LUANDA - U.N. officials in Angola welcomed a decision by the opposition UNITA movement to stay in a three-year-old peace process.
LIBREVILLE - African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries begin their first heads of state and government summit with the future of their preferential trade pact with the European Union (EU) topping the agenda.
BUJUMBURA - The Burundi army said it had freed thousands of people held hostage by Hutu rebels in southern Burundi.
MOGADISHU - Two Somali militia commanders loyal to south Mogadishu warlord Hussein Aideed were killed in separate attacks overnight.
CAPE TOWN - The youth branch of South Africa's white Afrikaner Freedom Front party accused President Nelson Mandela's African National Congress of racist attacks during a fracas in parliament last week.
LAGOS - Nigerian police arrested 50 prostitutes on their way to Ukraine and broken a syndicate that was exporting women.
BAGHDAD - Three UN envoys resumed talks with Iraqi officials to resolve a row over U.S. arms inspectors. The United Nations halted its arms inspections in Iraq for the fourth consecutive day after Baghdad again barred Americans from taking part.
PARIS - Striking French truckers and their bosses negotiated on wages through the night, making progress but failing to clinch an agreement to end a five-day-old blockade of roads.
MADRID - Fifteen people were killed and others were missing in flash floods that crippled parts of southern Spain.
JAKARTA - At least 30 Indonesian cities were covered by thick smog from raging bush and forest fires on Thursday, five more than a day earlier.
HANOI - Typhoon Linda killed at least 285 people when it pounded southern Vietnam last weekend and more than 3,000 are still missing.
TOKYO - Cambodian leader Hun Sen told Japanese politicians that he would discuss with Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk whether to grant an amnesty to ousted co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
KOROLYOV, Russia - Two Russian cosmonauts installed a new solar panel to improve energy supplies to the ageing Mir station during a space walk of more than six hours.
NEW YORK - A prominent Chinese dissident released from a labor camp this year, arrived in the United States.
NEW YORK - The alleged architect of the 1993 World Trade Center explosion and his accomplice felt they were above the law and bombed the landmark to make America feel terror.
HONG KONG - Hong Kong stocks are expected to rise following a better overnight close of Hong Kong stocks in London and amid renewed hopes of asset injections for red chips after one company announced a large deal.
PARIS - German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Jacques Chirac agreed to hold further discussions on who should head the future European Central Bank (ECB).
HEBRON, West Bank - Israeli soldiers ordered about 300 Palestinian men out into the street, took their photographs and warned them against attacking Jewish settlers.
MEXICO CITY - Mexican authorities said they had identified one of three tortured bodies found entombed in concrete as a plastic surgeon who took part in a bungled operation that took the life of a top drug lord.
MOSCOW - Russia ratified an international chemical weapons ban obliging Moscow to destroy its huge arsenals and convert production plants to peaceful use within a decade.
