MOGADISHU - Ten aid workers were still being held in the Somali capital Mogadishu despite a claim by one faction leader that they would be freed.
LAGOS - Nigeria`s army said a special military tribunal trying 26 people accused of plotting to topple military ruler General Sani Abacha would give its verdict on April 28.
KINSHASA - The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has suspended a private radio station run by the Roman Catholic church in the town of Kisangani.
TOKYO - North Korea has blasted the South for the failure of recent inter-Korean talks, accusing it of bugging the conference table in Beijing where the talks were held, state media reported.
DIYARBAKIR - A Turkish court sentenced the Islamist mayor of Istanbul, Turkey`s largest city, to 10 months in jail for an alleged anti-secularist speech.
NEW YORK - The United States and Britain have begun a secretive operation to remove nuclear material from the Caucasus nation of Georgia.
JERUSALEM - U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said Washington was ready to fund research and development for a third Arrow anti-missile battery.
TEHRAN - Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran`s ties with Saudi Arabia were improving and this year`s haj pilgrimage to Mecca was a success.
ROME - The largest party in Italy`s ruling coalition called for the immediate release of an Italian journalist held in a Turkish jail, saying his detention was damaging relations between the two countries.
TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto came under fire from all sides for his handling of the economy, raising speculation that his leadership was near an end.
MOSCOW - Russian parliamentary leaders agreed the State Duma lower house will hold its decisive third vote on Friday on Sergei Kiriyenko, the Kremlin`s choice for the post of prime minister.
COLOMBO - Government troops have captured a Tamil Tiger base in northern Sri Lanka in a renewed push to seize control of a rebel-held area that left some 100 combatants dead.
BEIJING - China has sentenced a democracy activist to a labour camp for meeting a U.S.-based dissident who sneaked into the country to set up an opposition party.
GENEVA - Refugees from fighting in Sierra Leone have reported atrocities by forces loyal to the ousted military regime reminiscent of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
LISBON - Angola`s former rebel movement UNITA has met enough of its commitments under a peace deal to avoid further sanctions by the U.N. Security Council.
PALMA DE MAJORCA - Mediterranean foreign ministers charged Israel with taking unilateral actions "contrary to the peace process" and they backed plans for a new round of U.S.-sponsored Middle East talks in London.
JAKARTA - Indonesia took new measures to strengthen the battered rupiah but the currency market shrugged off the move and campus protests over the economic crisis widened.
TUNIS - The Libyan lawyer for two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing said he had reached agreement with a lawyer for victims` families on a proposed trial in the Netherlands under Scottish law.
GENEVA - The United Nations Commission on Human Rights rejected a U.S.-sponsored resolution criticising Cuba for violations of fundamental freedoms, breaking with years of
condemnation.
PARIS - The French government said it had signed an accord
with both separatist and loyalist forces on the future of
France`s South Pacific island of New Caledonia.
TEHRAN - The trial of Tehran`s mayor on graft charges will
be held in open court, Iran`s judiciary chief said.
SANAA - Security forces cordoned off an area in Yemen`s
rugged interior where mountain tribesmen were holding a British
family hostage.
PARIS - Rebels of Algeria`s Islamic Salvation Army (AIS)
joined government troops to fight rival guerrillas from the
hardline Islamic Armed Group (GIA).
NICOSIA - A court in Cyprus will hand down a sentence next
Monday on an AIDS patient who admitted placing her lovers at
risk of contracting the lethal HIV virus.
