Sweden’s prime minister summoned the head of the armed forces and the police commissioner in a bid to stem gang violence, he said on Thursday, following a wave of violence that has taken at least 11 lives in September alone.

Two people were killed in separate shootings in Stockholm on Wednesday, and a woman in her 20s, thought to be an innocent bystander, was killed when a bomb tore up a house in Uppsala in the early hours of Thursday.

The killing last weekend of a Kosovo police officer by a group of 30 or more heavily armed Serbian nationalist militants marks the most significant security incident in that country, and the western Balkans region, in more than a decade.

The United States called on Belgrade to pull its forces back from the border with Kosovo on Friday, September 29, after detecting what it called an unprecedented Serbian military build-up. Serbia had deployed sophisticated tanks and artillery on the frontier after deadly clashes erupted at a monastery in northern Kosovo last week, the White House warned. The violence in which a Kosovo policeman and three Serb gunmen were killed marked one of the gravest escalations for years in Kosovo, a former Serbian breakaway province.

The coordinator for strategic communications at the US National Security Council, John Kirby, expressed Washington's concern about, as he said, the "large deployment" of Serbian troops along the border with Kosovo.

"We will monitor the large Serbian deployment along the border with Kosovo. We call on Serbia to withdraw its forces from the border and continue to reduce tensions," Kirby said during a conversation with reporters on September 29.

The United States urged Belgrade to pull its forces back from the border with Kosovo on Friday after detecting what it called an "unprecedented" Serbian military build-up.

Serbia deployed sophisticated tanks and artillery on the frontier after deadly clashes erupted at a monastery in northern Kosovo last week, the White House warned.

The violence -- in which a Kosovo police officer and three Serb gunmen were killed -- marked one of the gravest escalations for years in Kosovo, a former Serbian breakaway province.

A member of a major Kosovo Serb political party has admitted to leading a group of gunmen that clashed with Kosovo police earlier this week, his lawyer said Friday.

The killing of a Kosovo police officer and the ensuing gun battle at a monastery in a village close to the Serbian border marked one of the gravest escalations in the former breakaway province in years.

Three Serb gunmen were killed in an hours-long firefight with Kosovo police, after they ambushed a patrol near the village of Banjska and later barricaded themselves at an Orthodox monastery.

Nato has announced it is beefing up its presence in Kosovo with UK troops after four people were killed in a weekend shootout and as the US expressed concern about a build-up of Serbian forces along the border of its former territory. 

NATO is beefing up its presence in Kosovo with UK troops, amid concerns about a build-up of Serbian forces along the border.

Hundreds of soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment have now been made available to a peacekeeping force.

Tensions rose last weekend after a deadly siege at a monastery in northern Kosovo, with masked gunmen and local police engaging in a standoff.

Ukraine demands complete accession to the EU and will not accept any substitute proposed by incumbent member states who envision a tiered system of candidates, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal has told Politico.

“We want to be a fully-fledged member because Ukraine today is the unique country across the world that has paid such a huge price for its will to become a European Union member,” the senior official insisted.