WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton marked Israel`s 50th anniversary of statehood by urging the Jewish state not to squander the chance to achieve its founders`vision of peace with its Arab neighbours.

NEW YORK - A corporate watchdog group accused Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco of "circumventing" laws, "manipulating" trade agreements and aggressively marketing cigarettes to young people overseas as opposition mounted against tobacco in the United States.

JERUSALEM - Israeli President Ezer Weizman held surprise talks with top Palestinian negotiators in an attempt to set on course a peace process the United States has complained is going around in circles.

AMMAN - The first humanitarian flight by an American disaster relief group since the 1991 Gulf War took off for Baghdad carrying medical supplies and a Hollywood movie star.

MOSCOW - Russia plans to make a controversial delivery of missiles to Cyprus in August, a month or two earlier than expected.

ANKARA - More than 1,000 people staged an angry protest in a Turkish tourist city against Kurdish guerrillas reported to have been active in nearby mountains.

PARIS - Forty Algerians were killed in a Moslem New Year massacre at a village in Medea province south of Algiers.

ATHENS - The fatal stabbing of a Nigerian street peddler outside an Athens soccer fan club provoked sombre comment in the Greek press about a growing climate of racism and hooliganism in the country.

NAIROBI - Nairobi's coffee exchange launched electronic trading at the weekly coffee export auction, putting an end to 63 years of a traditional open outcry system.

JOHANNESBURG - A shark attacked and killed a South African tourist in Mozambique as she tried to tow a rubber dinghy back to shore.

MOSCOW - Russian President Boris Yeltsin is likely to announce first nominations for the new government after meeting Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko.

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council has decided to leave sanctions against Iraq in place but postponed action to phase out inspections on nuclear weapons programs U.N. arms experts say Iraq has now dismantled.

TOKYO - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, heading for important pre-summit talks with Beijing, accused China of continuing to repress its people.

COPENHAGEN - A major labour dispute in Denmark entered its second day with trade unions and employer groups locked in their positions, prompting media commentators to look at the government's options to end the conflict.

CANBERRA - Australia's High Court adjourned a hearing into an appeal by Patrick Stevedores against a lower court order that it should reinstate 1,400 sacked dockers.

JAMMU, India - India's new government is ready to hold talks with Kashmiri groups to end the eight-year-old insurgency in the Himalayan region.

TOKYO - Russian President Boris Yeltsin`s health is good, but he has had a liver problem and is abstaining from alcohol.

GUATEMALA CITY - A Roman Catholic bishop was beaten to death with a cement block in an apparent political assassination just two days after he presented a report on Guatemala's war atrocities.

MADRID - A toxic spill in southern Spain has caused an ecological disaster that is worsening by the hour as contaminated water and acid mud flow towards the sea.

PRISTINA, Serbia - European Union foreign ministers said Yugoslavia had not done enough to seek a peaceful settlement in Kosovo as ethnic Albanians buried nine dead and the Yugoslav army said it had killed three more separatists.

NAIROBI - Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi dismissed out of hand a widely acclaimed weekend meeting of government and opposition members of parliament that agreed to create a joint committee to tackle Kenya`s economic woes.

KINSHASA - Two human rights activists were arrested by security officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as they left a meeting at the Belgian embassy in Kinshasa.

DAKAR - Students at Senegal's main university in Dakar clashed with police when they took to the streets to demand that their grants be increased.

PARIS - The French Interior Ministry said Air France would immediately resume carrying illegal immigrants expelled from France back to the West African state of Mali.

NGARA, Tanzania - An increasing number of Rwandans are seeking refuge in neighbouring Tanzania, sparking fears by the United Nations of a new exodus.