WYE MILLS, Md. - President Bill Clinton was due to to return to this secluded Maryland retreat to push, prod and cajole Palestinian and Israeli leaders toward an elusive interim land-and-security agreement.

MOSCOW - Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov both said they had no plans to run in the presidential election due in 2000.

BRUSSELS - NATO‘s Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe, General Wesley Clark, was to visit Belgrade to discuss the verification of Yugoslav commitments to end the crisis in Kosovo.

TOKYO - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in Tokyo his sacked deputy Anwar Ibrahim wanted to topple the government.

HARARE - Sixteen Zimbabwean soldiers have been captured by Congolese rebels fighting to topple President Laurent Kabila in the former Zaire.

ZAGREB - A bank clerk who leaked confidential records of President Franjo Tudjman‘s wife‘s bank accounts has turned herself in and faces up to five years in prison.

TOKYO - Public support for the government of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has plunged below 20 percent, the lowest level for a Japanese government in over five years, a public opinion poll showed.

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka‘s main opposition party said it was unlikely to heed a call by business groups for all-party peace talks on the nation‘s 15- year-old civil war.

BEIJING - China opened its first international conference on human rights with senior officials underscoring Beijing‘s own definition of such rights and calling for dialogue to resolve disputes on the issue.

FREETOWN - A firing squad executed 24 Sierra Leone soldiers in public for taking part in the coup which plunged the West African country into violence last year.

JOHANNESBURG - South African President Mandela has again taken centre stage in efforts to mediate a peaceful solution to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

KIGALI - A top government army commander in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has defected to rebels fighting President Laurent Kabila.

ROME - Having clinched an agreement for what he hopes will be a solid base for a new government, Massimo D‘Alema on Tuesday sets about horse trading for the cabinet he will head as Italy‘s first ex-communist prime minister.

SANTIAGO - The Chilean government came under fire from opponents of former dictator Augusto Pinochet, arrested in London over the weekend, for continuing to press Britain to recognise Pinochet‘s diplomatic immunity.

WASHINGTON - The government opened its landmark antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. with a direct attack on the credibility of the company‘s billionaire founder, Bill Gates.

TUNIS - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi arrived in the Tunisian southwestern city of Tozeur to start a holiday to recuperate from a hip operation.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has discussed with his aides a proposed comprehensive review of relations between Iraq and the United Nations.

ANKARA - Turkey‘s defence minister said positive signs had emerged from talks with Syria over a row between the two neighbours about what Ankara says is Damascus‘s support for Turkish Kurd rebels.

NICOSIA - Joint exercises involving the Greek and Cypriot armed forces began in Cyprus.