BELGRADE – Serbia is ready for years of resistance to Kosovo’s independence and counts on Russian help to defend its claim to the “occupied” territory, nationalist leaders said on Sunday.

GAZA – Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, has voiced confidence that Egypt will help it ease the effects of an Israeli blockade.

Kosovo Albanians will proclaim independence from Serbia on Sunday, ending a long chapter in the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia but cementing a bitter ethnic front line in the Balkans.