ALEKSANDAR VUCIC

Thousands of people have rallied for a fifth time in a month after two mass shootings in Serbia that shook the nation, even as the country’s populist president rejected any responsibility and ignored their demands to step down.

The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo has raised to 30 the number of its troops injured in fierce clashes with ethnic Serbs who tried to take over the offices of a municipality in the north.

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

Local media in Kosovo are reporting that small groups of ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo have clashed with police while trying to block the entrance of the municipal buildings to prevent recently-elected officials from entering them.

Tens of thousands of people are expected in the Serbian capital for a rally in support of President Aleksandar Vucic.

Government officials in Serbia have rejected opposition criticism of their handling of two mass shootings in Serbia earlier this month.

Authorities say dozens of Serbian schools have received bomb threats amid security concerns following two mass shootings early this month, including one in an elementary school.

Serbian authorities have displayed many of around 13,500 weapons they say have been collected since this month’s mass shootings, including automatic weapons and anti-tank rocket launchers.

Serbia’s populist leader has sharply denounced opposition plans to block a key bridge and highway in Belgrade on Friday to press their demands in the wake of last week’s mass shootings in the Balkan country that left 17 people dead, including many children.

When a 13-year-old boy last week opened fire on his fellow students in a school in Belgrade, and a day later a man killed people at random in villages south of the Serbian capital, the country came to a standstill.

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.

Police have deployed in schools throughout Serbia in an effort to restore a shaken sense of security following two mass shootings last week — including one in a primary school — that left 17 people dead and 21 wounded, many of them children.

Authorities say a gunman apparently firing at random killed eight people and wounded 14 in two Serbian villages.

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo met in Brussels on Tuesday only to agree on joint work in finding the missing persons in their talks on the implementation of a European Union-backed plan to normalize ties between the former war foes.

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.”.

Independent Serbian journalists have marked the 24th anniversary of a prominent editor and newspaper publisher's killing.

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.

About 200,000 Russians have left their homeland for Serbia since the start of the war in Ukraine.

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.

Serbia's president says that his country would face a halt in European Union integration and economic and political isolation if it rejects a new 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.

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.

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.

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.

Shots and explosions rang out overnight in northern Kosovo, and ethnic Serbs have blocked roads with heavy vehicles and trucks.

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.

Serbian media are reporting that the government has named a staunchly pro-Russian politician as the Balkan state’s new spy chief.

The European Union’s top diplomat has held eight hours of unsuccessful talks with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo.

Hungary will not support a European Union plan to provide Ukraine with billions in budget assistance next year, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.

Austria, Hungary and Serbia have held another top-level meeting dedicated to curbing migration, including by sending more than 100 police officers, vehicles equipped with night vision cameras and drones to the border with North Macedonia.

Kosovo has accused neighboring Serbia of trying to destabilize the country through pressuring members of the ethnic Serb community to resign from their posts for not accepting Pristina’s decision to change illegal vehicle license plates.

The European Union is in the midst of yet another goodwill trip through the Western Balkans to drum up support for the 27-nation bloc.

French President Emmanuel Macron and over 40 European leaders have sought to show the unity of the continent faced with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Austria says it will start checks at its border crossings with Slovakia following a similar decision by the Czech Republic.

The European Union and the U.S. have questioned Serbia’s commitment to join Europe’s 27-nation bloc after Belgrade signed an agreement with Moscow pledging long-term “consultations” on foreign policy matters amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Hungary’s governing party says it wants to poll the country’s citizens on whether they support European Union sanctions imposed against Russia over its war in Ukraine.

Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Hungary's justice minister is urging her European Union partners to be “tolerant” after the EU’s executive branch recommended suspending billions of euros in funding to the country.

The European Union’s executive branch has recommended that the bloc suspend around 7.5 billion euros (dollars) in funding to Hungary.

Riot police clashed with soccer hooligans in Belgrade, where an international Pride march has been held despite threats from anti-gay groups and an official earlier ban in theconservative Balkan state.

Organizers of European LGBTQ events held in Belgrade this week have said they will hold a planned Pride march on the streets of the Serbian capital Saturday despite a police ban and threats from anti-gay groups.

Serbia’s police have banned a Pride march planned amid pan-European LGBTQ events being held this week in Belgrade, citing a risk of clashes with far-right anti-gay activists.

Thousands of opponents of a pan-European LGBTQ event planned for this week in Belgrade marched through the Serbian capital on Sunday despite an announced ban of Europe’s largest annual gay gathering.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed hope a recent agreement settling a travel document dispute between Serbia and Kosovo can help further stabilize the troubled Balkans.

Anticipating a tough winter in light of the war in Ukraine, three Balkan states have agreed to help each other with potential food or energy shortages.

Opposition parties in Serbia and international rights groups have denounced a decision by populist President Aleksandar Vucic to cancel next month’s pan-European LGBTQ EuroPride events because of what he said were threats from right-wing extremists.

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 interior minister has met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow in a rare visit by a state official from Europe.

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.

Kosovo’s authorities have postponed a decision to implement a law on vehicle license plates and identity documents after minority Serbs rioted by blocking roads, turning on air raid sirens and firing their guns into the air.

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

Egypt and Serbia have agreed to boost political, economic and other cooperation as the two countries look for ways to deal with the global impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Serbia’s interior minister is advocating a “Serbian world” that would unite all Serbs living in the Balkans into a single state, rejecting a U.S. warning that such calls could lead to more tensions in the still-volatile region.

