NATO troops start deployment in Macedonia 30-day mission aims to disarm ethnic Albanian rebels

BRUSSELS, Belgium--NATO authorized deployment of 3,500 troops toMacedonia on Wednesday and could begin collecting weapons from ethnicAlbanian rebels early next week in its latest foray trying to bringstability in the Balkans.

Troops started moving almost immediately, with the first Frenchsoldiers of the main force arriving Wednesday afternoon in thecapital Skopje, joining the 400 communications and headquarterspersonnel already on the ground.

NATO officials said complete deployment probably would take 10days to two weeks, but the job of collecting rebel arms andtransporting them to a central location for destruction could beginwell before all the troops had …