Independence of Kosovo

BELGRADE - Greece, which currently holds the EU presidency, will do all in its might to help Serbia on its EU pathway, Greek Ambassador to Serbia Konstantinos Ikonomidis stated on Friday.

Ikonomidis said at a debate held at the Belgrade Youth Center that he is honored to serve in Belgrade at the time when Serbia has engaged in the official talks on the EU accession.

On a visit to Belgrade on Thursday, Gerhard Schroeder said he believed that Serbia could join the EU by 2020, as its government was ready to undertake reforms “despite all difficulties on the pathway [to membership]."

BELGRADE - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said during a meeting he had with ambassadors of African and Arab countries to Serbia on Thursday that he wants Serbia’s foreign policy to get back to old friendships after two decades of neglect of these relationships.

BELGRADE - Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces (VS), Lt.Gen. Ljubisa Dikovic, and Kosovo Force (KFOR) Commander, Maj. Gen. Salvatore Farina, met in the southern Serbian city of Nis on Thursday to discuss the current situation on the ground in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) and in the Ground Safety Zone in southern Serbia.

The closure of a memorial dedicated to Kosovo Liberation Army fighters in the village of Marina, in Skenderaj/Srbice, has sparked a heated debate amongst lawmakers who have accused institutions of neglecting the monument.

Ganimete Musliu, lawmaker from the ruling Kosovo Democratic Party, PDK, said the closure was “offensive for the martyrs’ families and the Kosovo state.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia's minister in charge of Kosovo-Metohija (KiM), has said on Thursday that a new Serbian government, which should be formed by the end of the month, will not change its policy on the southern province.

GRACANICA - Employees from all ten municipalities in Kosovo that have a Serb majority population stopped their work for 15 minutes on Thursday because of the announced adoption of amendments to the general election law by the Kosovo parliament, Radio Gracanica has reported.

"Two former top officials hope to head UN"

BELGRADE -- In addition to Vuk Jeremić, Boris Tadić is also interested in running for the post of the next UN secretary-general, the media in Belgrade are reporting.

Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga said the country’s “constitutionality and legality encompasses the whole of its territory, a country with functional and democratic institutions, based on all-inclusiveness.

A Serbian court on Monday placed a police spokesperson in custody for 30 days for threatening peace activists who commemorated war crimes committed by Serbs in Kosovo.