A planned car bombing in the centre of Jerusalem failed after the van carrying the explosive caught fire, Jerusalem police commander said.

BELFAST - Talks seeking to end a two-week dispute over a banned Protestant march down a Catholic road in Northern Ireland ended early without agreement, but some progress was made.

JOHANNESBURG - South African newspapers hailed President Nelson Mandela‘s marriage to Graca Machel as the newly-weds prepared for their first public appearance at a high-profile banquet later in the day.

TEHRAN - Iran‘s sports authority has reinstated a trip to the United States by the Islamic republic‘s wrestling team, the Persian-language newspaper Iran reported on Sunday.

A delegation from the European Union began a second day of talks with Iranian officials in the highest level contact for 18 months.

DILI, East Timor - U.N. special envoy Jamsheed Marker arrived in East Timor and headed straight for the territory‘s second town of Baucau, scene of anti-Indonesian demonstrations at the end of June.

PHNOM PENH - Thousands of people cheered Prince Norodom Ranariddh while dozens of trucks bedecked with Sam Rainsy Party flags drove around the capital as the campaign for Cambodia‘s election entered its last week.

FREETOWN - West African forces and Sierra Leonean soldiers who returned to the fold after the restoration of their elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah have captured the eastern town of Kayima, their commander said.

DAKAR - At least five people were killed when a goods train travelling between the Senegalese capital, Dakar, and neighbouring Mali left the rails in heavy rain in eastern Senegal.

NAIROBI - A former game park warden is to be charged with the murder in Kenya nearly 10 years ago of British tourist Julie Ward.

ULUNDI, South Africa - South Africa‘s opposition Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said only a political settlement would bring peace to the volatile KwaZulu-Natal province.

ASSAB, Eritrea - Hundreds of Ethiopians in Eritrea, caught up in the conflict between the Horn of Africa neighbours, have demonstrated for food, work and the opportunity to return home.

PRISTINA, Serbia - The conflict in Kosovo escalated on Sunday as Serbian police and Yugoslav army troops battled ethnic Albanian separatists for control of the town of Orahovac.

MOSCOW - President Boris Yeltsin signed two decrees to help stabilise the economy on Saturday before beginning a summer holiday his prime minister said would be interrupted by more work on Russia‘s shaky finances.

NAIROBI - Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki has challenged Ethiopia to accept arbitration as a means of settling a violent border dispute in which hundreds of people have died.

LAGOS - Moslem prayers to mark the eighth day since the burial of late Nigerian opposition figure Moshood Abiola passed off peacefully after a big show of strength from security forces to forestall demonstrations.

ROME - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed the creation of an international court to try war crimes as a „gift of hope“ even though it was rejected by the United States and branded as meaningless by India.