Serbia and Russia say a planned visit by Russia’s foreign minister to the Balkan country will not take place.

Aleksandar Vucic has been sworn in for his second 5-yar term as Serbia’s president, pledging to keep the Balkan country on its European Union membership path and hinting that a new government might consider joining Western sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine.

The Serbian populist president has announced that he has secured an “extremely favorable” gas deal with Russia.

Slovakia and Hungary say they won't support sanctions against Russian energy that the European Union is preparing over the war in Ukraine.

Serbia has displayed a recently delivered sophisticated Chinese anti-aircraft missile system at an event at a military airport near Belgrade, the capital.

Only months ago, Robert Golob was virtually unknown in politics, didn’t belong to any party, but had a clear goal: remove Slovenian populist Prime Minister Janez Jansa from power and stop a democratic backslide in the tiny Alpine state.

When he visited Ukraine last month with two other European leaders, Prime Minister Janez Jansa of Slovenia hoped to show solidarity with the war-stricken nation and to attract support at home ahead of what is expected to be a close parliamentary election.

Ukraine has rejected as baseless and false the accusations made by Serbia’s president that Ukraine’s secret service is behind a series of false bomb threats against Air Serbia flights to Russia.

Russian ally Serbia has taken delivery of a sophisticated Chinese anti-aircraft system in a semi-secret operation this weekend, amid Western concerns that an arms buildup in the Balkans at the time of the war in Ukraine could threaten the fragile peace in the region.

Parliamentary elections in Hungary and Serbia brought landslide wins for the two countries’ longtime, pro-Putin leaders — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

An early official count of Serbia’s national election has confirmed the landslide victory of Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic and his populist party — important allies of Russia in the volatile Balkans and in Europe.

Pollsters are projecting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his populist right-wing party have won Sunday's elections.

Serbia’s pro-Russia president is expected to extend his almost 10-year grip on power when the Balkan country holds national elections on Sunday.

Serbia's president says AirSerbia will go back to one flight a day to Moscow after criticism that the Serbian national carrier is busting a European Union-wide ban on flights to Russia and profiting from the war in Ukraine.

A Russian man burnt his passport to show his opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.

With all eyes on a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending his top security envoy to the Balkans where Moscow has been trying to maintain influence mainly through its ally Serbia.

Hundreds of protesters opposed to lithium mining in Serbia have blocked roads near a government building where the Balkan country’s populist president hosted an awards ceremony.

The U.S., Britain and a handful of others aren’t sending dignitaries to the Beijing Winter Games as part of a diplomatic boycott, but the Chinese capital is still attracting an array of world leaders for Friday’s opening ceremony.

Serbia’s state prosecutors have rejected suggestions that Novak Djokovic used a fake positive test for COVID-19 to try to enter Australia and compete in the Australian Open.

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.

Trying to defuse large protests by environmentalists, Serbia’s populist government said Thursday that it was canceling all licenses for mining giant Rio Tinto to open a lithium mine in the Balkan country.

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’s president has called on Novak Djokovic to return to his native country hours after the top-ranked tennis player lost his court battle to play at the Australian Open and was deported.

Environmental protesters are once again demanding the cancelation of plans for lithium mining in western Serbia.

Serbia is nervously awaiting the outcome of what increasingly looks like a soap opera, with its most famous sports idol in the lead role.

Novak Djokovic came within one victory of sweeping all four of last year’s Grand Slam tennis tournaments and entered 2022 needing one title to set the men’s record of 21 major championships.

The Australian government has denied No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic entry to defend his title in the year's first tennis major and canceled his visa because he failed to meet the requirements for an exemption to the country's COVID-19 vaccination rules.

North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has formally resigned, a move he had announced after his governing Social Democrat party’s heavy defeat in October’s local elections.

Bosnian officials and religious leaders have denounced suggestions voiced by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his spokesman that the integration of Bosnia into the European Union will be challenging because of its large Muslim population.

The leaders of Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia have met in Tirana to discuss and agree on furthering their Open Balkan initiative to promote political and economic ties.

Trying to defuse large protests by environmentalists, Serbia’s populist government has decided to suspend two key laws that would help mining giant Rio Tinto launch a lithium mine in western Serbia.

Thousands of protesters have gathered in Belgrade and other Serbian towns and villages to block roads and bridges despite police warnings and an intimidation campaign launched by authorities against the participants.

Thousands of people have rallied in Belgrade to demand an end to alarming levels of air pollution in Serbia due to the use of coal-fired power plants and other factors The environmental protest comes a day after other environmental demonstrators blocked bridges and roads in several locations in Serbia, and scuffled with riot police.

Skirmishes have erupted in Serbia between police and anti-government demonstrators who briefly blocked roads and bridges in the Balkan country in protest against new laws they say favor interests of foreign investors who are devastating the environment.

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

Croatia’s government has approved the purchase of 12 used Rafale fighter jets from France worth about 1 billion euros to replace its aging fleet of Soviet-era aircraft and strengthen its air force amid lingering tensions in the Balkans.

Vietnamese workers helping construct the first Chinese car tire factory in Europe say they're shivering in barracks without heat, going hungry and stuck in a plainland in Serbia because their passports have been taken by their Chinese employer.

Serbian officials have praised the “steel friendship” with China during talks with China’s foreign minister.