President Mary McAleese has paid tribute to Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari for his work in verifying that IRA arms were put beyond use.

Finland’s ex-president Martti Ahtisaari received the Nobel Peace Prize today for his efforts in places as diverse as East Timor and the Balkans.

Kosovo has never been a state and its parliament isn’t deemed worthy to do anything very much beyond collecting rubbish.

US President George Bush said today the US will work to prevent violent clashes following Kosovo’s declaration of independence. The State Department was reviewing the development with European allies as the province sought swift recognition from the West.

Britain was this evening poised to recognise the independence of Kosovo, as the Balkan province prepares to break away from Serbia tomorrow.

Representatives of feuding parties in Iraq are meeting in Finland to discuss ways of ending the continuing violence in the country, organisers said today.

The European Union’s envoy to the Kosovo talks threatened to withdraw the possibility of bloc membership from Serbia and Kosovo if they failed to reach a compromise solution on the province’s future.

IN the coming months, a fundamental decision will be made that will challenge the capacity of the international community, particularly Europe, for conflict resolution.

Year-long talks on the future status of Kosovo have ended in deadlock, a UN envoy said today, reflecting bitter divisions between Serbia’s government and the disputed province’s pro-independence ethnic Albanian leadership.

Serbia’s and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders remain deadlocked on the heart of a UN plan that would put the restive province on the road to eventual independence, the UN special envoy who drafted the proposal said today.

Negotiations over a UN plan for Kosovo were postponed today for one week, after Serbia requested more time to allow for a parliament to be formed in Belgrade, a UN mediator said.

Serbia’s president today rejected a UN plan for Kosovo, saying it “opens the possibility of independence” for the breakaway province.

Kosovo was widely expected to take its first tentative step toward statehood today with the unveiling of a UN proposal for the future of the bitterly-contested province.

A UN envoy was briefing the US, Russia and key European allies in Austria today on his proposal for the future of Serbia’s independence-minded province of Kosovo.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today backed an initiative by Italy to push for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.

Ethnic Albanian and Serbian officials today discussed how to protect the rights of Kosovo’s minorities, putting the issue on the agenda for the first time during their UN-brokered talks on the province’s future status.

Ethnic Albanians and Serbian officials will discuss how to protect the rights of Kosovo’s minorities today, putting the issue on the agenda for the first time during their United Nations-brokered talks on the province’s future status.

Top Serbian and ethnic Albanian leaders met face-to-face in Vienna today in unprecedented talks aimed at resolving the dispute over the breakaway province of Kosovo. But with the two sides intractable, chances of a breakthrough are slim.

UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari arrived in Kosovo today on a fact-finding mission before crucial talks that will determine whether Kosovo becomes an independent nation or a self-governing region within Serbia.

THE Indonesian government and Aceh rebels yesterday signed a peace treaty to end nearly 30 years of fighting that has seen 15,000 people killed, but rebel leaders voiced concern about troops remaining in the province.

Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble tonight held wide ranging talks in South Africa with an African National Congress official who was a former weapons inspector in Northern Ireland.