| NATO deployed more peacekeeping troops to regain control of Kosovo on Friday and warned it was prepared to take harsh measures against rioters as ethnic violence continued for a third day. At least 31 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in clashes that have triggered fears of a potential new conflict in the volatile Balkans. Among the injured were 61 peacekeepers, three of whom were seriously hurt this week, said Capt. Athanasios Zormbas, a NATO spokesman. In the Serb village of Svinjare just north of the provincial capital, Pristina, smoke billowed from houses set ablaze in fresh attacks in the worst unrest since Kosovo’s war ended in 1999. U.N. police described the overall situation as calmer than Thursday, when ethnic Albanians set Serb homes and at least 15 churches on fire. In revenge, Serbian nationalists set mosques on fire and threatened to retaliate with "slaughter and death." |