KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo — NATO peacekeepers closed off roads between Serbia and northern Kosovo and armed U.N. policemen guarded smoldering border checkpoints, bracing today for more protests by Serbs incensed by Kosovo's declaration of independence.

For three days, Kosovo's Serbs have shown their anger over Sunday's declaration by destroying U.N. and NATO property, setting off small bombs and staging noisy rallies.

In Jarnije and Brnjak, protesters used plastic explosives and bulldozers to wreck border checkpoint posts and tipped over metal sheds housing U.N. customs service offices. They vandalized and torched passport control booths and U.N. border patrol vehicles.

Serbs planned more protests today to express their anger at the swift recognition of Kosovo's independence by world powers including the United States, France — and now Germany.

But Serbia — and Kosovo's Serbs — refuse to give up Kosovo, a territory Serbs considered the ancient cradle of their state and religion.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's president will not step down as head of state and intends to serve out his five-year term, his spokesman said, despite a sweeping victory by his opponents in an election that President Bush today judged to be fair.Final results from this week's parliamentary poll were expected later today, but with the count nearly complete, two opposition parties have won enough seats to form a new government, though they will likely fall short of the two-thirds needed to impeach the president.The result is seen as a major political setback for Musharraf, a key ally of Washington in fighting Taliban and al-Qaida, whose popularity has plummeted over the past year. The victors were secular political parties; Islamic hard-liners fared badly.

LONDON (AP) — The former head of MI6 denied today that the British intelligence agency was responsible for the car accident that killed Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi al Fayed, in 1997.Sir Richard Dearlove, who was director of special operations for the agency at the time of Diana's Paris accident, testified at the inquest into the pair's death that he also believes an operation by rogue agents would have been impossible.Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, has accused MI6 of engineering the death of his son and the princess at the behest of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband.As director of special operations, Dearlove said it was his responsibility to sign off on any operation that would otherwise be illegal, such as breaking into an office or receiving a stolen document.