PRISTINA - Six explosions rocked an ethnically mixed village in Kosovo yesterday, injuring two US soldiers, the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force said. The explosions in the southeastern village of Klokot damaged five Serb houses, most of them unoccupied with the exception of one where an elderly Serb man lived. The man was not injured, a UN source told Reuters. “This is a disturbing resurgence of the kind of violence that belongs to the past,” said Charles Brayshaw, deputy head of Kosovo’s UN-led administration. KFOR, which seeks to secure peace in the southern Yugoslav province following the 1998-99 conflict, blamed “extremists” for the violence and vowed the force would do its utmost to bring those responsible to justice. (Reuters)

TIRANA - Albania’s Parliament was expected to endorse Fatos Nano yesterday as the country’s third prime minister in less than a year. The West hopes that Nano’s broad-based government can end chronic factional infighting in the Socialist Party that has crippled economic reforms in one of Europe’s poorest countries. Analysts say Nano’s compromise cabinet, which includes some of his rivals, shows that the Socialists have seen the need to put a lid on their feud to stay in power. Nano succeeded Pandeli Majko, who himself came to power as a result of a fight between Nano and the previous premier Ilir Meta, who resigned after seven months in government. (Reuters)

A former warlord once considered one of the richest men in Bosnia was convicted yesterday of war crimes and sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison, The Associated Press reported from Zagreb. Fikret Abdic, also known as Babo, was found guilty of participating in the detention and killing of fellow Muslims during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. He was arrested in Croatia in June 2001 and his trial opened last July. Abdic has a right to appeal the sentence, but his conviction in the district court of Karlovac may adversely affect his desire to run in the Bosnian elections set for October. Last week, the Bosnian election commission said Abdic could run until his guilt is proven. (AP)

A former ethnic Albanian rebel commander was shot yesterday in the middle of Tetovo and died on his way to hospital, police in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia said. Jusuf Iljazi, a former National Liberation Army (NLA) commander in the Tetovo region, was shot three times while sitting in his car and died of his injuries as he was being rushed to hospital in the capital Skopje. The gunman, identified as Servet Sulejmani, escaped after the shooting. Iljazi was understood to have been involved with the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), which is part of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE coalition. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for September 15 in FYROM, where a peace deal ending an ethnic Albanian uprising is only a year old. Police said they did not know if Iljazi’s murder had any political motivation. (AFP)