LOME - West African leaders agreed at a summit in Togo to set up a permanent mechanism for peacekeeping and conflict management in their volatile region.

ABUJA - One of Nigeria`s five political parties said massive cheating ensured the victory in state assembly elections of a party which backs military ruler General Sani Abacha.

SEOUL - South Koreans began voting in a presidential election which political analysts forecast could be the closest in the country`s history.

UNITED NATIONS - Iraq has told the United Nations all its weapons of mass destruction have been scrapped and it would offer no new information about them but added it was ready to answer questions.

PLANO, Texas - About 20 children being held hostage at a day care centre near Dallas were set free night and police said they were optimistic they could soon win the release of the other children inside.

KINGSTON, Jamaica - The leaders of Jamaica`s three major political parties signed a code of conduct designed to ensure peaceful elections, a day before voters in the Caribbean island nation go to the polls.

PARIS - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held breakfast talks in Paris as hopes dimmed for progress in the stalled Middle East peace talks.

NEW HAVEN - A Connecticut jury awarded $12.2 million to a former Yale intern who sued the Yale Medical School after she contracted the AIDS virus while working on an AIDS patient nine years ago.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said Jordan`s outrage at the hanging of four of its citizens in Baghdad was not objective.

NEW YORK - U.S. state officials, fresh from winning an unprecedented settlement with the tobacco industry, have joined forces again to consider a national antitrust battle against Microsoft Corp.

PARIS - Five people were killed and two seriously wounded when a bomb exploded under a bus in Algiers.

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon - One pro-Israeli militiaman was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb detonated by Moslem guerrillas in south Lebanon.