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Reports that two Albanian gunmen who hijacked a commuter bus in Athens, Greece surrendered to authorities and released their hostages. Threatened to blow up the bus; Demand for $1.3 million and a plane to fly them out of Greece; 18-hour standoff; 17 of the 23 passengers trapped on the bus had been freed by their captors.

Reports on the defeat of a referendum to end the autonomy granted to Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority due to insufficient voter turnout. Support of Macedonia's multi-ethnic government for the boycott; Claims of the U.S. and European countries on the potential impact of the referendum on the country's political stability.

Reports on the Macedonian Parliament's approval of a decentralization law aimed at providing more power to the ethnic Albanian minority.

Reports on ethnic Macedonians' riot in Struga, Macedonia, on July 23, 2004 over laws that expand rights and powers of Albanians. Actions taken by the police to stop the civil unrest; Background on ethnic relations between Macedonians and Albanians.

The article reports on a program that would accept Kosovar Albanian, Burmese Karen and Syrian refugees to Canada. Fariborz Birjandian, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, has welcomed Kosovar Albanians fleeing ethnic cleansing, Burmese Karens evicted from Thai refugee camps and Syrians escaping the civil war. According to Canada immigration minister David Manicom, the program would address the physical and emotional trauma experienced by refugees.

The article focuses on the move of Kosovo Albanians to leave Serbia to search for job opportunity and after being expelled by Serbia, ordering them to return home. Topics include isolation and deprivation experienced by the Balkans, the accusation of corruption to former Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, and the asylum applications in Austria by Kosovo citizens.

The article reports that the province of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia after a civil war that killed thousands and years of United Nations rule. The act of independence was the resolution of the showdown between the West, which supported the move and criticized Serbia's subjugation of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, and the Serbian government which warns that the act will encourage other secessionist movements.

This article presents information about Din Celaj, an informant for U.S. government prosecutors in a criminal case involving a violent Albanian syndicate in the U.S. Celaj had testified about some of the crimes committed by the Albanians and was to be deported after he finished serving his own five-year sentence. Celaj was never deported, but was arrested in July 2007 for managing another gang of robbers. A New York City police officer, Darren Moonan, was also arrested for driving Celaj and his gang to their crimes.

The article reports that a sixth mob family is developing in New York City. Authorities say Alex Rudaj runs the Corporation, a group of Albanian immigrants which has established ties with organized crime. The group has fought the Luchese and Gambino families for areas of Queens, the Bronx and Westchester County. Information from court documents detail an August 2001 confrontation at Soccer Fever gambling parlor.

The article reports on the efforts made by ordinary Albanians on rescuing Jews from German Nazis, saying help Jews moved from hide-out to hide-out to prevent being captured by Nazis.

Gunmen in Afghan police uniforms opened fire on NATO troops on Monday in southern Afghanistan, killing an Albanian soldier, officials said. A second Albanian and another international soldier were wounded, the officials said. Eleven men wearing police uniforms were arrested. The shooting, which occurred in Robat, a village in Kandahar Province, appears to be the latest in a growing number of attacks that have raised questions about the vetting of Afghan recruits and threatened the international military commitment to Afghanistan. It was the first time an Albanian soldier had been killed in Afghanistan, where Albania has 265 troops. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BERLIN -- Two violent episodes this week along Kosovo's northern border with Serbia -- the latest being Wednesday's firebombing of a customs post by a group of about 200 Serbs -- have shed new light on the increase in tensions in the area between ethnic Serbs and Albanians. No one was hurt in the firebombing, according to The Associated Press. It occurred hours after Kosovo's special police withdrew from the area after seizing a border post on Monday night and trying to take control of a second one. A Kosovo police officer was killed in the police action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union police officers said they had arrested nine people -- eight in Kosovo and one elsewhere -- suspected of killing and torturing ethnic Albanian and Serbian civilian detainees during the 1998-99 Kosovo war. The police gave no details about the suspects, but news reports said they were all members of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought a separatist war against Serbia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BELGRADE, Serbia (Reuters) -- Serbia has indicted nine former paramilitary members over the killing of 43 ethnic Albanians during the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict, the country's war crimes prosecutor's office said Saturday. The move appeared to be a sign of Serbian resolve to deal with its wartime past and burnish its effort to join the European Union. A crucial condition for Serbia's membership is that it prosecute atrocities committed by Serbs during the 1990s wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

