Kosovo lawmakers have failed to elect a new government meaning that the country is heading for an early election.

European qualifying for the 2026 World Cup has concluded with Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Scotland and Austria securing the region’s remaining automatic spots.

Leaders of six Western Balkan nations are meeting British and European officials in London on Wednesday.

A European Union-backed court has upheld convictions against former Kosovo Liberation Army fighter Pjetër Shala for murder, torture and arbitrary detention.

The Western Balkans is grappling with a severe drought following an intense heat wave.

Kosovo ex-President Hashim Thaci has been released from a court based in the Netherlands to visit the tomb of his father who died last weekend.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s leftist party has won the most seats in the parliamentary election.

Kosovo goes to the polls Sunday in a parliamentary election expected to be a key test for Prime Minister Albin Kurti after his party won in a landslide four years ago.

As the year draws to a close, a remarkable initiative involving “superheroes” clad in unique costumes brings unexpected joy — not only to the sick children but also, perhaps even more deeply, to their parents.

Kosovo’s prime minister is calling for the full reopening of a bridge in the flashpoint city of Mitrovica, saying it would be another step toward free movement and not a threat to anyone.

Thousands of people have paid their last respects to Ismail Kadare in a state funeral in Tirana Wednesday, with a minute’s silence held nationwide in memory of the renowned Albanian novelist and poet who died earlier this week.

The Albanian soccer federation says UEFA banned its player Mirlind Daku on Sunday for two games at the European Championships after leading fans in nationalist chants.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to European ally Serbia falls on a symbolic date: the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy during NATO’s air war over Kosovo.

The U.S. ambassador to Serbia says the United States has received Kosovo’s request for the purchase of Javelin anti-tank missiles.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has urged NATO to further boost its military forces in Kosovo and secure the country’s borders with Serbia.

The Netherlands, Switzerland and Romania have all secured places at next year’s European Championship.

Israel’s national soccer team has arrived in Kosovo amid tight security measures at the airport ahead of a postponed European Championship qualifier.

European Union leaders have offered a new growth plan to the six Western Balkans countries that opens parts of the EU single market to them in return for deep reforms, ahead of their full membership in the bloc.

Serbian police have detained an ethnic Serb leader from Kosovo who was the alleged organizer behind a recent shootout with Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region.

Serbia's top military officials say the army has reduced its troop presence near the border with Kosovo by nearly half, following follows reports from the U.S. and other governments of a mass military buildup.

Serbia’s president has denied reports of a military buildup along the border with Kosovo.

NATO is reinforcing its troop presence in Kosovo in response to a weekend shootout that left four people dead.

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have failed again to make progress in talks meant to improve their testy ties.

Senior lawmakers from the United States and Europe are calling for a change in the Western diplomatic approach toward Serbia and Kosovo.

Italian health authorities are intensifying heat warnings as southern Europe enters a brutally hot week.

Serbia’s government has decided to ban arms export for 30 days just days after the United States imposed sanctions on the Balkan country’s intelligence chief over alleged involvement in criminal activities including illegal arms shipment.

Serbia has reiterated a threat to intervene militarily in its former province of Kosovo if NATO-led peacekeepers there fail to protect minority Serbs from what Belgrade calls the terrorist threat of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian authorities.

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo made no breakthrough in emergency talks aimed at defusing tensions around their border.

Kosovo police have reported that three officers patrolling a northern area bordering Serbia are missing and may likely be kidnapped by Serbs.

Kosovo’s prime minister has complained of bias against his country from the United States and the European Union and tolerance of what he calls Serbia’s authoritarian regime.

The leaders of France and Germany have urged new municipal elections in northern Kosovo in the hopes that another ballot will quell a flare-up of ethnic tensions that have led to violent protests in the region.

Novak Djokovic refrained from any political messages at the French Open after a second-round victory that was a struggle for a set, hours after a government minister criticized the 22-time Grand Slam champion’s comments about clashes in Kosovo as “not appropriate.”.

Novak Djokovic has drawn criticism from Kosovo’s tennis federation — but not from French Open organizers — after offering his thoughts on clashes in northern Kosovo between ethnic Serbs and police and NATO peacekeepers.

NATO will send 700 more troops to northern Kosovo to help quell violent protests after clashes with ethnic Serbs there left 30 international soldiers wounded.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have flared anew this week after Kosovo’s police raided Serb-dominated areas in the region’s north and seized local municipality buildings.

Serbia has condemned NATO-led peacekeepers stationed in neighboring Kosovo for their alleged failure to stop “brutal actions” by Kosovo police against ethnic Serbs.

