RAMBOUILLET, France - Yugoslav Serbs and ethnic Albanians faced their first nitty-gritty negotiations with international mediators on Monday over a comprehensive plan aimed at ending 11 months of fighting in Kosovo.
BONN - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder‘s programme of centre-left reforms looked weakened on Monday after his Social Democrats lost a regional vote and with it their control of the upper house of parliament in Bonn.
TOKYO - North Korea on Monday criticised South Korea for balking at conditions that Pyongyang has placed on a proposal for government-level talks, saying the North was ready to meet as soon as the conditions were met.
WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton will meet Jordan‘s new King Abdullah on Monday as the United States begins working to fill a void in the Middle East peace process left by the death of King Hussein.
WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund reached out to grief-stricken Jordan on Sunday after the death of King Hussein, promising to speed the pace of loan negotiations to boost the struggling economy.
SANAA - A German woman and her son held hostage in Yemen since last month arrived safely back in the capital Sanaa overnight after a tribal leader negotiated their release.
BRUSSELS - European Union finance ministers began a day of talks in Brussels on Monday saying they were optimistic an agreement on the future of the bloc‘s $100 billion annual budget could be reached before the end of March.
WASHINGTON - A senior aide of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the chief of Germany‘s biggest commercial bank arrived in Washington on Sunday to push a reparations plan that would settle all outstanding Holocaust and slave labor claims.
CHILPANCINGO, Mexico - Mexico‘s ruling party and main leftist force looked headed on Monday toward splitting two hard-fought state governors‘ races, signalling that tough battles lie ahead in the 2000 presidential elections.
BRASILIA - Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, whose popularity is at an all-time low, faces a testing week in which he must prove his ability to lead Latin America‘s biggest economy out of a deep currency crisis.
JAKARTA - Indonesia‘s official Human Rights Commission said on Monday religious rioting could easily break out again in the eastern island of Ambon, saying the death toll from clashes last month had passed 160.
TOKYO - Pressure on the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to do something to spur the nation‘s limping economy increased on Monday as government and central bank policy-makers publicly considered the limited options available. While monetary authorities held firm in opposing the idea of the BOJ directly buying government debt — a proposal that critics say could hurt Japan‘s sovereign credit rating and cause hyperinflation — attention shifted to such measures as boosting money supply or expanding current bond-buying market operations.
UNITED NATIONS - Indonesia and Portugal, who resume negotiations on Monday, have agreed in principle to a U.N.-organized vote in East Timor that could lead to independence.
LAGOS - Nigeria‘s Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) has extended the nominating date for candidates in February 27 presidential elections by three days to February 15.
EDITED BY ZUZANA VILIKOVSKÁ
