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American Deputy Secretary of State John Bolton believes the United States committed a serious mistake when it recognized the independence of Kosovo. He fears such policy may escalate tensions in the Balkans. In an interview for the Russian news agency Interfax, Mr. Bolton remarked that Washington’s policy was on autopilot since the regime of the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. But the situation has changed considerably after the democratic government took over, which, in Mr. Bolton’s opinion, makes support for Kosovo’s independence a pointless atavism.

Appathurai said the training is expected to start soon, and diplomats added that the aim was to have an initial force of 1,200 ready by year's end. Diplomats said the 600 or so Spanish troops serving in Kosovo would not take part in the training. Although Appathurai stressed the planned multiethnic nature of the force, it was uncertain whether members of Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority would participate. Meanwhile, Russia signaled its continued annoyance over Kosovo by calling for the dismissal of the top U.N. official in the new nation over plans for the European Union to replace the current U.N....

BRUSSELS, May 28 (Reuters) - NATO troops should not be left to shoulder police tasks in Kosovo, the U.S.-led alliance said on Wednesday as signs grew that a European Union plan to take over police duties there faced months of delay. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian government asked the EU to take over policing from the United Nations when it declared independence from Serbia in February, but Serb ally Russia has so far blocked any formal handover.

A battalion of 600 British troops will be sent to Kosovo, Defence Secretary Des Browne has announced. It follows a Nato request for extra soldiers to maintain public order in the newly independent country. Britain is responsible for providing the body's standby reserve force for the first six months of this year. The soldiers, from 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, will be deployed to Kosovo from the end of May for one month to help Nato with peacekeeping activities. There are currently 150 British troops working in Kosovo. This latest deployment comes in response to a Nato request to deal with...

Penn State's student newspaper The Daily Collegian reported on Ann Coulter's hour-long speech there this month: "For possibly the first time in her career the conservative commentator, had nothing to say about a political issue. 'I have no opinion,' she told a student who asked her about Kosovo and Ukraine. That may be the first time those words have passed my lips." "During her hour-long speech to a crowd of more than a thousand in HUB Alumni Hall last week, though, Ms. Coulter spoke candidly about her opinions on a variety of controversial subjects ranging from the war in Iraq...

(Political Animal) THE KOSOVO QUANDARY....Liberal internationalist types tend to believe that non-defensive military action shouldn't be undertaken unless it's authorized by the UN. But Kosovo wasn't authorized by the UN, and most liberal internationalists seem to think it was a worthy effort anyway. Matt Yglesias, blogging about his new book over at TPMCafe, ponders this: It's a tough question for the liberal internationalist because generally speaking I would like to have my cake and eat it too here. Kosovo mostly accomplished good things, but the process — moving in without Security Council authorization — isn't something I can strictly speaking...

Serbia is commemorating today nine years since the beginning of NATO air strikes on then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The strikes lasted 11 weeks and according to different sources between 1,200 and 2,500 people were killed. Serbia PM Vojislav Kostunica shall attend today the commemoration service dedicated to the victims of NATO aggression on FRY in 1999, while the Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovic shall meet with the pilots that took part in combat actions and members of the families of the pilots that lost their lives in those actions. Minister Sutanovac shall also lay the wreaths on the monument dedicated...

UPI Outside View Commentator PITTSBURGH, March 20 (UPI) -- Fighting in northern Kosovo this week between Serbs and NATO-led troops shows that the independence engineered by the Bush administration for the breakaway Balkan province is not going according to plan. When U.S. officials encouraged the unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia by Kosovo's Albanians Feb. 17, we were told that an EU mission would replace the United Nations in Kosovo, and everyone would then build a multiethnic, democratic society with respect for rights of the Serbs, a minority in the province as a whole. That is not happening. The Serbs...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — President George W. Bush authorized Wednesday supplying Kosovo with weapons, signaling the establishment of government-to-government relations after recognizing its independence, the White House said. In a memo to the State Department made public by the White House, Bush said: "I hereby find that the furnishing of defense articles and defense services to Kosovo will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace." A senior official said the authorization followed US recognition of Kosovo's independence and was part of the normal process of establishing relations with a new government. In a comment apparently meant to...