The United States’ top international development official says Washington is focusing on the urgency of normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia in EU-brokered talks between the two former war foes.

The United States’ top international development official, Samantha Power, has pledged U.S. support to Serbia and Kosovo as the two former wartime enemies work to stabilize relations at a time of heightened tensions.

The United States’ top international development chief is heading to Serbia and Kosovo this week to meet with leaders there.

The Serbian president has sharply criticized Western officials mediating talks on normalizing ties with Kosovo, calling them liars and fraudsters, and says the Serb minority in the former Serbian province won’t tolerate foreign “occupation.”.

European Union lawmakers have given the green light for citizens from Kosovo to travel freely in Europe without visas from next year.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have tentatively agreed on how to implement a European Union-sponsored plan to normalize their relations after decades of tensions between the two Balkan wartime foes.

A senior U.S. official says Washington has high expectations for a European Union-sponsored plan aimed at easing long-standing tensions between Serbia and Kosovo.

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo are holding talks on European Union proposals to end years of political crises and set the two on the path to better relations.

Serbia’s populist president has warned during a chaotic parliamentary session that the Balkan nation could become a European “pariah” state if it rejects a Western plan for normalizing relations with Kosovo.

Western envoys have visited Kosovo and Serbia as part of their ongoing efforts to defuse tensions and help secure a reconciliation agreement between the two.

Serbian state television says that a man's body has been pulled out of a swollen river in a southwestern town and rescuers are searching for another man as floods in the Balkans close down schools, cut railway traffic and soak homes and farmland.

Serbia's president says NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo have rejected its demand for Serbian security forces be allowed to return to the breakaway province amid ongoing tensions.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic says Serbs will start removing their barricades in Kosovo on Thursday in a move that deescalates tensions that triggered fears of new clashes in the Balkans.

Serbs have erected more roadblocks in northern Kosovo and defied international demands to remove those placed earlier.

Serbia has placed its security troops on the border with Kosovo on “the full state of combat readiness,” ignoring NATO’s calls for calming tensions between the two wartime Balkan foes.

A former commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army has been found guilty of arbitrarily detaining and torturing prisoners perceived as supporters of Serbia during the country’s 1999 war of independence, and murdering one of them.

Serbia has formally demanded that its security troops return to the breakaway former Serbian province of Kosovo, despite warnings from the West that such calls are unlikely to be accepted and only add to tensions in that part of the Balkans.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared anew during the past week after Serbs erected barricades on the main roads in the north of the former Serbian province to protest the arrest of a former Kosovo Serb police officer.

EU leaders and their counterparts in the Western Balkans have worked to strengthen their partnership during a summit in Albania as Russia's war in Ukraine threatens to reshape the geopolitical balance in the region.

The war in Ukraine has put the European Union’s expansion at the top of the agenda as officials from the Western Balkans and EU leaders prepare to meet Tuesday.

The European Union is warning Serbia and Kosovo that they must resolve their dispute over vehicle license plates before next week or face the prospect of a return to their violent past.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has told leaders of six Balkan countries that aspire to join the European Union that “it is high time to overcome regional conflicts” and stand together as Russia wages war in Ukraine.

The European Union's foreign policy chief says Serbia and Kosovo have agreed on how to resolve a dispute over identity documents.

Serbia's president says the country won’t allow a pan-European LGBTQ Pride event to take place in its capital next month.

U.S. and European Union envoys have met with Serbia’s president as they seek to defuse tensions with Kosovo after a meeting last week in Brussels ended with no agreement on a dispute between the former Balkan war foes.

Serbia’s president has called on NATO to “do their job” in Kosovo or he says Serbia will have to protect its minority in the breakaway province.

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo didn't reach an agreement on longstanding border and mutual recognition issues that have spiked tensions in the Balkans and added to Europe’s instability during the war in Ukraine.

Wartime rivals Serbia and Kosovo will hold high-level crisis talks which the European Union mediators hope will de-escalate growing tensions in the Balkans.

Spain’s prime minister has kicked off his tour of the Western Balkans with a visit to Serbia.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Serbia and Kosovo must recognize each other in order to join the European Union.

Some Afghans who were evacuated from their country as it fell to the Taliban last summer have found their journey to the United States stalled at a cluster of tents and temporary housing at a military base in the Balkans.

A monument in Kosovo, a snake named after her in Serbia.

Envoys from the European Union and the United States have urged Kosovo and Serbia to make concrete progress in EU-brokered negotiations aimed at resolving a long-running dispute.

