SOWETO, South Africa - Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who has been accused at South Africa's truth commission of assault and murder, opened the tiny home she once shared with Nelson Mandela as a private museum.

BAGHDAD - Iraq said the U.S. administration was under internal pressure to launch a decisive showdown with Baghdad and likened the situation in the Gulf region to the days preceding the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait.

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to force through a cabinet vote for a conditional troop withdrawal in the West Bank -- a pullback likely to be rejected by Palestinians.

TAIPEI - Taiwan's ruling Nationalists nursed their worst electoral wounds since losing China's mainland in 1949, beaten in local polls by a party that won votes by cooling its calls for independence from China.

PARIS - Algerian troops killed 26 Moslem guerrillas at a rebel camp south of the Algerian capital, where 25 civilians had been slaughtered at a roadblock.

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was on a collision course with the president and judiciary in an increasingly bitter struggle for power.

DHAKA - Clashes between Bangladeshi riot police and opposition activists during a general strike in Dhaka injured nearly 40 people.

SEOUL - South Korea and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached an initial agreement on terms for rescue loans.

BAGHDAD - Iraq said it had accepted in principle an extension of its oil-for-food deal with the United Nations, despite its reported reservations on the implementation of the deal.

LONDON - Gerry Adams, the Northern Irish nationalist leader once so reviled by London that his voice was banned from British airwaves, is to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair at his Downing Street office next month.

WASHINGTON - Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon conducted a mass blessing of marriages of identically dressed couples from his Unification Church watched by satellite as millions more rededicated their vows.

KUALA LUMPUR - An emergency rescue fund for ailing Southeast Asian economies may not be set up until next year because of turmoil in South Korea.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - More than 40 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers were wounded on Saturday in clashes in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

AMMAN - King Hussein of Jordan, opening the first parliamentary session since elections marred by an Islamist-led boycott, defended his troubled peace with Israel and pledged tougher control of political parties.

JERUSALEM - About 150,000 Israeli public sector workers began a 24-hour strike to protest economic measures introduced by the Treasury.

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania - Police on the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar have arrested six senior members of the opposition Civic United Front party ahead of a bi-election on Sunday.

DUBAI - Iran's President Mohammad Khatami set up a five-member body to ensure implementation of the constitution and help protect people's rights.

BLANTYRE - More than 50,000 Malawians lined the road from Blantyre's airport to witness the return of the body of former president Kamuzu Banda, who died in South Africa on Tuesday aged about 100.