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War in the Balkans: Timetable: Day 31

Friday 23 April 1999 23:02 BST
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Friday 23 April

1am: An explosion at the RTS building in Belgrade, where Serbian TV has its main studio, took all channels off the air.

7am: Serbian TV resumed broadcasting from secret transmitters.

2.20pm: Russia's Balkan envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin, said Slobodan Milosevic had agreed to the deployment of foreign troops in Kosovo.

2.50pm: Ethnic Albanian guerrillas inside Kosovo reported to have written to Nato asking for air drops or ground forces.

3.20pm: Yugoslavia said it had discussed a possible unarmed UN presence in Kosovo with Russia's envoy, apparently contradicting his reported statement that Belgrade had agreed to admit troops.

3.55pm: Nato said the reported Yugoslav offer on a foreign presence in Kosovo fell well short of what was required.

4pm: Serbs reported that two Nato missiles had exploded near Pristina.

5pm: Yugoslavia told the UN that bombing of chemical, oil and pharmaceutical plants had caused an "ecological catastrophe".

5.30pm: Albanian police loaded 3,000 refugees on to buses in Kukes and moved them out of town.

6.30pm: A UN team in Malina Mala, on the Macedonia-Kosovo border, requested food and clothing for 100 refugees, found in a mosque, who had walked for 10 hours in the rain.

6.55pm: Nato bombed the mainly ethnic Albanian village of Ajvalija, south of Pristina, Serbs reported.

9.15pm: Air raid sirens sounded in Belgrade.

9.35pm: Serbs reported that Serbian anti-aircraft missiles had hit a Nato plane over Kosovo.

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