Former Kosovo prime minister released from detention in Bulgaria

September 23rd, 2009 Kosovo: EU police arrest 4 Serb war crime suspectsPRISTINA, Kosovo — Four Serbs were arrested Wednesday under suspicion of committing war crimes against ethnic Albanian civilians during the 1998-99 Kosovo war, EU police said. NATO peacekeepers and Kosovo police also took part in the arrests in eastern Kosovo, said Karin Limdal, spokesman for the EU's 2,000-strong police and justice mission in Kosovo.

September 23rd, 2009 Serbia tries Kosovo ex-rebels for war crimesBELGRADE, Serbia — Seventeen former Kosovo rebels went on trial Wednesday before the Serbian war crimes court, charged with murder, rape and torture of Serb civilians in 1999. Nine of the men were arrested in December in a predominantly Albanian-populated region of Serbia bordering Kosovo.

September 17th, 2009 Bulgaria probes repeat of lottery numbersSOFIA, Bulgaria — Authorities have launched an investigation after the same winning numbers were produced on two consecutive draws of Bulgaria's national lottery. Sport Minister Svilen Neikov ordered the probe after the numbers 4, 15, 23, 24, 35 and 42 were selected by a machine — in a different order — on two consecutive weeks in draws which are televised live.

August 3rd, 2009 SOFIA - Bulgaria plans to replace the lev with Europe's single currency, the euro, in 2012 or 2013, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov told daily 24 Chasa Monday. "We have a chance in the last year of the mandate to introduce the euro," Djankov said.

July 19th, 2009 Italian co-driver dies in rally crash in BulgariaSOFIA, Bulgaria — Rally organizers say an Italian co-driver has died after a race car he was in went off the road and slammed into a tree. Rally Bulgaria director Dimitar Agura said Flavio Gugelmini died on the spot after the Peugeot 207 car driven by Brian Lavio of Switzerland hit a tree.

July 14th, 2009 Bulgaria agrees Caspian gas linkSOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgaria and Greece agreed on the construction of a pipeline that will allow Bulgaria to import natural gas from the Caspian Sea region, energy officials said Tuesday. Bulgaria's state-owned Energy Holding on Tuesday signed an agreement with Greek natural gas monopoly DEPA and Italy's Edison SpA on setting up a company to construct and operate the pipeline, and a second company to supply and make commercial use of the natural gas.

June 29th, 2009 Kosovo enters Int'l Monetary Fund, World BankWASHINGTON — Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, has become the 186th member of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Documents were signed and speeches made at the State Department on Monday to make Kosovo's accession official 16 months after the province's ethnic Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia.

June 26th, 2009 Alaska governor visits troops in KosovoANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin is visiting U.S.

June 26th, 2009 Serbia charges Kosovo ex-rebels for war crimesBELGRADE, Serbia — Serbian prosecutors filed war crimes charges on Friday against 17 former Kosovo guerrillas for the alleged murder, rape and torture of Serb civilians. The indictment said the suspects are charged in connection with the kidnapping of 159 Serbs and the deaths of at least 51 of them in the eastern Kosovo town of Gnjilane in the wake of Kosovo's 1998-99 war.

June 24th, 2009 Kosovo ex-prime minister arrested in BulgariaSOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian authorities have detained a former Kosovo prime minister on an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol, and Serbia sought his extradition on Wednesday. Agim Ceku, the prime minister of Kosovo between 2006 and 2008, was taken into custody at Serbia's request at the Gyueshevo border checkpoint while entering Bulgaria from Macedonia late Tuesday, police said.

May 8th, 2009 Colombia expels Kosovo liberation leaderBOGOTA — Colombia's DAS domestic security agency says it has expelled former Kosovo prime minister Agim Ceku based on an Interpol warrant for alleged war crimes. An agency official tells The Associated Press the warrant was issued by Serbia, from which Kosovo gained independence after an armed rebellion.

April 23rd, 2009 4 Serbs found guilty in Kosovo massacreBELGRADE, Serbia — A war crimes court on Thursday found four former Serbian policemen guilty of the massacre of 48 Kosovo Albanians and sentenced them to up to 20 years in prison. The Serbian court's judges said the victims of the worst single massacre of civilians during the 1998-99 Kosovo war included 14 children, two infants, a pregnant woman and a 100-year-old woman.

February 27th, 2009 THE HAGUE - The UN war crimes tribunal Thursday acquitted former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic in the first verdict against Belgrade's erstwhile leaders for their role in the Kosovo war a decade ago. The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) tried Milutinovic for forcibly removing, deporting, murdering and expelling Albanians from Kosovo in the first half of 1999.

January 24th, 2009 ROME - Hundreds of illegal immigrants broke out of an overcrowded detention centre in Italy's Lampedusa Island in protest against the inhuman condition there. The centre currently has 1,800 inmates, although it has a capacity of just 800 people.

January 22nd, 2009 ATHENS - Bulgaria estimates its losses from recent cuts in Russian gas supplies at about $320 million and is demanding compensation from Russia's energy giant Gazprom, the country's economy and energy ministry said Friday. 'Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov handed Gazprom's deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev an official request during talks in Sofia, insisting that Bulgaria be compensated for the crisis caused by cuts in gas supplies (from Russia),' the ministry said in a statement.