Kosovo

MITROVICA, Kosovo (AP) — Serbs on Tuesday erected more roadblocks in northern Kosovo and defied international demands to remove those placed earlier, a day after Serbia put its troops near the border on a high level of combat readiness.

The new barriers, made of heavily loaded trucks, were put up overnight in Mitrovica, a northern Kosovo town divided between Kosovo Serbs and ethnic Albanians, who represent the majority in Kosovo as a whole.

PRISTINA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Kosovo's president on Saturday announced that local elections in majority Serb areas in the north would be delayed until April, a move aimed at defusing ethnic tensions that have intensified in recent months.

Serb mayors in northern Kosovo municipalities, along with local judges and some 600 police officers, resigned last month in protest over a government decision to replace Belgrade-issued car license plates with ones issued by Pristina.

Elections had been scheduled for Dec. 18 but Serbs said they would boycott the polls.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Representatives of the ethnic Serb minority in Kosovo on Saturday resigned from their posts in protest over the dismissal of a police officer who did not follow the government’s decision on vehicle license plates.

PRISTINA, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Kosovo is prepared to stand against a possible attack by Serbia as worsening strife with minority Serbs could result in a new armed conflict, Prime Minister Albin Kurti told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared again earlier this month when Pristina said it would oblige Serbs living in the north, who are backed by Belgrade and do not recognise Kosovo institutions, to start using license plates issued in Pristina.

PRISTINA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Kosovo police said one of their patrols close to the Serbian border came under fire on Saturday, in an area of the country marred by ethnic disputes and smuggling activities.

Tensions between western Balkan neighbours Kosovo and Serbia

have flared recently and came to a head last week after Kosovo said it would oblige Serbs living in the north of the country and using Serbian car licence plates to apply for plates issued by Pristina institutions. The obligation has now been postponed.

ZUPCE, Kosovo, Aug 1 (Reuters) - NATO-led peacekeepers backed by helicopters on Monday oversaw the removal of roadblocks protesters had set up in north Kosovo, where political tensions have flared more than two decades since a crisis that ended with NATO airstrikes.

The removal of the barricades came after the Kosovo government postponed the implementation of a decision that would oblige ethnic Serbs, who are a majority in the north, to apply for documents and car license plates issued by Kosovan institutions.

PEJA, Kosovo (AP) — Learning to identify and defuse explosives is something Anastasiia Minchukova never thought she would have to do as an English teacher in Ukraine. Yet there she was wearing a face shield, armed with a landmine detector and venturing into a field dotted with danger warnings.

Russia’s war in Ukraine took Minchukova, 20, and five other women to Kosovo, where they are attending a hands-on course in clearing landmines and other dangers that may remain hidden across their country once combat ends.

PRISTINA, March 17 (Reuters) - Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani has asked U.S. President Joe Biden to use Washington's influence within NATO member states to help her country join the military alliance.

In a letter sent to Biden dated March 10th and seen by Reuters on Thursday, Osmani said that in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, joining NATO was her main national security priority.

"Kosovo's membership in NATO has become an imperative," Osmani said in her letter.

PRISTINA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Kosovo's parliament on Saturday passed a resolution banning ethnic Serbs from voting on Kosovan soil in Serbia's national referendum on constitutional amendments.

Serbia will hold a referendum on Sunday on amendments to the constitution that would change how judges and prosecutors are elected, a move the government says is aimed at securing an independent judiciary, a condition for EU membership.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo is holding municipal elections Sunday in which the left-wing party that has been in government for eight months is aiming to capture the city hall of the capital, Pristina.

About 1.9 million voters are casting ballots to elect mayors for 38 municipalities and some 1,000 town hall lawmakers. Preliminary results are expected by midnight. In previous polls many of the communes have gone to runoffs, which take place in a month’s time.