Moscow, March 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia has said that the recent violence in Tibet is linked with the recognition by some states of the independence of Serbia's breakaway province, Kosovo. In an interview published Tuesday in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the recognition of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence by many countries, including the US and the majority of the European Union (EU) states, had 'already reverberated in many regions.' He said that the Kosovo issue was linked to recent riots in Tibet and demands for greater autonomy by ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. 'There are...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Kosovska Mitrovica was in turmoil this morning after UNMIK and KFOR stormed a local court to arrest Serbs. Beta news agency says that several hundred soldiers at 05:30 CET surrounded the court, where Serb judicial workers, demanding to return to their jobs, were protesting since Friday. They first handcuffed the men, and then tied the women's hands with ropes. The workers were not resisting the arrest. When the troops moved outside to take them away, a large group of citizens blocked the road. The citizens, local Serbs in the divided town, then started throwing stones at UNMIK....

NATO's big blunder Action in Kosovo one of the great outrages of our timeBy PETER WORTHINGTON/b> Last Thursday, at the Royal Canadian Military Institute in Toronto, a gathering sponsored by Lord Byron Society discussed Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia. This is an esoteric topic of limited concern to those not familiar with Balkan politics. It is one of the great outrages of our times, and certainly the most scandalous and unnecessary adventure of the presidency of Bill Clinton, who unleashed his incompetent Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, to declare war on Serbia and persuaded NATO to join in. Albright and...

United Nations police in Kosovo have been forced to withdraw from Serbian areas in the divided city of Mitrovica after clashes with Serb demonstrators. At least 22 UN police and eight Nato troops were reported injured after a raid to retake a court seized by Serbs. Troops used tear gas as they faced gunfire, stones and petrol bombs. It is the worst violence since Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence last month. Serbia and Serbs in Kosovo refuse to recognise its independence. It also coincides with the fourth anniversary of a two-day episode of inter-ethnic violence in Mitrovica that left 31...

(CNN) -- The United Nations said Monday it is evacuating international police from the northern sector of the ethnically divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica after U.N. police and NATO soldiers were wounded in clashes with Serbs.

March 14, 2008 at 7:43 AM KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo, March 14 (UPI) -- A courthouse in northern Kosovo under guard by U.N. troops was stormed and occupied Friday by Serbian protesters who used to work there, Serbian media said. Serbia's state-run Tanjug news agency said several armed U.N. guards and about 30 Kosovo Police Service guards didn't engage the mob and offered no resistance. The Serbs broke through a cordon into the Municipal and District Court in Kosovska Mitrovica and went to the roof, where they replaced the U.N. flag with the Serbian flag, the report said. Serbs in the...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA (AFP) - UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence. Police said more than 100 people were injured as the troops met gunfire and suspected grenade blasts in the worst violence to have flared in Kosovo since its independence declaration a month ago on February 17. The clashes erupted after UN police and NATO-led KFOR (Kosovo Force) troops surrounded the courthouse in Kosovska Mitrovica for a pre-dawn raid to evict the Serb protestors. Kosovo police...

It is hardly a conservative policy to support the establishment of an Islamist state on the European continent, turn a blind eye to the well-documented persecution of an ancient Christian community, engage in a Woodrow Wilson-style passion for nation building and follow in the footsteps of Bill Clinton. Yet that is what the United States has done by recognizing the independence of Kosovo. Kosovo is the ancient heartland of the Serbian people going back to the dawn of their history. It certainly had a Muslim ethnic Albanian majority before Clinton and his Secretary of State Madeline Albright bombed Belgrade back...

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - The newly independent state of Kosovo will need an estimated $2 billion dollars in foreign aid over the next few years, about half of which should be provided by Europe, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday. The rest of the money could come from the United States and such institutions as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried said. He was testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Helping the fledgling state, which declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17 with strong backing from Washington, will require top-level...

