WASHINGTON - The International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was urged on Monday to indict Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for atrocities in Kosovo, but the court said its ability to investigate crimes and bring the accused to trial was limited.

LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday promised help and protection for Montenegro and said its refusal to support Belgrade‘s policy of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans would help secure its future.

WASHINGTON - China and the United States were at odds over progress of trade talks on Monday as China‘s chief negotiator said he was close to a deal and Washington said the comment "did not reflect" the state of talks.

BEIJING - China has postponed the trial of a liberal former government official without setting a new date.

JAKARTA - A top aide of Indonesian President B.J. Habibie said on Tuesday a call to arms by East Timor‘s rebel leader threatened plans to allow the impoverished territory to vote for autonomy or independence.

ISTANBUL - More than 1,000 weak and exhausted Kosovo refugees landed in western Turkey overnight at the start of a planned airlift across Europe and North America of thousands ejected from their homes by Yugoslav forces.

KIGALI - Five years after Rwanda exploded in an orgy of violence that claimed 800,000 lives in just 100 days, the tiny African nation faces huge obstacles in rebuilding its society and putting out the fires of ethnic hatred.

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed a new envoy to the Democratic Congo on Monday to ascertain how the United Nations could become involved in the protracted process of restoring peace to the country.

KAMPALA - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has removed his vice-president from the additional post of agriculture minister and dropped several other ministers, including his prime minister, in a reshuffle aimed at deflecting criticism of his government.

BAGHDAD - Iraq said on Tuesday it had executed four men for the murder of a prominent Shi‘ite Moslem spiritual leader in the holy city of Najaf last February.

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Security Council sanctions against Libya were suspended on Monday after Secretary-General Kofi Annan officially confirmed the two Libyans accused of the 1988 Pan Am jet bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, had arrived in the Netherlands.

KUALA LUMPUR - A royal commission on Tuesday recommended punishment against one person after Malaysia‘s former police chief admitted he assaulted sacked finance minister Anwar Ibrahim in custody.

HONG KONG - Exiled Chinese dissident Wang Xizhe will fly back to New York on Wednesday after a failed attempt to return home without a permit to pay respects to his dead father.

GUATEMALA CITY - The Guatemalan government dissolved on Monday an elite police unit that seized control of its own headquarters over the weekend to protest against what squad members said were management abuses.

CARSON CITY - A Filipino immigrant was executed by lethal injection on Monday for two 1994 murders after Nevada‘s governor refused a last-ditch appeal filed by the Philippine government.

NEW YORK - The German airline Lufthansa LHAG.F , which has been sued for using slave laborers at its factories when the Nazis ruled Germany, has agreed to join a new German Holocaust Memorial fund.