Tensions flare again in disputed zone
EU police moved to secure two border crossings in North Kosovo Friday amid new threats of protest and violence in the region. Kosovo police initially seized the crossings in July. Ethnic Serbs in the area reacted with fury. Roads were blocked and a policeman was shot before international forces moved in to restore the status quo. Kosovo’s government had been scheduled to retake the crossings Friday, but protests may have stopped them. Forces from the EU mission in the area were helicoptered in to avoid new blockades.Reporters in the area do not know if Kosovar officials were with them. Parts of north Kosovo, home to much of the country’s large Serb minority, remain under de facto Serbian control three years after Kosovo declared itself independent in 2008.