UNITED NATIONS - Kosovo's declaration of independence has led to the "de-facto partitioning" of the Serb-dominated north from the rest of the territory - just as Russia repeatedly warned would happen, Russia's U.N. ambassador said Tuesday. While ethnic Albanians account for nearly 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, Serbs dominate a number of enclaves and a large part of northern Kosovo. They have refused to recognize any separation from Serbia, with daily protests taking place in the northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica. Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin said Moscow has been saying "quite openly" inside and outside the U.N. Security...

Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia has called upon the international community to recognize its independence. In the opinion of the parliament the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia, "the Kosovo precedent presents a convincing argument" for recognition of its own independence. Later this week, Abkhazia, another pro-Russian territory attempting to break ties with Tbilisi, is expected to follow suit. RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service spoke with Eduard Kokoity, the de facto president of South Ossetia, to explain the reasoning behind the parliament's measure. "Considering the precedent created by the arguments that served as basis for the declaration of Kosovo's independence --...

BELGRADE, Serbia -- As editor-in-chief of Serbia's oldest and most prestigious daily newspaper, Politika, I am at a loss to explain the West's stubborn support for Kosovo independence to my readers. Only nine years ago, my country was bombed for 78 days by the most powerful military alliance the world has ever seen, and the last thing I want is to pour oil over the fire of anti-Western sentiment. But the truth is, I find myself grappling with the same bitterness and resentment as most of my countrymen. I was very much part of the democratic upheaveal that rid Serbia...

With the support of the United States and the opposition of Russia and China, Kosovo has declared its independence from Serbia, and in doing so, has laid hold of Serbia’s most celebrated Christian shrines. The Kosovo declaration of independence oddly puts the United States and several of its allies in direct support of establishing the third Islamic state in Europe, in addition to Albania and Bosnia. The move fans the flames of a struggle between Christians and Islamists that dates back to the Ottoman Empire takeover of Serbia in 1389. Over the next 400 years, the Islamists controlled the former...

BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia's prime minister dissolved the government Saturday and called for new elections after clashing with his pro-Western coalition partners over Kosovo and EU membership. Vojislav Kostunica said that he will convene a government session Monday that will propose to parliament that new elections be held May 11. He accused pro-Western ministers of failing to support his efforts to preserve Kosovo as part of Serbia. "There was no united will to clearly and loudly state that Serbia can continue its path toward the EU only with Kosovo," Kostunica said. The new elections could determine whether Serbia continues toward...

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Sweden's foreign minister said Saturday that the United Nations will have to stay in Kosovo to act as a buffer between nations that recognize Kosovo's statehood and those that do not. Carl Bildt said the U.N., European Union and NATO would need to adjust their plans in Kosovo after the U.N. was sidelined last month when Kosovo declared independence, due to a deadlock caused by Russia's opposition and U.S. and key European countries' backing for the new country. "We are operating in a somewhat different situation from the one that we were planning for," Bildt told...

Several thousands members of Sydney's Serbian community have rallied in the city this afternoon calling on the Federal Government to reverse its decision to recognise Kosovo as an independent state. The protesters marched from Martin Place to the Federal Government offices in Sydney this afternoon. They carried signs saying "Kosovo is Serbia" and the "United Nations is dead". They are angry the Australian Government recognised Kosovo's declaration of independence last month. The protesters, who were mostly members of the Serbian community, are calling on the Federal Government to reverse its decision to recognise Kosovo as an independent state. They say...

Mr. Steve Greenberg Republican candidate for the United States Congress 8th District, IL P.O. Box 894 Mundelein, IL 60060 March 5, 2008 Open Letter RE: A Bean by any other Name is still a Bean. Dear Mr. Greenberg, There is so much wrong with your Press Release of February 27th, 2008 that each point deserves to be addressed, and perhaps that’s a good thing for you, because that means you are getting the voters’ attention. I hope that this response to your press release gets some attention as well, for I intend to circulate it as widely as possible. The...

America's hasty recognition of an independent Kosovo has upset powerful interests, most notably Russia. Serbia, though far from Moscow, has long been Russia's "Israel": an embattled sister nation on the frontier of the Islamic world. The Iraq war eclipsed Kosovo in the public's consciousness. The United States fought a 78-day air war over Serbia in 1999 and maintains 7,000 troops today as part of a U.N. occupation force. Though American casualties have been mercifully low, the rationale for the campaign has proven even less durable over time than the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Specifically, claims of Serbian...

