Albanians have been showing their support for the independence of Kosovo ahead of the province's elections tomorrow. Thousands turned out in Albania's capital Tirana to set the tone for the parliamentary ballot. They want Kosovo, with its ethnic Albanian majority, to split from Serbia.

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Kosovo Albanians are lining up to vote en masse for backers of independence from Serbia, escalating the great-power confrontation over influence in southeast Europe.

Whoever wins Kosovo's Nov. 17 parliamentary election will push for statehood -- and count on the U.S. to overcome Russian objections. Both parties leading in opinion polls, the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Democratic League of Kosovo, are calling for immediate independence.

 

By Stefan Wagstyl and Frederick Studemann in London

 

Nov. 15, 2007

The European Union is preparing to take the lead next month in determining the future of Kosovo, amid fears that the United Nations-sponsored negotiations over the disputed territory will end in failure, according to Slovenia's prime minister.

Janez Jansa, whose country takes over the EU's rotating presidency in January, says the Union will endorse plans for Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority to secure conditional independence from Serbia provided Pristina accepts international supervision and guarantees for its Serb minority.