Albin Kurti

The head of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, Shkelqim Hysenaj, warned on Thursday that the authorities were not dealing with cases of violence against reporters properly.

The international rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged the UN Special Representative in Kosovo to persuade the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, to apologize for the "failure to protect the lives of Mon Balaj and Arben Xheladini ... and provide the complainants with full reparation for the damage suffered".

Two leaders of Kosovo's Vetevendosje [Self determination] Movement, party chairman Visar Ymeri and one of the founders, Albin Kurti, rallied several hundred supporters in Tirana, Albania, on Tuesday, explaining why they oppose the Kosovo parliament adopting a demarcation deal with Montenegro.

Opposition Vetevendosje (Self-Determination Movement) party activists overturned the truck in protest at Belgrade’s refusal to distribute Kosovo schoolbooks that Pristina donated to ethnic Albanian pupils in Serbia.

Opposition MPs in Kosovo again let off tear gas in parliament on Wednesday during a meeting of the Steering Committee, which met to decide the date to elect a new president.

The speaker, Kadri Veseli announced that the vote would take place on Friday, with Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci as the main candidate for the post.

Opposition activists and politicians set up tents in the square opposite the government building in Pristina on the night before parliament - interrupted last Friday by tear gas three times - was due to resume work on Wednesday.

At dusk, some 30 tents, including almost ten with a capacity of 10 to 40 people, were set up in the city's Skanderbeg Square.

Opposition parties have announced a major protest for Wednesday as state institutions plan a series of celebratory events marking eight years of Kosovo's independence.

Four opposition MPs were to face trial for setting off tear gas in the Kosovo parliament but the hearing was postponed because Vetevendosje party leader Albin Kurti did not appear.

Police in Kosovo have now detained more than a third of opposition MPs following Monday's unrest, when MPs again disrupted parliament by setting off tear gas on two separate occasions.

Protesting opposition lawmakers released tear gas for the sixth time in Kosovo's parliament on Dec. 14, in an effort to foil a vote on the government's 2016 budget, forcing MPs into a side room where the measure was adopted.