Oil has a peculiar smell. It has been described as a stench, which assails the nostrils. But it does much more than irritate the membranes in the human nose. It greases the machinery of geo-politics and lubricates the revenge and envy that nation states harbor towards each other. It makes and destroys states and peoples and befouls humanity. It is still a necessary evil, but much of this black gold happens by fate to lie under the sands of the Arab Middle East and thus morphs into a terrible weapon wielded by Arab despots and Islamo-fascist fanatics. The insane rush...

"EXIT Festival has never cancelled any artist's performance because of their political point-of-view or statements." Photo by Bernhard Kristin/ILC Following the shake-up last week surrounding Björk's politically-charged Kosovo song dedication and the subsequent (and, apparently, consequent) cancellation of a purported appearance at the EXIT Festival in Serbia, festival organizers have stepped forward with a statement. To recap: Björk dedicated her song "Declare Independence" to Kosovo-- which recently declared its own independence from Serbia-- at a pair of Tokyo concerts in February. The singer rather plainly suggested the EXIT cancellation was the result of her remarks when she told Icelandic newspaper...

03 March 2008 Paris _ A majority of French people polled by an influential web portal say France made a mistake in backing Kosovo's independence. Out of the 3,167 visitors to the Expression-Publique portal, 46 percent criticised Kosovo's secession from Serbia and 43 percent objected to France's recognition of Kosovo's independence. On the other hand, 37 percent welcomed Kosovo's recognition by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who previously headed the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. France was a key supporter of Kosovo’s independence within the European Union and among the first EU countries to recognise the...

ATTENTION L.A. FREEPERS! RALLYAgainst the independence of the new Islamic state of Kosovo in the middle of Europe Sunday March 9th LOS ANGELES In front of the FEDERAL BUILDING in West L.A. 11000 Wilshire Blvd. Time: 2:00 PM Bring American flags and signs showing that AMERICANS DO NOT SUPPORT KOSOVO INDEPENDENCE What will be next? An Islamic state of Dearborn Michigan? Or a Mexican state of San Diego? NO! Non-Muslims in Kosovo today are being attacked and forced to flee, will regions of America one day suffer the same fate? SEE YOU ON SUNDAY IN WEST L.A.! Contact: losangeles@unitedamericancommittee.org for...

Serbia has retaken control of a stretch of railway line in northern Kosovo, a senior Serb official has said. Branislav Ristivojevic, who heads Serbia's state-run railway company, said Belgrade had restored control over the 50km (30-mile) Lesak-Zvecan line. Earlier, Serb rail workers stopped a train on the line, saying they would not work for Kosovo's rail firms. Belgrade and Kosovo Serbs refuse to recognise Kosovo's declaration of independence last month. Last week, some 150 Kosovo Serb police officers were suspended for refusing to take orders from the ethnic Albanian authorities in Kosovo's capital, Pristina. Serb police officers protested in the...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has enjoyed strong support from a lobbyist group that backs the Kosovo Liberation Army despite allegations the KLA is a Muslim terrorist group with ties to criminal drug networks and al-Qaida. The Albanian American Civic League, or AACL, regards the KLA as "freedom fighters," said the AACL's president, former Republican congressman Joe DioGuardi of New York. They're "not terrorist, like the Serbs and Greeks say," DioGuardi insisted in an interview with WND. But Islam expert Robert Spencer, editor of the popular website Jihad Watch, contends radical Islam is the driving force behind the Kosovo...

“He did everything that we asked of him, including arming the KLA�, said Albanian lobbyist Joe DioGuardi. The Albanians collected one million dollars for the presidential campaign of this senator. Americans of Albanian heritage collected a million dollars in one evening for the presidential campaign of Republican Senator John McCain, said the Albanian American Civic League yesterday, the lobby group headed by former Congressman Joe DioGuardi. A reception for McCain was held January 22 at the Saint Regis Hotel in Manhatten, and the senator, who is now leading in the runoff for the Republican party candidacy in the November elections,...