Serbia has held a referendum on constitutional amendments that the populist government says are needed for the Balkan country to advance in a bid to join the European Union.

Serbia is taking a significant step toward joining the European Union.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow will continue providing natural gas to Serbia on terms favorable to its ally.

The U.S. is welcoming tens of thousands of Afghans airlifted out of Kabul but has disclosed little publicly about a small group who remain overseas.

Two leaders of a Kosovo veterans association have pleaded innocent to charges including obstructing justice and intimidation of witnesses as their trial opened at a court in The Hague.

A European Union mediator says Serbia and Kosovo have reached an agreement to deescalate tensions on their mutual border that have been triggered by a dispute over vehicle license plates.

The head of the European Union’s executive branch has called on Kosovo and Serbia to resolve their disputes through the dialogue and deescalate the recent tension over license plates.

Serbia's defense minister says the country has raised the combat readiness of its troops on the border with Kosovo amid increasing tensions with its former province.

Tensions have soared on the border between Kosovo and Serbia as Pristina authorities started implementing a rule to remove Serbian license plates from cars entering Kosovo.

The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.

A U.S. official says the United States plans to send Afghan evacuees who require more screening to a site in Kosovo.

Kosovo has postponed the beginning of the school year for students up through high school by two weeks following a surge of infections due to the delta variant.

Croatian police say 10 people have been killed and at least 44 others injured when a bus swerved off a highway and crashed.

A meeting between Serbia and Kosovo has produced no progress.

Serbia and Kosovo have clashed at a summit of Western Balkan nations over border changes in the region, which is still recuperating from bloody civil wars in the 1990s.

The printing presses stopped running at the start of the pandemic in Kosovo.

Kosovo’s new president has taken office, becoming the country’s youngest head of state and one of the youngest in the world.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has tested positive for COVID-19 a few days after receiving his first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

Kosovo’s parliament has elected former parliament speaker Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu as the country’s new president.

Kosovos newly-elected parliament has approved the new government challenged by the management of the virus pandemic following recent surging numbers. (AP Photo/ Visar Kryeziu, file)PRISTINA – Kosovo’s parliament on Monday approved a new government facing the challenges of managing the coronavirus as confirmed cases mount in the small Balkan country. Kurti named the coronavirus pandemic as his top challenge and pledged to secure vaccines for 60% of Kosovo's population this year. AdReviving Kosovo’s economy, including beating back unemployment, as well as managing the coronavirus pandemic, organized crime and corruption remain top challenges for the new government. Tensions over Kosovo remain a source of volatility in the Balkans.

A Kosovo Security Force (KSF) member wearing a face mask salutes, during a peacekeeping mission deployment ceremony held at the army barracks in Pristina, Tuesday, March 9, 2021. Kosovo is sending a military platoon to Kuwait, its first ever involvement in an international peacekeeping mission. Kosovo is sending the military unit following a request from the U.S. Central Command. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)PRISTINA – Kosovo on Tuesday sent a military platoon to Kuwait to take part in the country's first ever international peacekeeping mission. “It’s extremely important because 22 years after the war, we’re not just importing peacekeeping troops, we’re also exporting them,” Acting President Vjosa Osmani said.

Red Cross distribute food to local residents after an earthquake in Damasi village, central Greece, Wednesday, March 3, 2021. An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of at least 6.0 struck central Greece Wednesday and was also felt in neighboring Albania and North Macedonia, and as far as Kosovo and Montenegro. (AP Photo/Vaggelis Kousioras)ATHENS – Fearful of returning to their homes, thousands of people in central Greece were spending the night outdoors late Wednesday after a powerful earthquake, felt across the region, damaged homes and public buildings. The shallow, magnitude-6.0 quake struck near the central city of Larissa. Ad___ Elena Becatoros and Theodora Tongas in Athens, Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey contributed.

Albin Kurti leader of Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) reacts during an interview with The Associated Press in capital Pristina, Kosovo on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/ Visar Kryeziu)PRISTINA – The European Union’s special envoy on Tuesday called on Kosovo and Serbia to resume talks on normalizing their ties. Miroslav Lajcak is on a three-day visit to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, before going to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. After a White House summit and talks in Brussels in September, the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo has stalled. For Osmani, the final goal of the dialogue would be both Kosovo and Serbia becoming EU members.

