Campaign:
NATO investigating claims that up to 100 civilians died when its planes attacked a Kosovo village during the heaviest raids yet of the seven-week campaign. They say they have no direct evidence of attacks and maintain Serbs were shelling in the area. Serb media insist NATO dropped eight anti-personnel cluster bombs on the village of Korisa, 40 miles south-west of the capital, Pristina. Survivors said the village had been packed with ethnic Albanian refugees fleeing the Serbs and there were also around 50 wounded - mainly women, children and old people.
Serb sources maintain NATO attacks have killed a total of 1,200 civilians - despite claims that they are not being targeted. The death toll continues to mount regardless of who takes the blame. Among the worst examples of civilian killings and NATO "mistakes" are: April 6th - bombs destroy block of flats in Pristina, killing nine; April 12th - missile hits passenger train as it crosses railway bridge south of Belgrade, killing 10; April 14th - Albanian refugee convoy bombed with up to 75 dead; April 23rd - deliberate air strike on the headquarters of the state-run Serb TV station in Belgrade kills 10; April 27th - missiles strike Surdulica, 200 miles south of Belgrade, destroying about 50 houses and killing at least 17; May 1st - missile hits civilian bus on a bridge north of Pristina, killing up to 60; May 7th - Chinese embassy bombed killing three Chinese citizens and sparking a diplomatic crisis.
Diplomacy:
President Bill Clinton calls President Jiang Zemin and makes personal apology for NATO's bombing of Belgrade embassy. They also discuss stalled negotiations between the two countries on China's entry into the World Trade Organisation.
NATO wants Milosevic to withdraw his troops and special police forces from Kosovo and allow an international peacekeeping mission into the province, says US Defence Secretary William Cohen: "We're updating the peacekeeping mission [plans], and that will probably require more forces . . . You would think that it might have been less, but where hostilities are indeed still smouldering by virtue of what has taken place with the mass slaughters, then you'll see perhaps more forces being required." The original proposal called for a force with 28,000 NATO troops. Recent proposals have called for a larger force with a NATO "core".
Regions:
Bulgaria hands over 31 tanks and 18 howitzers to neighbouring Macedonia as part of a transfer intended to increase the security of the tiny Balkan state on the edge of the Kosovo conflict. The grant, first announced in March before NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia began, comprises a total of 94 T-55 tanks, 108 (122mm) howitzers - and ammunition. At handover ceremony in no man's land, Macedonian Defence Minister Nikola Kljusev says weaponry will be used only for defence.
Refugees:
The latest statistics show that over 900,000 have been expelled from Kosovo since fighting began there in March 1998, according to UNHCR, the refugee agency. The figures include refugees currently in the surrounding countries, those moved out of Macedonia and those in other European countries seeking asylum.
Yugoslavia says that up to 300,000 people have left Kosovo since NATO attacks began, far below aid workers' estimates. But UNHCR gives the following breakdown of refugee numbers in the territories surrounding Serbia: Albania - 431,500; Macedonia - 233,000; Montenegro - 64,300. Figures for Bosnia include 18,500 Kosovo Albanians, as well as 20,550 arrivals from Serbia's Sandzak region and 17,590 Serbs and Montenegrins.
Quote of the Day:
"My aim is to co-ordinate and organise the political life of Kosovo, because all the leaders of Kosovo are outside Kosovo, so that we can return to Kosovo as soon as possible to continue life there. This is the basis of our optimism." Moderate Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova.