TEL AVIV - Former Finance Minister Dan Meridor announced he would battle Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the election — the first challenger to emerge openly from within Netanyahu‘s own Likud party.
KIGALI - Rebels fighting to oust Democratic Republic of the Congo President Laurent Kabila say they have captured the southeastern town of Pweto and are continuing to advance south.
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council tries again on Tuesday to bridge the wide gap between Iraq‘s views on its predicament and what other countries expect it to do before its economy can begin to recover.
AMMAN - About 100 U.N. relief staff set out by road from Jordan to return to Iraq and resume work disrupted by last week‘s raids.
CONAKRY - Police in Guinea‘s capital Conakry arrested 21 women protesting in the nude against the detention of an opposition leader in the West African country.
ASMARA - Eritrea has accused neighbouring Sudan and Djibouti of providing military or logistical aid to Ethiopia in its border war with Eritrea.
NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov said Russia, locked in a grim economic battle involving a weak rouble and high debt, intended to continue reforms including a privatisation programme.
WASHINGTON - The White House and the U.S. Senate are considering ways to avert a lengthy impeachment trial for President Bill Clinton even as his lawyers continue to prepare a vigorous defence.
BEIJING - China dismissed international condemnation of harsh jail terms imposed on two leaders of a banned opposition party, and sentenced a third activist to 12 years in prison for subversion.
SIHANOUKVILLE - Nearly 50,000 people have fled in panic from Cambodia‘s southern province of Sihanoukville since the weekend in fear of waste believed to be toxic dumped by a Taiwan firm.
COLOMBO - At least 34 people, most of them Tamil Tiger rebels, have been killed in clashes between government troops and guerrillas in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.
TOLUCA, Mexico - The judge in the murder trial of the brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas denied coming under political pressure in the explosive case, saying justice was running its course.
MADRID - Millions of Spaniards stopped work and tuned in their televisions and radios, hoping the El Gordo (the fat one) Christmas lottery would send some of its $1.4 billion prize money their way.
ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast‘s national assembly has granted amnesties to opposition activists convicted of violence that surrounded a boycott of the 1995 election of President Henri Konan Bedie.
KAMPALA - Uganda‘s parliament has voted to suspend the sale of public enterprises until the government amends privatisation laws to reduce corruption.
VICTORIA, Seychelles - Global warming has killed most of the coral around the Indian Ocean islands of the Seychelles, an environmental group said on Tuesday.
KABUL - Afghanistan‘s Taleban militia said that the Anglo-U.S. air strikes on Iraq constitute "a religious war" and a conspiracy against the Islamic world.
RASHAYA, Lebanon - Israeli planes raided suspected pro-Iranian Hizbollah guerrilla targets in the Bekaa Valley, a security source said. The source said two warplanes fired two rockets near Jabour, north of Israel‘s 15 km deep south Lebanon occupation zone.
