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☆ Bill Clinton tells Kosovo: stop 'foolishness' in Serb-majority north
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Former U.S. president Bill Clinton delivers his speech during a welcoming in Tirana, Albania, July 3, 2023. REUTERS/Florion GogaTIRANA, July 3 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, largely credited for ending the Kosovo war more than two decades ago, on Monday told Kosovo's government to stop its actions in the Serb majority north, where tension has flared over the past few months. But the real thing we need to do is to stop this foolishness," Clinton said during a ceremony in Tirana where he received a medal from Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama. The United States and the European Union, Kosovo's main allies, have mainly blamed Prime Minister Albin Kurti for igniting tension in the north by installing four mayors in their offices with police despite objections from local Serbs. In Belgrade, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said growing tensions between Belgrade and Pristina "cause great concern, as well as the increase in violence".

Persons: Bill Clinton, Kosovo's, Clinton, Albin Kurti, Mark Rutte, Aleksandar Vucic, Rutte, Fatos Bytyci, Aleksandar Vasovic, Sonali Paul Organizations: U.S, REUTERS, Former U.S, Monday, NATO, Albania's, Edi Rama, Kosovo, Serbia's, European Union, Dutch, EU, Thomson Locations: Tirana, Albania, Florion, TIRANA, Former, Kosovo, Pristina, Serbia, Serbian, Kosovo Albanian, United States, Belgrade, Europe, Ukraine, Florion Goga

☆ Leaf-blowers to the rescue at slippery Wimbledon
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Mitch Phillips | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 3, 2023 Groundstaff use leaf blowers to dry the court as the first round match between Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Argentina’s Pedro Cachin is suspended due to rain REUTERS/Andrew CouldridgeLONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - Frustrated fans were left wondering quite what was the point of Wimbledon's 80 million-pound ($101 million) Centre Court roof on Monday when Novak Djokovic's match was delayed for over an hour as ball boys took to using leaf-blowers to dry the grass. Defending champion Djokovic had just taken the first set 6-3 against Argentina's Pedro Cachin when light rain took the players off and led to the roof being slid into place - a process that takes 10 minutes. Fans and TV viewers expecting a quick resumption, however, were to be disappointed as, accompanied by tournament referee Gerry Armstrong, Djokovic patrolled the famous square of grass he has ruled for five years, dabbing a toe and a towel at areas he considered dangerously slippery. While play resumed on Court One, it remained suspended on Centre, until, somewhat bizarrely, the roof, completed in a blaze of publicity in 2009, was re-opened and the match resumed after a 70-minute hiatus. ($1 = 0.7883 pounds)Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ed OsmondOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, Argentina’s Pedro Cachin, Andrew Couldridge, Novak Djokovic's, Djokovic, Argentina's Pedro Cachin, Gerry Armstrong, Mitch Phillips, Ed Osmond Organizations: Lawn Tennis, Croquet Club, Thomson Locations: London, Britain

☆ In Serbia, a Strongman Under Fire Hails Himself as Defender of the Nation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He is courted by American and European diplomats, applauded by a media machine dedicated to vilifying his critics and still has four years left in a presidential term secured last year with a landslide re-election victory. But President Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s strongman leader for more than a decade, never looked so lost as when he appeared this week in an official video on the vast rooftop terrace of his presidential offices to share a bowl of cherries with two lieutenants — and gripe about street protesters calling them rude names, including “abnormal lunatics, murderers and criminals.”Over-the-top insults, a regular feature of Rottweiler tabloids loyal to Mr. Vucic and pro-government television stations, used to be directed mostly at the president’s enemies, at least in public. But, after weeks of street protests set off last month by two mass shootings, Mr. Vucic is now on the receiving end — and on the defensive like never before since establishing himself in 2012 as the pivot around which Serbian politics turns. The protests, with calls for the dismissal of senior law enforcement officials and the withdrawal of broadcasting licenses from two pro-government television stations, have grown into a wider revolt against a “climate of violence” blamed on Mr. Vucic and his media attack dogs.

Persons: Aleksandar Vucic, —, Vucic, ” Organizations: American, Serbian

☆ Growing Protests in Serbia Demand Social Changes After Mass Shootings
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Protests in Serbia over back-to-back mass shootings last month ballooned on Saturday into the biggest street demonstrations in the capital, Belgrade, since demonstrators toppled Slobodan Milosevic as Serbia’s president in 2000. Saturday’s protest, the fifth and biggest by far, increased pressure on Mr. Vucic to meet at least some of the protesters’ demands. Those demands include the dismissal of senior law enforcement officials and the withdrawal of broadcasting licenses from pro-government television stations notorious for airing violent reality shows and ignoring opposition politicians. “Enough is enough,” Zoran Kesić, a satirist and television presenter, told protesters. “Enough with violence, enough with hatred and intimidation, enough with humiliation.”

