June 5 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean police detained U.S. and British diplomats for several hours on Thursday, slashing the tyres of their cars after they visited victims of political violence ahead of a presidential vote, the U.S. embassy said.

Below is a chronology of the main developments since the presidential, parliamentary and local elections on March 29.

March 30 - Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims victory based on early results.

March 31 - Results of parliamentary ballot start to emerge. Regional observers say vote was fair but express concern over delay to results. Western countries also concerned at delay.

April 2 - Final parliamentary election results show ZANU-PF has lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980.

MDC says its leader Tsvangirai also won a presidential election and calls on Mugabe to concede. State-owned paper The Herald says no candidate won an outright majority.

April 13 - Regional leaders at a summit in Zambia call for the rapid verification and release of poll results.

April 14 - High Court rejects an opposition request to force authorities to release the presidential election results.

April 15 - An opposition general strike to demand the release of results flops.

April 26 - Mugabe's party fails to reverse its parliamentary election defeat after a partial vote recount.

May 2 - Electoral body says Tsvangirai won most votes in the presidential election, but not enough to avoid a run-off against Mugabe. Opposition rejects the result.

May 10 - Tsvangirai says he will return home to Zimbabwe to contest the run-off even though he believes we won outright.

May 16 - Run-off is set for June 27.

May 19 - Opposition accuses military intelligence agents of a plot to kill Tsvangirai, forcing him to postpone his return to the country. The government dismisses the plot as a propaganda stunt.

May 24 - Tsvangirai returns to Zimbabwe and says Mugabe wants to decimate opposition structures before the run-off.

May 29 - Mugabe says his government had bought 600,000 tonnes of maize to ease food shortages.

June 3 - Zimbabwe has ordered CARE International to suspend its operations after accusing it of political interference.

June 4 - Police release Tsvangirai after holding him for more than eight hours while he was campaigning for the June 27 election run off.

June 5 - Police detain U.S. and British diplomats after halting their convoy in Bindura, north of Harare. Their cars were damaged and the diplomats were detained for several hours.

For a related story, click on [nL05781383] (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ ) (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)

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