MARSA MATRUH, Egypt - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi arrived in this Mediterranean coastal town on Friday at the start of a week-long visit to Egypt for talks focused on the Lockerbie dispute.

JAKARTA - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright decided to head to London on Friday to meet British officials on attempts to persuade the Kosovo Albanians to accept an international peace plan.

MOSCOW - President Boris Yeltsin was speaking with leaders from the Commonwealth of Independent States on Friday to seek backing for his move to sack CIS executive secretary Boris Berezovsky, the Kremlin said.

BELGRADE - Yugoslavia said on Thursday it was tightening its grip on the borders of Kosovo while the Albanian parliament urged ethnic Albanians in the rebellious southern Serbian province to accept a three-year autonomy deal.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi newspapers blasted Britain on Friday for expanding the list of targets its pilots can attack when they are challenged by air defences during patrols over Iraq.

NAPLES - U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen said on Friday that American warplanes would try to avoid causing any further shutdown of an oil pipeline from Iraq to Turkey while bombing targets in a no-fly zone in Iraq`s north.

KINSHASA - A rebel force composed mainly of soldiers who served late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko have taken the strategic town of Bolobo, upstream from the Democratic Republic of the Congo capital Kinshasa.

UNITED NATIONS - Security Council members on Thursday deplored continued fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea, even though both have accepted a peace plan, and regretted that Ethiopia was pressing ahead with military action.

JAKARTA - Washington favours an international presence in troubled East Timor, possibly involving the United Nations.

BEIJING - Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji urged rival Taiwan on Friday to enter into political negotiations aimed at eventual reunification and ruled out independence for the island.

BRASILIA - Brazil hopes to gain more ground in its battle against a

deep currency crisis on Friday when a deal could emerge for new rescue

loans from the International Monetary Fund.

MEXICO CITY - A sex scandal erupted in Mexico on Thursday when a male high court judge and a female public security official were allegedly caught having sex in a parked car.