What is behind renewed tensions between Serbia and Kosovo?

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared anew over the weekend when some 30 heavily armed Serbs barricaded themselves in an Orthodox monastery in northern Kosovo, setting off a daylong gunbattle with police that left one officer and three attackers dead. Sunday’s clash was one of the worst since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. It came as the European Union and the U.S. are trying to mediate and finalize yearslong talks on normalizing ties between the two Balkan states. There are fears in the West of a revival of the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo that claimed more than 10,000 lives and left over 1 million homeless.