Kosovo’s public servants and pensioners will get a pay rise next month, with civil servants receiving a 10 percent increase, while pensioners, people on social assistance and war veterans and their families will get a 12 percent increase. Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said the hike is in accordance with …

Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic will meet Dutch officials in Brussels on Monday in a bid to “unblock Serbia’s European path”, with the goal of starting EU membership talks in early 2010. The Netherlands refuse to allow an interim trade deal – part of the suspended Stabilisation and Association Agreement …

Albanian officials from the Presevo region in southern Serbia have sent a letter of protest to Belgrade demanding the immediate release of a group of ethnic Albanians accused of war crimes against Serbs, as well as the pullout of Serbian special security forces from the area. The 10 men were …

Two explosions caused material damage in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica in north Kosovo on Saturday night, police said. Mitrovica — divided between Serbs in the north and Albanians in the south — has been the scene of protests, occasional clashes and bomb attacks since Kosovo’s Albanian majority declared …

DUBAI (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said the time was ripe for Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace negotiations and that America was prepared to extend a hand of peace to Iran if it “unclenched its fist.” In his first interview with Arab television since taking office, Obama …

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt has proposed February 22 as the date for the start of a dialogue between Palestinian groups, several of the groups said in reports published Tuesday. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abou Gheit of Egypt, which has been mediating between the groups, told reporters: “We will invite the Palestinian …

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) – Thousands of Shi’ite Muslims in southern Iraq are wrestling with a choice of religion or democracy before a pilgrimage which may prevent them from voting in an upcoming election. Pilgrims from the southern city of Basra are setting out on an arduous walk hundreds of km …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Monday that his new Middle East envoy George Mitchell would engage vigorously in the quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace and expressed confidence he would achieve concrete results. Wading quickly into Middle East diplomacy, Obama dispatched Mitchell, a veteran international trouble-shooter, to tackle a …

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli soldier was killed and three were wounded in a blast near the border with the Gaza Strip, Al Arabiya television said on Tuesday, in the deadliest incident for Israel since it declared a ceasefire 10 days ago. Palestinians living near the Kissufim border crossing told …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Judiciary Spokesman Ali-Reza Jamshidi criticized the European Union on Tuesday for removing the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from its black list. Under heavy pressures exerted by the Zionist lobby, the EU politicians decided in their latest meeting on Monday, to exclude the outlawed group from Europe’s …