The Campaign
Nato admits stray missile fired at military barracks in Surdulica overshot and hit homes; Yugoslav authorities say 20 civilians killed and fear more bodies in rubble; Nato apologises.
Nato and Yugoslav sources say Alliance planes hit oil refinery in Novi Sad and television transmitter on Iriski Venak, near city; seven strong explosions also heard on Mount Sipcanik, 10 kms from Prodgorica, capital of Montenegro; plus: missiles fired in and around Pristina, with about five hitting village of Batusa; two hitting town on Paracin, in central Serbia.
Yugoslav positions in Montenegro port of Bar fire anti-aircraft guns and rockets at overhead planes; port workers against action, saying it makes port a Nato target; Nato planes meanwhile bomb Golubovci, area outside Montenegro capital Prodgorica, site of joint military-civilian report.
Refugees:
UNHCR warns Macedonia camps "on the verge of rioting" due to overcrowding pressures. "The people are really living in unbearable congestion. It's very, very tense and it has to be defused very, very quickly,", warns spokesman Kris Janowski; dangers of disease rising daily with onset of warmer weather, he adds.As many as 4,000 new refugees arrive a Blace border post between Kosovo and Macedonia; they include people from Pristina and Urosevac.
Diplomacy:
UN Secretary general Kofi Annan arrives in Moscow for talks with envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and foreign minister Igor Ivanov; noting efforts to achieve solution at an early stage, Annan says lasting political solution "cannot be won on the battlefield."
US says Belgrade still long way off meeting Nato's five demands: ceasefire, withdrawal, return of refugees, international force in Kosovo, and political progress on future of province.
Inside Serbia:
Vuk Draskovic, Yugoslav deputy prime minister, sacked for suggesting Milosevic regime lying over Kosovo; Draskovic, idiosyncratic writer and opponent of Milosevic, who nonetheless joined him in government, may now take opposition to streets.
First reports of ethnic cleansing in Serbia; Kosovo refugees in Macedonia say Serb paramilitary units expelling ethnic Albanians from Presevo area, close to Kosovo and Macedonian border.
In The Region:
Woman killed and man seriously injured in bomb attack late Tuesday at Athen's Intercontinental hotel by a leftist group protesting Nato's campaign; letter to Athens newspaper says bomb "an answer to Nato's raid in Balkans."
Post-war reconstruction must involve all countries in southeastern Europe, says Romanian President Emil Constantinescu; Romanian steel mill, cement and power plants make it pivotal in rebuilding Yugoslavia, he adds.
And...
Premature end feared for pioneering RSPCA mercy mission to help Bosnians deal with the problem of thousands of unwanted stray dogs; mission hoped to stop practice of local dog-catchers garrotting strays with wire and of animals being left to die in basement kennels without food or water.
Quote of the Day:
We never wanted but the people and the leadership of the country could not accept an ultimatum that would in effect mean the capitulation and an occupation. War was imposed on us. - head of Yugoslav army, Col General Dragoljub Ojdanic.