Kosovo delays issuing fines to Serb drivers for 2 days after US request

Kosovo has postponed plans to fine drivers refusing to give up old car licence plates issued by Serbia for another 48 hours, after a United States request for a delay to a move Washington and the European Union fears may trigger ethnic violence.
The dispute over licence plates has stoked tensions for almost two years between Serbia and its former breakaway province, which declared independence in 2008 and is home to a Serb minority in the north that is backed by Belgrade.
Around 50,000 ethnic Serbs who live there refuse to recognise Pristina’s authority, and still consider themselves a part of Serbia. Belgrade has said it will never recognise the independence of Kosovo.
Hundreds of police officers, judges, prosecutors and other state workers from the Serb minority quit their jobs earlier this month Pristina ruled that local Serbs must finally replace car plates issued by Kosovo Serb municipal authorities, loyal to Belgrade, with Kosovo state ones.