Albin Kurti leader of Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in capital Pristina, Kosovo on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. Kosovo's main opposition Self-Determination Movement party or Vetevendosje! has won a clear victory in an early election held amid the coronavirus pandemic, an economic downturn and stalled negotiations with wartime foe Serbia. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi urged Kosovo to soon form the new parliament and government, elect the president and advance reforms, pledging continuous support from Brussels. AdMost Western nations have recognized Kosovo, but Serbia and its allies Russia and China do not.

Stranded residents try to reach their cars in the flooded street, following heavy rain and snowfall in Fushe Kosove, Kosovo on Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)BELGRADE – Days of heavy rain and snow across the Balkans left homes and fields flooded Monday, disrupted traffic on highways and at ports and caused power outages. In central and eastern Serbia, thousands of people were left without electricity as heavy snow collapsed distribution lines. Authorities urged drivers not to take to the road unless absolutely necessary because of heavy snow. Floods were reported in Albania and Kosovo, where days of heavy rain mixed with snowy weather.

SANTA FE, N.M. – The New Mexico congressional delegation is raising questions about a coronavirus outbreak among a group of Oregon Army National Guard soldiers who returned to their home base in El Paso, Texas, after being deployed to Kosovo earlier this year. It also asks if contact tracing has detected spread from members of the unit to people outside of it. A Fort Bliss Army spokesman referred questions to the Oregon National Guard. The base is under a 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew due to the pandemic, but it's unclear how many cases have been recorded on the base. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

(Jerry Lampen via AP Photo, Pool)THE HAGUE – Defense lawyers for former leaders of Kosovo guerrillas, including ex-president Hashim Thaci, said Wednesday that their trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity cannot begin before the summer of 2022 at the earliest. A prosecution lawyer told the hearing at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers that the trial could start in the summer of 2021. Thaci's lawyer, David Hooper, responded that “a minimum of 18 months is necessary before we would be, I think, even contemplating being trial ready. That lack of organization, he said, means that the suspects cannot be held responsible as commanders for crimes committed by individual fighters. Most who died in the Kosovo war were ethnic Albanians and 1,641 people remain unaccounted for.

Hashim Thaci, who resigned as Kosovo's president to face charges including murder, torture and persecution, makes his first courtroom appearance before a judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers court in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Nov. 9, 2020. Thaci, 52, served as a guerrilla leader during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, before rising to political prominence in the aftermath of the conflict that killed more than 10,000 people. Thaci stood down as Kosovo’s president last week before being flown to the court’s detention unit. Most of the people who died in the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians, and 1,641 people are still unaccounted for. Ties between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense, despite nine years of negotiations mediated by the European Union and supported by the United States.

(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas district judge on Friday upheld an order from El Paso County’s top elected official shutting down businesses while the region fights an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases. The state reported 540 confirmed coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours. ___TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas added a record-setting 5,418 new coronavirus cases over two days as hospitals warned that staffing was being seriously strained. ___PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo authorities ordered a weekend lockdown following a spike in daily coronavirus cases. Russia’s tally of confirmed coronavirus cases — currently the fourth largest in the world —has exceeded 1.7 million following a quick spread of contagion since September.

Kosovo president Hashim Thaci addresses the nation as he announced his resignation to face war crimes charges in Kosovo capital Pristina on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020. Thaci, a guerrilla leader during Kosovos war for independence, has resigned in order to face charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued by at a special court based in The Hague, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)PRISTINA – The president of Kosovo, who served as a guerrilla leader during Kosovo's war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, resigned Thursday and was sent to a special court in The Hague where he will face charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The indictment charges Thaci alongside Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. After the war, Thaci created the Democratic Party of Kosovo and has been foreign minister, deputy prime minister and prime minister, and now president since April 2016.

A photo of the Order of Freedom awarded to the U.S President Donald Trump, undersigned by Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci in capital Pristina, Kosovo on Friday, Sept. 18, 2020. Kosovo's president awarded U.S. President Donald Trump with one of the country's highest medals - Kosovo's Order of Freedom - for his government's efforts on peace and reconciliation in the former war-torn region. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)PRISTINA – Kosovo's awarded U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday with one of the country's highest honors for his government's efforts on peace and reconciliation in the former war-torn region. President Hashim Thaci awarded Trump with Kosovo's Order of Freedom “for his exceptional contribution for the freedom of Kosovo and the strengthening of Peace and reconciliation in the region.”The honor is given to local and foreign citizens for their high contribution in defending Kosovo’s freedom. In a letter sent to Trump, Thaci said that the Kosovo-Serbia deal can be achieved “only under the powerful leadership of the United States of America.