Persons: Slobodan Milosevic, Aleksandar Vucic, ”, Vucic, Zoran Kesić Locations: Serbia, Belgrade

☆ After Mass Shootings in Serbia, Few Are Ready to Give Up Their Guns
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He learned how to shoot a gun from his grandfather before he started school, and he fought in three wars as a soldier in the Yugoslav and then the Serbian Army during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. Sinisa Janicijevic became such a good shot that he regularly gets invited to weddings in villages around his hometown, Kraljevo, in central Serbia, to make sure the bride shows up — which, by tradition, involves shooting down an apple placed in a tree outside her family’s home. The groom is supposed to perform this task but, anxious about missing, he often calls in a substitute shooter. Serbia’s deep attachment to guns, and the plethora of them, have been widely cited as an explanation for back-to-back massacres last month — one at a school in Belgrade, the capital, and another in nearby farming villages — that stunned the nation, even if the rate of violence involving weapons is low. Following the killings, President Aleksandar Vucic vowed to tighten gun control laws so as to enforce “almost complete disarmament.”

Persons: Sinisa Janicijevic, Aleksandar Vucic Organizations: Yugoslav, Serbian Army Locations: Kraljevo, Serbia, Belgrade

☆ Kosovo tensions: Why did ethnic Serbs attack NATO peacekeepers?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Christian Edwards | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —Dozens of NATO peacekeepers were injured after they were attacked by ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo, during protests over the installation of ethnically Albanian mayors. More than a decade on, these municipalities have not been created, leaving disputes over the degree of autonomy for Kosovo’s Serbs to fester. Valdrin Xhemaj/ReutersFearing potential violence, Kosovo’s central election commission changed plans to put voting booths in local schools, instead setting up mobile huts patrolled by NATO peacekeepers. Of these, more than 16,000 are ethnic Serbs – with only around 500 ethnic Albanians. The peacekeeping mission said that it had increased its presence in northern Kosovo after the newly elected ethnically Albanian mayors took office in majority Kosovo Serb areas.

☆ ‘A problem in the political culture": Serbians call for more than disarmament to end violence after mass shootings
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Christian Edwards | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Despite having one of the world’s highest rates of gun ownership in the world, mass shootings like this are extremely rare in Serbia. Most people simply inherited weapons from their parents and grandparents – remnants of the sort of violence that no longer plagues the region. While the two “gratuitous” acts of violence that shocked the country this month were without precedent, O’Donnell said, other types of violence are more banal. ‘Serbia against violence’Since the shootings, tens of thousands of Serbians have taken to the streets in opposition-led “Serbia against violence” marches, demanding the resignation of several government ministers. Against this public demand for a mellowing of the political culture, Vučić has seemed unsure how to respond.

☆ Serbia Offers Amnesty for Illegal Firearms, and Thousands Are Collected
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | Joe Orovic | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Serbian authorities have collected thousands of weapons in a sweeping campaign to reduce the number of firearms in the hands of civilians in the week after two mass shootings stunned the country, officials said Friday. More than 9,000 illegal and legal weapons have been collected, according to Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, who called the effort “a great step forward for a safer environment for our children” and “all our people,” at a news conference on Friday. “Some people say it’s not the gun that shoots the bullet but a man,” he said. “But if that man doesn’t have a gun, the evil in his head can’t do any harm.”Mr. Vucic did not specify if all the guns had been handed over voluntarily or if some had been seized.

Persons: Aleksandar Vucic, ”, Mr, Vucic Organizations: Serbian

☆ What’s Behind Serbia’s Gun Violence
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Back-to-back shootings in Serbia this week, one in a school, have stunned the population and brought global attention to gun control in a country with one of the world’s highest rates of gun ownership. Promising an “almost complete disarmament,” the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, said on Friday that he planned to introduce sweeping changes to tighten gun regulations in response to the two shootings, one by a minor and the other with an illegal firearm. He also called for a one-month amnesty on Friday for gun owners to surrender illegal weapons without penalty ahead of the more stringent measures. Here is a look at Serbia’s trouble with guns and the restrictions the government proposed this week.

Persons: Aleksandar Vucic Locations: Serbia, Serbian

☆ 8 Dead in Shooting in Serbia, Day After School Massacre That Killed 9
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( John Yoon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Eight people were killed and 13 others wounded late Thursday near Belgrade, Serbia, in the nation’s second mass shooting in as many days, according to Serbian media. The police were looking for a 21-year-old male suspect, according to RTS, Serbia’s public broadcaster. The shooting took place at 11 p.m. local time, Serbia’s Interior Ministry told CNN. The gunman used an automatic weapon from a moving vehicle near Mladenovac, a town south of the capital, and fled the scene after the attack, RTS said. Serbia’s interior minister, Bratislav Gasic, called the shooting “a terrorist act,” RTS reported.

