A few months ahead of the parliamentary elections, Kosovo PM Albin Kurti announced a 20 percent increase in pensions for various categories of retired people, a move the opposition has called an attempt to “buy votes.” Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced on Monday that the government will increase pensions by 20 percent, a move…
For nearly 12 years, the establishment of the Association of Serb Majority Municipalities has been a hurdle between Kosovo and Serbia. By following Kosovo’s Constitution, this seemingly complicated issue is actually straightforward and resolvable. Kosovo and Serbia have been locked in a frozen conflict since the former declared independence in 2008. While the two countries…
In a tribute to the 27th anniversary of student protests against Slobodan Milosevic’s regime, the University of Prishtina marked its first-ever National Student Day. Mihane Salihu Bala was one of the tens of thousands of students who took to the streets in protest 27 years ago to demand a return to their educational premises. Kosovo…
The 12th edition of the FemArt Festival, which aims to empower women through their art and activism, highlights Sisterhood as a form of women’s unity in times of war and peace. The Barcelona Flamenco Ballet’s performance of “Carmen,” which conveys a “message of freedom and courage in the face of an unequal world where women…
An old socialist-era premise in Prishtina is offering visitors a unique perspective of Kosovo’s turbulent past with art pieces, photographs, videos, and artefacts displayed as part of BIRN’s Reporting House. Before entering the Reporting House exhibition hall, an eye-catching jeep awaits visitors. It is the vehicle that renowned war reporter Vaughan Smith used on mountainous…
The first trial hearing for the 2023 deadly attack in Banjska was postponed to October, and Kosovo’s Supreme Court was asked to rule on whether the trial of fugitive kingpin Milan Radoicic and 41 others can be held in absentia. Scheduled to start on Wednesday, the trial at the Prishtina Basic Court over the deadly…
One year after Kosovo Police sergeant Afrim Bunjaku was killed when Serb gunmen led by Kosovo Serb kingpin Milan Radoicic attacked police in the village of Banjska, the authorities renamed a road leading to the village after him. Prime Minister Albin Kurti, members of the cabinet, parliament speaker Glauk Konjufca and police director Gazmed Hoxha…
Elez Biberaj, a Voice of America journalist, reflected in an interview with BIRN on how the 1980-1990s rising tensions in Kosovo prompted VOA leadership to send correspondents to report from the region. Biberaj, an ethnic Albanian from Montenegro, migrated to the U.S. with his family at the age of 15. He began working at VOA…
In Kosovo, agritourism is on the rise, with people abandoning urban stress to invest in village revitalisation and establish a sustainable lifestyle away from the city. Adrian Berisha once felt shackled by the grind of urban life in Prishtina, which he likened to modern-day slavery. The ceaseless battle for affordability on stepping out of his…
In an effort to address the issue of stray dogs, the Municipality of Prishtina has opened a treatment and shelter centre for dogs, aiming to find adopters for them afterward. The Municipality of Prishtina on Wednesday inaugurated a centre for the treatment and sheltering of stray dogs on Wednesday, September 11, located just seven kilometres…