International Crisis Group

A majority of the 15 member states of the UN Security Council favor opening talks on the final status of Kosovo this year

http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=104&NrSection=1&NrArticle=13647

Radio Nederland http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/

The ICG (International Crisis Group) and Nicholas Whyte, the director of the ICG's Europe programme says its clear independence is the only viable option. Further delays in implementing this option will prove increasingly dangerous, according to the group

Misa Stojiljkovic, from B92 Radio in Belgrade, says:"I don't think it will come to war because we now have a democratic government in Serbia and a lot of people here are going along with the European Union and the United States. But on the other hand both the Serbian president and the Serbian prime minister are saying that the independence of Kosovo is absolutely unacceptable."

http://antiwar.com/malic/

Nicholas Whyte's rather blunt argument was that "Kosovo has been moving toward independence since 1999, and it is time for the international community to say so." As for Serbia, it "needs to accept that Kosovo is lost, and that the role of Belgrade is to make the best case they can for the Serbs of Kosovo, rather than fantasize that they will get all, or part, of the province back."

190 Orthodox churches ruined in Kosovo since 1999

Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic said that Serbs should be careful about heeding the call of Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj for all Serb refugees to return to their homes in Kosovo.

http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id=31425&order=priority&style=headlines

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that he could not imagine any Serbian government agreeing to giving Kosovo independence.

http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id=31427&order=priority&style=headlines

190 Orthodox churches ruined in Kosovo since 1999 - Russian expert

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=10754134

Standards For Final Status Talks Not Reached

http://www.europaworld.org/week213/kosovo25205.htm

WASHINGTON - Soldiers in combat, too busy or too far from home to file their taxes, get special exceptions at tax time. The assistance includes flexible filing deadlines, tax-free combat pay and delayed audits. Soldiers can qualify if they served in designated combat zones, which currently include regions in the Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan and Kosovo. A combat zone includes the airspace over a designated region, and those considered in the combat zone include personnel who serve in direct support of combat operations and receive hostile fire or imminent danger pay.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7018476/

Jessen-Petersen believes there is a good chance status talks can begin in the second half of this year.
"I am not saying that Mr. Covic or Belgrade doesn't have a right to be critical or worried. There are reasons," Jessen-Petersen said. "But what I do object to is you go through a litany of issues that have been raised so many times and you ignore the facts on the ground and I used security as one example. How can you talk about insecurity, lots of incidents, when the facts are that there hasn't been one single [ethnic incident] since June?"

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/02/f664b582-cfa6-498a-9d6c-b9bb0a018c72.html