Albanian politicians appointed a former guerrilla leader and war crimes suspect as prime minister on Friday in a parliamentary vote.
The appointee, Ramush Haradinaj, was elected by an overwhelming 73-3 vote in a power-sharing agreement between his own party and the largest Albanian political group in the 120-member parliament.
The UN has been responsible for running Kosovo ever since Serbian security forces accused of committing widespread atrocities were forced by a NATO-led bombing campaign to leave the province in June 1999.
Since 2000, a regional government with limited powers made up of Albanian politicians has been in place.
Haradinaj's appointment was widely perceived as a setback among Western diplomats and international officials here, who warned that it could aggravate tensions with the Serbian minority and undermine the province's aspirations to become a separate state. Haradinaj has said he is under investigation by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia for crimes committed during the 1997 to 1999 conflict, and was questioned for two days by court investigators late last month. The chief war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, has implied that an indictment could be issued for him by the end of the year.
In a statement issued Friday on his behalf by Luther Pendragon, a public relations consultant in London, Haradinaj said he was "proud of the part that I played in protecting my people" from Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian strongman.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not