CNN —At least eight people have been killed and 13 wounded in a shooting in the Serbian village of Dubona, the country’s Interior Ministry spokesperson told CNN. The incident happened on Thursday night at 11pm local time, Serbia’s Interior Ministry spokesperson said. All special police units are engaged, including an anti-terrorism unit, helicopter unit, and police forces from the cities of Belgrade and Smederevo. Until this week, mass shootings were rare in Serbia, despite the country’s high rate of gun ownership. Serbia has the highest level of civilian gun ownership in Europe, and the fifth-highest in the world – a legacy of years of conflict in the 1990s.

☆ Serbia School Attack Is a Rare Mass Shooting Outside the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Jenny Gross | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A mass shooting on Wednesday, in which eight students and a security guard were killed at a school in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, was a reminder that such attacks are far less common outside the United States. Serbs are known to have stockpiles of weapons left over from the Balkan wars of the 1990s, and there have been other mass shootings in the country. In 2013, a veteran of the Balkan wars shot and killed 13 people in a village near Belgrade. In 2007, a man fatally shot nine people in the village of Jabukovac, in eastern Serbia. The study found that among countries with more than 10 million people only Yemen had a higher rate of mass shootings per capita.

☆ Belgrade shooting: What we know about the attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A 13-year-old boy opened fire on his classmates at a school in the Serbian capital Belgrade on Wednesday, rocking the Balkan country. The shooting left at least eight children dead, along with a security guard. He took their lives.”The suspect then walked towards a history classroom, shooting as he moved down the corridor, before entering the room and shooting the teacher and his fellow students from the doorway, Milić said. Gasic said it was known that the father had previously gone to a shooting range with his son. I saw the school psychologist, I saw the school staff, the teachers who were in shock,” the father told N1.

☆ The President, the Soccer Hooligans and an Underworld ‘House of Horrors’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Robert F. Worth | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

direction, and he chose not to.” Serwer speculated that Vucic has concluded the reforms required to join the E.U. The notion that Serbia can “balance” the West against Russia is largely a mirage, Bassuener said. One afternoon in Belgrade, I spent an hour talking to Boris Tadic, who served as Serbia’s president from 2004 until 2012, when he lost to Vucic’s party. Vucic, he said, had “helped put criminals in power” with the belief that he could control them. “What is the final outcome of your power if you’re going to destroy the foundations of society with hooligans and criminals?” he asked.

☆ Fact Check-Photo of 1999 Serbia bombing shared with missing context
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

On Facebook the same screenshot was shared with the remark: “Be careful who you follow...” (here). A Bosnian newspaper published the 1999 photo identified as Kyiv in a February 2022 article (here). The war in Ukraine is well documented and the latest Reuters reporting can be seen (www.reuters.com/places/ukraine) , (here) , (here). Reuters Fact Check has previously debunked images and videos claimed as proof that the war in Ukraine is fake (here) and (here). A photograph showing the 1999 NATO bombing campaign against Serbian forces was not widely used by media to depict Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

☆ Djokovic battles Tsitsipas in high stakes Australian Open final
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Never beaten at Melbourne Park after reaching the semis, fourth seed Djokovic is rated an unbackable favourite to triumph again under the floodlights at Rod Laver Arena. It offers a rematch of the dramatic 2021 French Open final, in which Djokovic came back from two sets down to snatch the title and leave Greek Tsitsipas heartbroken. "I think he (Tsitsipas) has never played a (Grand Slam) finals, am I wrong?" At 35, Djokovic needs one major title to draw level with 36-year-old Nadal's 22 in the all-time Grand Slam race. He buried his semi-final hoodoo at Melbourne Park against Russian bruiser Karen Khachanov in four sets on Friday after falling three times previously at the hurdle.

☆ Ana Walshe's mother says she 'just cannot believe' the disturbing Google searches allegedly made by her son-in-law
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Jovana Djurovic | Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

Brian Walshe during his arraignment Wednesday in Quincy, Mass., on a charge of murdering his wife, Ana Walshe. Ana Walshe replied saying she and her husband had "plans" for February, though it's not clear what that meant. There has not been any activity on Ana Walshe’s credit cards since she was last seen, prosecutors said. Ana Walshe. Ana Walshe was born in Belgrade and holds dual citizenship in Serbia and the U.S., Vlacic previously confirmed.

☆ Serbia and Cameroon play out entertaining 3-3 draw at the World Cup
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Serbia and Cameroon played out a thrilling 3-3 draw at the World Cup in what was one of the most entertaining games of the tournament so far. But Cameroon responded minutes later as substitute Vincent Aboubakar scooped an outrageous shot over the head of Serbian goalkeeper Vanja Milinković-Savić. The chances kept coming for both teams, but it ended as a draw at Qatar’s Al Janoub Stadium. With both sides losing their opening games of the tournament – Serbia against Brazil and Cameroon against Switzerland – they will need to win their next games to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages. Serbia's players celebrate Sergej Milinković-Savić's goal against Cameroon.

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