A busy day here in Skopje–Alessandra arrived from Rome via Greece this morning and we went to the border to do refugee story–not many people coming through because Serb paramilitaries are harassing all cars on the roads; those that came through spoke of having to pay bribes, searches at gun point, etc. NATO has established a visible presence, Italian tanks patrolling, feathers in their helmets.

Then we came back into town and found a pro-Serb demonstration building at the American Embassy–first a small crowd, then it grew, stones breaking windows and finally an attempt to storm the compound, firebombs destroyed the guardhouse and blew up several cars–riot police finally arrived and restrained the crowd. I got hit by a rock and smeared with eggs.

All the journalists were evicted from Pristina after major problems: cars and mobile phones stolen, cameras smashed, cars blown up. Everyone got out OK in the end. We found Carlotta, Tyler, and all the others in the lobby of the Alexander Palace Hotel, the mud-covered armored cars in the parking lot a grim testament to the ordeal of the last month.