PRISTINA (AP) – NATO’s commander for Southeastern Europe said Saturday the alliance was concerned about recent violence in Kosovo in which two protesters were killed and three UN vehicles were bombed. Admiral Harry Ulrich, commander of NATO’s Joint Force Command based in Naples, Italy, pledged a firm response to any more trouble in the province. He called the incidents, which occurred over the last two weeks, “counterproductive and indeed destructive to the future of Kosovo.” The tension comes amid a deadlock in negotiations between Serbian and ethnic Albanian officials over postwar Kosovo’s future status and predictions from diplomats that the UN Security Council – which will have the final say – may have to impose a solution. NATO’s 16,000 peacekeepers deployed in Kosovo will react “quickly and firmly to any form of violence and to those who incite violence and to those who plan violence,” Ulrich said.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s oil minister warned Turkey yesterday not to re-export the Islamic state’s natural gas to other countries. Iran has been exporting gas to Turkey since 2001 under a $23 billion agreement signed in 1996. Tehran has been slow to develop other gas export markets. “Based on the agreement, Turkey has no legal right to export Iran’s gas to other countries,” said Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh.

A shell exploded at a former military base in northern Albania on Saturday, injuring five soldiers, a television station reported. The army was transporting shells from a closed military base in Gjegjan, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital, Tirana. The explosion occurred at 9 a.m. (local time) and none of the soldiers was injured seriously, News24 private television station reported. (AP)

One miner was killed in a rockfall in a coal mine in the central Bosnian town of Zenica on Saturday, police said. Rescuers have removed the body from the pit and no one else was injured, said a police officer in Zenica, 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Sarajevo. Prosecutors are on the scene conducting an investigation. (AFP)

At least 13 people were injured and 27 arrested during clashes between fans and riot police after a soccer match between Belgrade rivals Red Star and Partizan, police said yesterday. Red Star fans, angered by their team’s 4-2 loss Saturday, built barricades in downtown Belgrade with trash bins as police on horseback charged at them, witnesses said. At least 27 fans were arrested at the Red Star stadium and in later clashes which left at least 12 fans and one policeman injured, police said. Criminal charges will be filed against five fans for triggering the riots. (AP)