JOHANNESBURG - South Africa`s ruling African National Congress (ANC) said on Sunday it would send a high-level delegation to Dublin to help with the implementation of the agreement on Northern Ireland.
LONDON - South Africa`s Nobel prize-winning author Nadine Gordimer has asked to be taken off the shortlist for a British literary prize because it is confined to women.
NICOSIA - A Cypriot with AIDS was jailed for seven months after pleading guilty to two counts of recklessly exposing her lovers to the lethal virus.
TUNIS - An Italian publisher on a humanitarian mission in Libya said a Libyan official had promised that two Italians held in the country for seven months might be allowed to return home on Monday.
NIAMEY - Anti-government protesters blocked major roads with flaming tyres in a flareup of violence in the Niger capital.
MOGADISHU - At least 37 Somalis were killed and 55 wounded in three days of fighting between rival armed factions for control of the Kismayu area in southern Somalia.
PRISTINA, Serbia - The Yugoslav army said it stopped 200 suspected ethnic Albanian guerrillas from entering troubled Kosovo province with a massive amount of weapons.
NEW YORK - Displaying frustration at an impasse in negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said this was a time of "grave danger" in the Middle East and the peace process was "going around in circles."
TOKYO - A gap appeared to grow between Japan`s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and an increasingly restive public who want Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to step down.
DONANA NATIONAL PARK, Spain - Spanish engineers battled to reinforce makeshift dykes protecting one of Europe`s most prized nature reserves after diverting a massive spillage of toxic waste away from the park.
NEW YORK - Russia is helping India to build a sea-launched ballistic missile that can carry a nuclear warhead and strike deep into Pakistan.
KRASNOYARSK, Russia - Russian reserve general Alexander Lebed was firmly on course to become governor of the vast Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia and gain a power base to stand for president.
COPENHAGEN - Denmark`s biggest labour dispute in 13 years began, with nearly half a million workers expected to go on strike.
MEDAN, Indonesia - Indonesian security forces used water cannon and tear gas to drive students demonstrating against President Suharto back onto their campus in Medan.
LISBON - East Timor`s traditionally fractious resistance movements have united to elect jailed guerrilla chief Xanana Gusmao as leader of a new single front against Indonesian rule of the Pacific territory.
PARIS - Algeria`s highest religious body has issued a controversial edict banning women who have been raped by Moslem rebels from having abortions.
BOGOTA - At least five bombs exploded in Bogota, killing one person and wrecking the offices of two presidential candidates.
GAZA - U.S. special envoy Dennis Ross said the time had come for Israel and the Palestinians to break the protracted peace deadlock.
JERUSALEM - The founder of the militant Hamas group, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, described the Palestinian Authority as an Israeli tool and said Hamas would continue to attack Israeli targets.
MOSCOW - Russia`s youthful Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko kicks off his first week in office by holding talks with parliamentary deputies on the formation of new government.
HAVANA - Canada`s Prime Minister Jean Chretien began a visit to Cuba underlining his nation`s opposition to the U.S. embargo against the island which leader Fidel Castro blasted as "genocide".
TYRE, Lebanon - Five Israeli soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, early when a bomb planted by pro-Iranian Hizbollah guerrillas exploded beside a road in south Lebanon.
DUBAI - A Briton reported to have been arrested in Iran on spying charges was released and is no longer in the Islamic republic.
ANKARA - Turkish police have detained 130 people in a month-long crackdown on an armed Islamist group active in the southeast of the country.
