: Might mean absolutely nothing - but there have been multiple
: references to "seven" in recent news stories.

Friday February 16 1:46 PM ET
Bomb Kills Seven Serbs, NATO Warns Kosovo

By Shaban Buza

GATE THREE, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - A bomb attack on a bus killed seven Serbs and injured dozens in northern Kosovo on Friday.

NATO described as an ethnically-motivated incident that could undermine international sympathy for Kosovo.

The bombing, the second attack on a Serb convoy this week, appeared likely to stoke regional tensions and complicate a bid to find a peaceful solution to violence in a Kosovo buffer zone.

NATO Secretary General George Robertson called the killings, inflicted by a big bomb planted on the road to Podujevo, a ``disgraceful and cowardly incident'' and clearly a deliberate attack on civilians.

``NATO did not conduct its air campaign in order to see ethnic cleansing by one group replaced by the ethnic attacks and intimidation of another,'' he said, referring to the 1999 air strikes against Yugoslavia to drive Serb forces from Kosovo.

The Nis Express bus, escorted by Swedish peacekeepers, was just less than a mile south of Gate Three on Kosovo's northern boundary with Serbia proper when the explosion happened at around
5:15 a.m. EST.

Of the 60-odd passengers on board, seven died at the scene, 10 were seriously injured and others suffered lighter injuries. Some were missing, KFOR spokesman Tim Pearce said.

Brigadier Robert Fry, a senior member of the NATO-led peacekeeping force, said two people found near the scene had been detained but it was not clear if they were involved.

``We must be quite clear about what this was. it was a ruthless, premeditated act of mass murder,'' he said.

Peacekeepers, Un Police In Area

Military helicopters flew overhead while peacekeepers and U.N. police swarmed in the area around the bus's charred frame.

``One explosion took place. The explosion was the result of something like between 100 to 200 pounds (45-90 kg) of explosive. The first bus in the convoy was targeted there in the attack,'' Fry said.

``There were men, women and children traveling on that bus and whoever perpetrated this did so with complete disregard for human life and also for the reputation of the people of Kosovo in the
wider world,'' Fry told Reuters at the scene.

Shortly after the attack, Serb relatives of the dead and injured passengers staged furious protests in and around their home village of Gracanica, where the buses were headed, blocking roads and burning vehicles and property.

KFOR spokesman Steven Shappell said the Gracanica U.N. administrator's car was one of those set alight. He said there were no injuries and other officials said the situation had calmed down.

In Belgrade, the Yugoslav parliament cut short a session in protest and politicians condemned the attack, which comes just two days after a Serb man was killed and two children were injured when a gunman attacked their bus near Strpce.

The Civic Alliance party led by Goran Svilanovic, new Yugoslav foreign minister and one of most widely-respected members of the new reformist government that took over from Slobodan Milosevic
after his ouster in October, condemned KFOR.

``At a moment when the Serbian government is taking moderate and tolerant steps in a very tense situation to resolve the problems it inherited in Kosovo and southern Serbia, such passivity by KFOR forces is additionally complicating the situation in these areas and questioning the point of having such 'observation' forces','' it said.

Serb Talks With Ethnic Albanians

In Vienna, Serbia's deputy prime minister said Serbia could hold official talks with ethnic Albanian leaders within 10 days to try to find a peaceful solution to the violence in a Kosovo buffer zone.

``Official talks should start within the next 10 days,'' Nebojsa Covic told the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Covic was in Vienna to present
Serbia's plan to end fighting by ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the southern Serbian Presevo Valley.

Several hundred well-armed Albanian rebels have moved into the Kosovo buffer zone, which NATO declared a no-go zone for Serbian forces after taking control in Kosovo in June 1999.

Ethnic Albanians are in the vast majority in two of the area's three main towns.

On Thursday, NATO strongly welcomed the Serbian plan as a starting point for talks and warned guerrillas to talk peace or it could let Serbian forces retake control of their safe haven on Kosovo's eastern border.

The guerrillas vowed on Friday to fight back if NATO allowed Serb security forces to move in.

``If the international community allowed such an action, then the Albanians would be forced to resist within their power,'' said Tahir Dalipi, a political representative of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB).

Violence also broke out overnight on the streets of Belgrade, where the government is gearing up for a crackdown on mafia gangs they say were allowed to flourish by Milosevic.

Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said a gunman had opened fire on a car in his motorcade in the city center during the early morning.

He said it was too early to comment on local media speculation that the incident was an assassination attempt, but several political parties belonging to the ruling DOS democratic alliance
condemned it as a murder attempt. The Social Democracy Party and the Democratic Party of Serbia, led by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, said the recent incidents had clearly proved a link between organized crime and the old regime. But they said it would not prevent the new authorities from enforcing the rule of law.

-----