Kosovo

In a last-minute attempt by the winning party in the February elections to maintain power and prevent snap elections, Vetevendosje leader and acting Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti nominated former speaker Glauk Konjufca to form a government.

Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti failed to secure enough support in Kosovo's parliament to form a new government, plunging the country further into political chaos and bringing it closer to its second elections this year.

Warning of political deadlock and growing tensions, the top United Nations official in Kosovo stressed need for Belgrade and Pristina to “avoid measures that might erode trust”, as he briefed the Security Council via video link on the Secretary-General’s latest report on developments in the area.

Preliminary counts from Sunday’s municipal elections in Kosovo indicate that most major Albanian-majority municipalities – including Pristina, Peja/Pec, South Mitrovica and Prizren – are probably heading to a second round of voting after indecisive results across much of the country.

Kosovo Parliament Speaker, Dimal Basha, declared parliament inaugurated after the election of a Serb deputy speaker, despite objections by the biggest Serbian party.

A US decision to suspend a "strategic dialogue" with Kosovo has rocked the Balkan country's establishment, singling out Prime Minister Albin Kurti as a source of growing frustration in Washington -- his country's prime political and military guarantor.

Jelena Djukanovic denied charges of using her position in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's mission to supply Serbia's intelligence agency, the BIA, with sensitive information. 

The court is now reviewing the legality of the parliament’s August 26 and 28 sessions, which failed to elect a deputy speaker from the ranks of Kosovo’s Serb community, a position guaranteed to them by the constitution. On August 30, Dimal Basha, the newly elected speaker, from the Vetevendosje party, which won the February elections, declared parliament inaugurated.

Kosovo MPs voted for Dimal Basha as parliament speaker. But the five-month-long political logjam continues, due to a failure to elect a deputy speaker from the Serb community.

Just a few metres from the bridge that divides South and North Mitrovica, across which cars are not allowed to pass, the Kosovo government opened a new bridge on Tuesday, despite objections from local ethnic Serbs and warnings from the international community.