MITROVICA, Kosovo: Serbia reclaimed control of a 50-kilometer stretch of rail line in northern Kosovo on Monday, a senior official said, in defiance of the government in Pristina. The official, Branislav Ristivojevic, chairman of Serbia's state-owned railroad company and a senior adviser to Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, said that Serbia was restoring control over the 30-mile line "after a period of nine years." Earlier, a few dozen Serbian railroad workers blocked passage of a freight train on the line, saying they would not work for Kosovo's rail company and demanding to be transferred to Serbia's state-owned railroad. The surprise move...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, PRIŠTINA, -- Kosovo Serbs yesterday marked Zadušnice, a religious holiday dedicated to the souls of the dead. Orthodox Christian Serbs observe four such days each year, when families visit cemeteries to light candles and say prayers at the graves of their loved ones. For many Serbs in Kosovo, especially those whose relatives were buried in cemeteries that are now located in ethnic Albanian communities, observing the holiday has since 1999 been a practice that endangered their personal safety, but also brought with it a particular heartbreak – that of finding the grave of a loved one desecrated. Serb...

A group of 20 neo-Nazis were detained by police in Stockholm on Saturday. The neo-Nazis were on their way to disrupt a demonstration by 400 Serbs protesting Kosovo's independence. The neo-Nazis, members of the Swedish Resistance Movement (SMR), were stopped by police on their way to Myntorget in the Gamla Stan area of Stockholm on Saturday afternoon. "They were stopped near Riksbron. They were behaving badly and were armed with golf-clubs and stones," said police spokesperson Ann-Charlotte Wejnäs to TT. A demonstration arranged by the Serbian youth organization in Sweden was being held at the time on the nearby square....

Kosovo's independence has enflamed nationalism in Serbia, dividing its people into "patriots" and "traitors," as was the case during the 1990s rule of late president Slobodan Milosevic. "Radicalisation of the political scene in Serbia after the proclamation of independence of Kosovo has put in danger some human rights activists and politicians of liberal and democratic orientation," said Natasa Kandic, head of the prominent Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre. Kandic herself has been exposed to threats by some nationalists and attacked by several local newspapers for having attended the February 17 session of Kosovo's parliament when the unilateral declaration on independence was...

We must worry about the manner in which the birth of a new nation has been engineered It is difficult to shake off the feeling that the birth of Kosovo is really the culmination of a series of old and unhealthy trends in global politics. Major powers of Europe seem to relish the fact that for the first time a small Muslim majority state has been carved out in Europe, thus testifying to Europe’s progress. But the truth is that the birth of Kosovo is also a profound testament of the failure of the nation state form in Europe to...

The top U.S. intelligence official says Serbia's government ordered police not to interfere with rioters who attacked the Belgrade embassies of western countries, including the United States, for their recognition of Kosovo's independence. VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill, where Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell made his comments Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Serbia's government directed police not to intervene in the violent demonstrations in Belgrade last week. "We have good information that when the U.S. Embassy and the British Embassy and others were attacked, a decision was taken...

PRISTINA, Feb 28 (IPS) - After the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo on Feb. 17, ethnic tensions are rising dangerously again in the region, especially in Northern Kosovo and the other Serbian enclaves scattered around the province. Daily protests in northern Mitrovica, an area with an ethnic Serb majority, the attacks on border checkpoints Jarinje and Brnjak by thousands of Serbs, and regular damaging of buildings and vehicles used by United Nations staff indicate a Serb determination to counteract the proclaimed independence of Kosovo. But there is something more than raw anger that cultivates tensions in this case. A...

Last Sunday's unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, former warlord/commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), heralds the birth of a new European narco state. The illegal dismemberment of Serbia, completing the U.S./EU/NATO destruction of Yugoslavia, is proclaimed by ruling elites and their sycophants as an exemplary means to bring "peace and stability" to the region. This provocative move, outside the framework of international law, threatens any sovereign state with similar treatment should they deviate from the "Washington consensus." Far from bringing "peace" let alone "stability," an "independent" Kosovo will serve as a militarized outpost for...

