NATO Campaign:
NATO warplanes drop bombs on Albanian territory close to the border with Kosovo when around 50 people, including 20 journalists, are in the area, an AFP journalist at the scene reports.
The journalists, accompanied by Albanian soldiers and customs officials, were inspecting a field dotted with communist-era bunkers some 500 yards from the Morina border post, which had already been bombed by NATO planes overnight. Nobody is hurt but panic spreads among the group, while some Albanian soldiers react furiously. Air war shows no sign of let-up overnight as warplanes black out much of Belgrade and hit other targets across Serbia.
Yugoslav media say more than 50 civilians have been killed in the past two days in raids, which include a hit on a sanatorium in the southern Serbian town of Surdulica, and a direct hit on an apartment building in the south-western town of Novi Pazar.
Media carry warning to the West from President Milosevic's office that "massacres and crimes intensified by the NATO aggressor each day . . . are undermining resumed peace efforts".
War Poll:
Europeans deeply divided on air campaign against Yugoslavia, with 53 per cent in favour of the NATO action against 41 per cent opposed, according to poll conducted by the French IPSOS Institute. The survey, carried out between May 7th and May 21st for the French daily Liberation and the World Media Network, shows that while the approval rating for the air strikes is high in Britain (67 per cent) and France (62 per cent), it stands at 54 per cent in Germany and 51 per cent in Italy and Portugal respectively.
In Greece, however, a whopping 97 per cent oppose the NATO strikes, according to the survey carried out in Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The approval rating is higher among right-wing Europeans as well as among those who are well off, educated and holding high-level positions, the survey says.
Only in Britain does the majority (52 per cent) of those questioned favour closer relations with the USA, compared to 48 per cent in Italy, 41 per cent in Spain and 30 per cent in France.
Diplomacy:
The diplomatic pace quickens as key envoys gather in Bonn to plan strategy for visit to Belgrade to test whether Yugoslav overtures are a genuine peace offer or a smokescreen. Russian envoy Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin and EU envoy to Kosovo, Finnish President Mr Martti Ahtisaari, arrive for talks. They meet US Deputy Secretary of State Mr Strobe Talbott, who arrived earlier in the day. Chancellor Gerhard Schroder (left) joins the talks later. The Russian and EU envoys are due in Belgrade today to sound out Mr Milosevic on the apparent softening of his position.
Tanjug, the official Yugoslav news agency, reports that Belgrade had sent a letter to Germany saying it accepts the principles of a Kosovo peace deal as set out by the G8 countries.
The letter says Yugoslavia accepted the notion of a UN "presence" in the battered province. It is the latest in a series of signals from Belgrade that it accepts the principles of the G8 plan, a weaker, Russian-backed version of NATO's demands.
The difference between the two plans lies mainly in the type of foreign military force that will be allowed to take control in Kosovo to protect its ethnic Albanians from Serb forces.
The Russia-backed version, which could form the basis of a UN Security Council mandate without risking a veto from Moscow, leaves more room for non-NATO forces to take a prominent role and for countries like Greece, which has held back from the air assault, to represent NATO inside Kosovo.
However, Kosovo Albanian sources insist that without the protection of the main NATO-member armies, more than 900,000 refugees who have fled or been expelled since the bombing began on March 24th will not return to their homes.
And . . .
Ivica Vujic, a soldier from the western Serbian town of Loznica, tells two Bosnian newspapers that he deserted in April after his unit was informed it was leaving for war-torn Kosovo.
He says he did not want to fight for the "personal interests" of Mr Milosevic. "By deserting, I did not betray Serbhood but the regime now in power."
Quote of the Day:
"I heard a phenomenal noise and thought it was the last thing I would hear on Earth. I was thrown to the ground but then amazed when the thick, grey-black smoke cleared and I was still alive." Eve-Ann Prentice, a reporter with the Times (London), describing the bomb attack on Sunday in which her driver and interpreter were killed, while part of a two-vehicle convoy of Western journalists travelling between the Kosovan towns of Prizren and Brezovica.