GEORGE, South Africa - Former South African president P.W. Botha arrived at court for the start of his trial for failing to appear before the country`s truth commission. He failed to avoid a humiliating court appearance after the breakdown of talks between his lawyers and officials of the statutory Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
KINSHASA - Three high-profile prisoners and opponents of President Laurent Kabila have escaped from a jail in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
AMMAN - A British member of parliament flew a young Iraqi cancer victim to London, saying she was a symbol of the suffering inflicted on her country by war and sanctions.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution of a Paraguayan man in a case the State Department warned could come back to haunt U.S. travellers accused of crimes abroad.
MOSCOW - Fresh hopes for a compromise to ease Russia`s crisis over the choice of a new prime minister will be tested in debates in the opposition-dominated State Duma lower house.
BEIJING - Talks between North and South Korea have broken down over Seoul`s demand for concessions on reuniting separated Korean families.
UNITED NATIONS - U.N. officials warned that access to President Saddam Hussein`s palaces may not yet be resolved, almost two months after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan signed an accord with Iraq over arms inspections.
WASHINGTON - Developing nations will ask for a review of the role of international monetary and financial institutions in the wake of the Asian economic crisis, according to a draft of their communique.
BOGOTA - At least 17 people, including civilians, military personnel and guerrillas, have died in Colombia`s latest wave of political violence.
LONDON - The Myanmar army tortured and killed hundreds of people of the Shan ethnic minority and forced at least 300,000 to flee their homes in the last two years.
UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said a May 31 target date for completing the identification of potential voters in a referendum on the future of Western Sahara was unlikely to be met.
JERUSALEM - The Israeli army`s chief prosecutor plans to challenge a court decision to acquit a Lebanese man of charges of firing Katyusha rockets at Israel.
ANKARA - Turkey`s parliament voted to debate on Thursday a government call for an investigation into the personal wealth of former prime minister Tansu Ciller.
ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast, making its peacekeeping debut, will have the largest contingent in the U.N. force assembling in the Central African Republic.
MERERANI, Tanzania - Officials held out little hope of finding more survivors of a mine disaster in northern Tanzania which was feared to have killed scores of miners.
YAOUNDE - A Cameroon appeals court upheld a guilty verdict against local publisher Pius Njawe but reduced his sentence for writing a story about President Paul Biya`s health.
PARIS - France is leaving 250 soldiers behind in the Central African Republic to help with the logistics of the peacekeeping U.N. force taking over from an African peace force.
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian officials warned the Moslem militant group Hamas against challenging a Palestinian Authority investigation into the death of bombmaker Muhyideen al-Sharif.