This is precisely the Arab mindset, along the pattern set by the Third Reich when it coveted Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. No way could Nazis abide the notion that Germans be relegated to minority status anywhere. Thus the Sudetenland was redefined as a distinct geonational category and its "rescue" from entirely spurious "Czech atrocities" mandated the violation of Czechoslovakia's territorial integrity. Kosovo should be the wake-up call for those who delude themselves that the treachery of the Munich appeasement - World War II's direct precursor - is yesteryear's irrelevant tale, one that can no longer be repeated in today's reasonable and well-organized...

The plight of Kosovo, a newly independent nation on the edge of Europe, strikes an empathetic chord in Taiwan because neither appears welcome in the United Nations. Taiwan was among the first to recognize Kosovo's Feb. 17 declaration of independence, along with the United States and European powers including Britain, France and Germany. But Russia's rejection of an independent Kosovo came with a pledge to block the landlocked Balkan state of 2 million from entering the United Nations. "It is the same with Taiwan," said Chen Shui-bian, president of the Republic of China, as Taiwan calls itself formally. "It is...

If the Balkans had an anthem, it would be that 1950's doo-wop hit, "Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread." The latest Balkan fools are the United States and the European Union, which have rushed in to recognize what Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica rightly calls the "fake state of Kosovo." Why is it a fake state? Because there are no Kosovars, only Serbs and Albanians. Each group seeks to unite Kosovo with its homeland, historic Serbia or Greater Albania. An independent Kosovo has the half-life of a sub-atomic particle. The action of the U.S. and the E.U. in...

In the aftermath of the U.S. recognition of unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo Albanians and subsequent violence targeting the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Undersecretary for Political Affairs in the State Department Nicholas Burns said had Serbia had a “fundamental responsibility” to protect U.S. diplomats and citizens, adding that Washington would hold Serbian Prime Minister (PM) Vojislav Kostunica and his government “personally responsible” for assaults on U.S. interests. He went on “What happened yesterday in Belgrade was absolutely reprehensible. This kind of thing should not happen in a civilized country.” He had even the audacity to call Russia’s policy cynical....

On Sunday, the Serbian province of Kosovo declared independence. The consequences of that move will reach far beyond that tiny, mountainous region. The U.S. will regret that decision because Islam will increase its influence across southern Europe, the Russian bear -- already aroused will use it as another front in a reviving Cold War. At considerable risk the West will continue to pay a high price. The celebration in Kosovo’s streets now clouds geopolitical realities. Balkan Muslims will exploit Kosovo’s independence to expand the Islamic crescent that begins in Bosnia passes through the Balkans and into Turkey. This move encourages...

Kosovo declared independence Sunday, but it's unlikely any time soon to become the world's 193rd country. What it will almost certainly be is a failed state, unrecognized by the United Nations, unable to govern itself, dependent on Europe for its police and NATO for its armed forces. After eight years as an international protectorate and billions of dollars in aid and reconstruction funds, its economic prospects are grim. Unemployment is 57 percent, and among youths it's more like 70 percent; half the population is under 25. Small wonder then that its chief export is organized crime. It remains ethnically cleansed...

Does Kosovo’s declaration of independence have any specific significance for Israel? The resulting call for a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood by Mahmoud Abbas’s aide Yasser Abed-Rabbo was so quickly disavowed by his boss, that Israel is well advised to focus its investigations on other consequences. Kosovo’s independence further destabilizes the Balkan and creates more confusion than clarity. While no answer about the consequences of this step for Israel is yet possible a useful first approach to analyze its relevance is thus to ask first who gains and who loses from it. ... Another beneficiary is the Muslim world, which...

PARIS -- A Basque separatist leader yesterday said that his "struggle was inspired by the Kosovo example". Gabriel Mueska, who spent 17 years in prison for his membership in the terrorist group ETA, was speaking in a French television debate, dubbed "The death of nations", that also included Serb, Albanian and Flemish separatist representatives, and French analysts. "The Basques were exceptionally happy after the declaration of Kosovo's independence," he confided. "I was with the young people when the declaration took place and I did not manage to explain to them why us Basques do not have this possibility for freedom,"...