Campaign:
NATO responds to Belgrade's claim that it has ordered a partial withdrawal of military and police presence in Kosovo by insisting that the bombing will continue until its five demands - endorsed by the EU - are met in full: ceasefire by Yugoslav and Serb forces; withdrawal from Kosovo; the return of all refugees; deployment of international military force in Kosovo; tangible progress on agreement of Kosovo's political future. Russian response to Belgrade overture is more bullish, with Moscow claiming full credit for latest development.
China:
China's President Jiang Zemin (left) lashes out at NATO's "absolute gunboat policy" and says there can be no UN solution to the Kosovo crisis as long as it is bombing Kosovo. He is reported to have told Russian President Boris Yeltsin that continued NATO bombing will make it "impossible for the UN Security Council to discuss any plan to solve the problem". China, like Russia, is a permanent member of the Security Council and its support is vital for any UN peace plan. Both leaders agreed that Moscow's Balkan envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin, should travel to Beijing as part of the search for an end to the conflict.
It is feared that NATO's mistaken attack on the Chinese embassy has seriously complicated the former Russian prime minister's efforts to broker an end to the Kosovo crisis based on initiatives proposed at last week's G8 meeting in Bonn. President Clinton has sent his regrets for the strike to Jiang, but the Chinese government throws its weight behind widespread public protest against US and other NATO diplomatic missions. The Irish embassy in Beijing is also stoned, despite Ireland not being party to the NATO alliance. Ambassador Joe Hayes blames this, more than anything else, on the Irish mission's location: next door to the American embassy.
The virulent anti-American mood in China casts clouds on one of the few bright areas in China-USA relations - talks on Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO). So far the Chinese government has said nothing about the WTO talks. Officially, the Foreign Trade Ministry, China's negotiating authority in its 13-year effort to join the WTO, is fully supporting the government line.
Diplomacy:
Yugoslavia goes to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, to demand an immediate end to NATO's air attacks on its territory, saying they are tantamount to genocide. NATO strongly refutes assertion that its bombardment of Yugoslavia is a breach of international law; Milosevic's complaint to the UN's top court outrages NATO bosses.
The 10 countries indicted by President Milosevic would have no problem defending themselves, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea insists: "We have taken action to make sure that this [embassy bombing] glitch does not repeat itself. The Chinese incident was a tragic and regrettable anomaly."
Human Rights:
Mary Robinson insists human rights issue is "at the heart" of Kosovo crisis. The international community must investigate all reports of mass rapes and killings and families being forced from their homes. Mrs Robinson says she is concerned, too, about civilian deaths and injuries from the (NATO) bombings. "I do not like the term `collateral damage'," she says. "People are not collateral damage; they are people and they are civilians." She is to make a two-day visit to Belgrade tomorrow.
The West's top peace envoy in Bosnia, Carlos Westendorp, warned the international community not to make the same mistakes in Kosovo as it did in Bosnia. Years after the war ended, peace is still dependent on the presence of 32,000 NATO-led troops.
Quote of the Day:
"America and the world are learning what it means for the United States to conduct a war with a weakened Congress and a wobbly president. It is not an inspiring spectacle." - Washington Post.