in the Serbia proper and distribution of military premises and embassies of the former SFRY, Novosti learned unofficially.

- The government has no plan for the property in Kosovo and Metohija - told Fonet president of the Serbian National Party Nenad Popovic, adding that the first step is to impose such an urgent issue in talks with representatives of the international community.

Popovic points out that "we have to protect previous investments of the public enterprises in Kosovo, such as NIS, EPS, JAT, PTT, "Serbian Railways" and "Roads of Serbia". According to him, it is necessary to "valorise their claims from the period before 1999, which is guaranteed by the UN Security Council resolution."

With regard to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic’s formulation of a new platform for Kosovo, a senior research fellow on the politics of south east Europe at the London School of Economics, James Ker-Lindsay, claims that ‘it won’t have the effect’.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has assessed that many obstacles are in Serbia’s path toward the EU membership, including the issue of Kosovo, and he invited Brussels to no stipulate Serbia’s association process with severing the ties with Moscow.

Koha Ditore’s Brussels based correspondent, Augustin Palokaj, writes that many officials in Brussels and other capitals make many statements and praise results reached by the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. “One gets the impression that this dialogue not only resolved the vital issues for the people of Kosovo, but it also saved the world from the third world war. The bitter truth stands in the fact that this dialogue has resolved a few problems, however it caused more obscurity and illusions,” writes Palokaj.

Miners demand Kosovo Assembly nationalizes near-bankrupt mining company within 24 hours.
Hundreds of miners in northern Kosovo have refused to resurface, demanding that the Kosovo government takes over their near-bankrupt mine in Mitrovica within 24 hours. About 700 miners were still 750 meters underground on Wednesday after refusing to return to the surface at the end of their shift the day before, saying they wanted the Kosovo Assembly to take over the company Trepca, which owns the zinc and silver mines, as soon as possible.

PRISTINA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Kosovo backtracked on Monday from a pledge to take control of a huge mining complex claimed by Serbia, a step Belgrade had warned would put at risk European Union-sponsored negotiations between the Balkan neighbours.

The Trepca complex of lead, zinc and silver mines once employed 20,000 people and accounted for the majority of the former Yugoslavia's mineral wealth.