Kosovo & Serbia Start Technical Talks

Last week, Kosovo and Serbia started yet another round of technical talks, this time facilitated by the European Union.  Support for the talks in the Kosovo Assembly is mixed with some opposition parties totally against any kind of talks with Serbia.  A vote to support the talks narrowly passed in the Assembly a few days after the talks began.  So far news emerging from the talks is basically that Kosovo will not discuss status and Serbia will not recognize independence.  The International Crisis Group (ICG) did a cannonball into the Kosovo political pool by releasing a report suggesting autonomy for Northern Kosovo which Kosovo politicians quickly rejected as a violation of the territorial integrity (sound familar?).