DAR-ES-SALAAM - Military units exchanged fire after an incident involving Tanzanian fishermen and a Burundian naval patrol boat on Lake Tanganyika at the weekend.
KINSHASA - Shells fired during fighting in the Congo Republic capital Brazzaville killed 17 people in Kinshasa, neighbouring capital of the former Zaire.
NEGAGE, Angola - Angola's former rebel UNITA movement handed back a key northern town to the government in a move intended to stave off sanctions, officials said.
BRUSSELS - The European Court's Advocate General said on Tuesday that the European Commission's ban on British beef exports was valid.
SACRAMENTO - California Gov. Pete Wilson has signed a bill allowing individual smokers in the nation's most populous state to sue tobacco companies.
JERUSALEM - Israel does not intend to change its policy on Jewish settlement when it discusses the concept of a "time-out" with Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Israelis and Palestinians agreed at a meeting in New York with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
PARIS - Members of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) killed 40 civilians and kidnapped five young girls in an attack in Blida province on Sunday night. 10 people were killed at Bouzareah in Algiers on the same night and two families, each of four people, were killed in other attacks.
BAGHDAD - Two military planes flew over a camp of an Iraq-based Iranian exile opposition group on Monday, 12 hours after eight Iranian planes raided the base. Group's anti-aircraft units opened fire on the two planes, forcing them to flee.
HANOI - Vietnam renewed its propaganda offensive against the growing scourge of drug abuse and trafficking, burning huge hauls of heroin and opium at a public ceremony in Hanoi.
TAEGU, South Korea - South Korea's ruling New Korea Party said it approved presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang as its new leader at a party convention in Taegu.
TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's popularity dipped sharply after he named a convicted bribe-taker as a cabinet member, an opinion poll showed. Koko Sato, a politician convicted of bribery in the 1970s Lockheed payoff scandal, resigned as management and coordination minister after coming under harsh criticism from the public.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER - The space shuttle Atlantis' orbital delivery run to Mir was ahead of schedule with some of the most crucial items already stowed aboard the station.
KUALA LUMPUR - Divers failed to locate the 28 Indian crew members and a two-year-old boy believed trapped in a cargo vessel that sank in the Strait of Malacca on Friday night.
SRINAGAR, India - Indian forensic experts have begun examining a body unearthed in Kashmir to determine if it was one of four Western tourists kidnapped more than two years ago.
JERUSALEM - Israel is prepared to discuss a temporary freeze on Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman said.
PARIS - France challenged U.S. policy on Iran, backing a decision by French oil company Total to defy U.S. sanctions and invest there and saying times were changing in Tehran with the election of its new president.
