Kosovo

Representatives of five ethnic Albanian parties in Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja on Saturday set up an association of these southern Serbian municipalities.

They said that the goal was to ensure that ethnic Albanians in this part of Serbia are granted the same rights as are guaranteed to the Serbs in the Community Serb municipalities (ZSO) in Kosovo and Metohija, Tanjug reported.

Serbian president meets with Pope Francis in Vatican

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic was in the Vatican on Friday where he met with the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis.

As announced by the Vatican's press service, "in the cordial discussions, the good existing relations between the Holy See and the Republic of Serbia were demonstrated."

Albanians residing in southern Serbia are raising the issue of their administrative autonomy along the lines of the solution offered to Serbians living in the Kosovo region. Albanians are expected to make their demands public during the constituent assembly of the Union of the Albanian Municipalities to take place Saturday.

Nagip Arifi, mayor of Bujanovac, a mainly Albanian municipality in southern Serbia, told BIRN on Friday that Serbian Albanians plans to set up a municipal union on the same lines as Serbs have done in Kosovo.

A group of activists of the Self-Determination party forced their way into the yard of the Kosovo government in Pristina on Friday, the Kosovo police said.

Once inside, they proceeded to puncture the tires on several official vehicles, according to the police.

The Pristina government has not yet started negotiations with the Netherlands, which is expected to host a new Kosovo war crimes court, after the opposition lodged constitutional objections.

Japan has ordered beefed-up security at its embassies worldwide, a top official said Sept. 11, after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group highlighted its missions in Indonesia, Malaysia and Bosnia-Hercegovina as part of a broader threat.

Ivica Dacic has warned ethnic Albanians from the south "not to compare the ZSO with the formation of an association of municipalities with Albanian majority."

Roma associations in Macedonia - home to a large community - have condemned EU plans to exclude Balkan nations from claiming asylum as part of measures to cope with the growing refugee crisis.

Pristina will supply school textbooks to Albanian communities in Serbia while Belgrade will do the same for Serbs in Kosovo, they agreed for the first time since the war in 1999.