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MOSCOW - Russia seemed as far as ever from sorting out its economic chaos. A former deputy premier who walked out after just nine days in office lambasted his erstwhile colleagues and said cash from the International Monetary Fund would be held up for months as Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov dithers over strategy between leftist and liberal options.
NEW YORK - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright held talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in an effort to make concrete progress on Middle East peace efforts in the next few days and forestall Arafat`s threat to declare a Palestinian state.
SARAJEVO - A senior Bosnian politician accused neighbouring Yugoslavia of repeating in Kosovo the "ethnic cleansing" that took place in his country in 1992-1995.
PRISTINA - The ethnic Albanian Kosovo Information Centre said eight people died in fighting in the Drenica region of central Kosovo.
MASERU - Lesotho troops began returning to barracks in response to a call by the kingdom`s army chief to report for normal duty after foreign soldiers helped to crush a rebellion.
MADRID - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said during a visit to the Basque country that he hoped to take advantage of a ceasefire announced by ETA guerrillas, but urged patience in the peace process.
BRUSSELS - Belgium`s King Albert accepted the resignation of Interior Minister Louis Tobback over the death of a Nigerian woman during her forced deportation, the latest in a series of scandals to rock the nation. The announcement came as thousands of mourners and protesters attended the funeral, organised by 80 human rights goups, of 20-
year-old Senira Adamu.
MELBOURNE - The Australian state of Victoria awoke to no gas supplies except to hospitals amid its worst energy crisis after a series of explosions and fires badly damaged a coastal natural gas plant. Two people died in the blasts on Friday.
COLOMBO - At least 58 combatants were killed when Tamil Tiger rebels attacked the army`s defences in northern Sri Lanka and in fighting elsewhere.
SKOPJE - Five Balkan countries endorsed NATO`s decision to prepare a task force for Kosovo, as the United States again urged the Yugoslavs to comply with NATO and U.N. demands "sooner rather than later".
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian authorities closed the capital`s main square after the fourth anti-government protest in a week, as opponents of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad planned another mass rally on Sunday.
SARAJEVO - Newly-elected Bosnian Serb president and hardline nationalist Nikola Poplasen called for the formation of a government uniting all Serb political parties in the country`s Serb entity.
LOS ANGELES - California Democratic loyalists rallied around President Bill Clinton in the face of his sex scandal as he plied their deep pockets for hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions for the party.
DAKAR - Envoys of Portuguese-speaking and West African states are likely to meet in the near future to discuss ways of bringing lasting peace to Guinea Bissau.