War crimes prosecutors have found a mass grave that could contain the bodies of 250 ethnic Albanians killed in Kosovo during the 1998-99 war there, then taken to Serbia and buried to hide the atrocities, officials said Monday. The grave, in a rural area of Rudnica, would be the third mass grave of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo found in Serbia since 2001; three others were found in Kosovo. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Albanians in Bathore waited Sunday to vote in parliamentary elections. Albania's application to the European Union is facing skepticism from the West, analysts say, and conduct of the election may help show progress toward integration with Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Serbian police said Friday that they had arrested 10 ethnic Albanian guerrillas suspected of kidnapping scores of Serbian civilians and killing more than 50 people shortly after the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict. The suspects, arrested in Presevo, were transferred to Belgrade late Friday and were expected to be taken before a magistrate after a 48-hour detention. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said the police had searched 17 places and found arms as well as proof that the suspects were members of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The prosecutor's office said the men were part of a group that kidnapped 159 Serbian civilians and killed at least 51 people between June and October of 1999 in Gnjilane. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the Albanian canon, a 15th-century handbook detailing the rules of revenge that is still in circulation, a man's relatives are expected ''to take their blood back'' if he is shot. In Iran a death can be compensated with blood money: 100 camels in early Islam; thousands of dollars today. A girl's life is worth only half of a boy's. So is an eye; a tooth, one-twentieth. In Sicily there is an oral tradition describing various methods of revenge: tying a man's feet to his neck so that when he moves, he strangles himself; handcuffing a victim to a bonfire of olive wood; throwing him into a sty with hungry pigs. Today one can see vengeance on a mass scale embodied in the person of Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, who is sitting in a Belgrade jail, charged with war crimes, including overseeing the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995 at Srebrenica. At least some of those deaths were claimed by Bosnian Serb officials at the time as revenge for previous killings of Serbs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

INTERNATIONAL ALBANIANS LOOK FOR ANSWERS [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Serbia on Monday formally proposed dividing newly independent Kosovo along ethnic lines, a move that was immediately rebuffed by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership in Pristina. The proposal, submitted to the United Nations, is the culmination of a campaign by Serbia to entrench its political and administrative control over the northern part of Kosovo, which has a Serbian majority. Analysts said it was a largely symbolic gesture. Kosovo's leaders have said they will not accept partition, and European countries and the United States would reject such a proposal at the United Nations Security Council. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses Kosovo, Serbia's struggle for being recognized as a nation with an individual identity. Organizers of a contest to design their national flag said that the flag should reflect the multi-ethnic population. Though Kosovo is preparing for its independence, incoming Prime Minister Hashim Thaci says that a Kosovo identity does not exist. Albanian Muslims form a large majority of the population. Political analysts see the merging of Albanians and Serbs as a very difficult step.

The article provides information on the failure of the negotiated agreement to provide independence to Kosovo from Serbia. The international mediators from European Union, Russia and the U.S. reported to the United Nations that Serbia will provide greater autonomy to Kosovo but not independence. It is stated that the failure of the negotiations may encourage the growth of ethnic resentment.

The article focuses on the ethnic schism in war affected Kosovo in Serbia, with specific reference to a predominantly Serb-inhabited skiing village in Brezovica, Kosova, which draw many Albanian skiers. Ivan Milosavljevic, the Serbian owner of a ski lodge in Brezovica, said that he did not care who owns Kosovo as long as he can make a living.

The article reports that the story of Arigona Zogaj, a 15-year-old ethnic Albanian living in Austria, has earned sympathy for asylum seekers in Austria. After her father and four siblings deported to Kosovo, Serbia, Zogaj recorded a video which was broadcast on Austrian television. In the video she threatened to kill herself if her family was kept apart. Her story has not only earned sympathy for him but also raised questions about the country's immigration policies.

The article reports on the fresh talks over the political future of Kosovo, Serbia. New negotiations on the future of the province will start in Vienna, Austria, on August 29, 2007. Some political leaders attending the talks are not much hopeful about breaking of the political deadlock. The new talks are being held after several rounds of talks between Kosovo's ethnic Albanians and Serbia. Albanians want independence. Serbia says that Kosovo is an integral part of its territory.

The article reports that if an agreement with the Serbs and the Albanians is reached during talks initiated by representatives of the U.S., European Union and Russia, it could lead to the partition of Kosovo, Serbia. European Union's envoy Wolfgang Ischinger stated that the principle of the troika is to endorse any agreement achieved by both parties.

The article reports on the arrest of Serbian police general Vlastimir Djordjevic in Serbia on June 17, 2007. He was indicted in charges of crimes against humanity. He had been accused of killings of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Serbia in 1998 and 1999. He has been sent to face the charges at the war crime tribunals in the Hague.

The article reports on the impending independence of Kosovo, Serbia. United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari declared on March 10, 2007 that the talks over a Serbian-Albanian compromise for the future of Kosovo were fruitless. So, he would send his proposal about the independence of the Serbian province to the United Nations Security Council. He said that the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanians could not agree on a compromise formula.

The article reports on issues concerning the United Nation's (U.N.) intervention into peace settlement process between ethnic Albanians and Serbians in Kosovo, Serbia. It is informed that various rebel leaders like Hajriz Jakupi and others are unhappy about the U.N.'s decision to give controls to few Serbians over regions that include a number of Albanian villages.

The article reports that Albanians protested against a proposal of the United Nations (UN) related to Kosovo, Serbia on March 3, 2007 in Pristina, Serbia. The proposal announced on January 2007 by Martti Ahtisaari, UN chief negotiator for the region, stated that Kosovo would gain a de facto nationhood, but still be overseen by the international community to provide protection for the ethnic Serbs of the province.

The article offers information on Kosovo's struggle for independence, which is still officially a province of Serbia. Kosovo is divided into two parts Serbian enclaves which includes a considerable portion of the North and the rest of the territory which is mostly ethnic Albanian. Kosovo has been struggling since 20th century to free itself from Belgrade's dominance. However, most of the Kosovo Serbs are not willing to accept an independent Kosovo.

The article reports that Kosovo is likely to become free of Serbia. The independence would be a conclusion of the ongoing dispute between Kosovo Albanians and the government of Serbia as they have failed to reach an agreement. The Serbs did not recognize government institutions dominated by Albanians in Kosovo. The United Nations and Western countries have been making efforts to close the ethnic warfare chapter that began with the breakup of Yugoslavian.

The article reports that the death of Ibrahim Rugova, president of Kosovo, a province in Serbia and Montenegro has caused the delay of a crucial talks administered by the United Nations with ethnic Albanians on the final status of Kosovo.

Reports that progress toward resolving the entrenched enmity between the Serbs and ethnic Albanians has been slow in spite of the efforts of the United Nations in Kosovo.

Reports on a visit made by Serbian President Boris Tadic to Kosovo on February 13-14, 2005. Tadic's public assertion of his country's claim to the disputed province; His opposition to independence for Kosovo; Reaction of the province's Albanian majority to Tadic's visit; Reaction of the Serb villagers of Velika Hoca to his visit.

Reports on the mourning for ethnic Albanians killed by Serbian security forces in Kosovo five years ago.

Reports that the United Nations has affirmed that there was no evidence confirming Serbs were responsible for the drowning of three Albanian children in Kosovo on March 2004.

Focuses on the burning down of the Serb-owned houses by Albanian people in Kosovo, Serbia. Reason for the violence in the region; Support given by North Atlantic Treaty Organization to the Serbians.

According to United Nations (UN) officials, more than 400 Serbian homes were ruined, 30 churches were destroyed and 11 damaged, and 72 United Nations vehicles were destroyed in mob violence in the Svinjare province of Kosovo, Serbia. However, UN officials claim that progress has been made in keeping ethnic violence down, in spite of claims by analysts that these conflicts have never been addressed. The ethnic Albanians want independence and the Serbs who make up less than 10 percent of the population, want to return to Serbian rule. Albanian hard-liners, want to redraw the province's ethnic map again, by seeking to fuel interethnic hatred.

Reports on the eruption of violence between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in Serbia and Montenegro. Attack on houses occupied by Serbs; Inability of the United Nations peacekeepers to control riots initiated by Albanians; Result of the delay in determining the sovereignty of the state.

Reports on the return of the bodies of ethnic Albanians killed in the Kosovo war to their families.

Reports on the tensions in Kosovo Polje, Kosovo due to the fear of Kosovo Albanians who live in the vicinity as of December 2, 2001.

Reports on the arrest of an ethnic Albanian commander of the Kosovo Protection Corps, which is suspected of kidnapping five Serbs in Serbia, Yugoslavia in 1999.

Reports on the partial withdrawal of Macedonian special forces troops from the territory of former ethnic Albanian guerrillas on November 12, 2001.

Features Ali Ahmeti, the leader of the ethnic Albanian group National Liberation Army.

Compares the birthrates between the Albanians and the Slavs.