ISLAMABAD - Guerrillas fighting Indian rule in Kashmir rejected a U.S.-Pakistani accord for their withdrawal from strategic northern hills and threatened to capture more territory in the disputed Himalayan region.

LOME - Sierra Leone‘s government and its rebel foes agreed a peace deal to end a civil war during which the mindless mutilation of civilians, including women and children, sparked outrage around the world.

NIS, Serbia - Anti-government activists in the southern Serbian city of Nis defied a police ban and began collecting signatures on a petition calling for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to resign.

ROME - Italy and Turkey traded diplomatic blows as Rome rejected Ankara‘s charges it was meddling in the case of Kurdish guerrilla chief Abdullah Ocalan.

JERUSALEM - Palestinians are hoping for a peace breakthrough when President Yasser Arafat and new Prime Minister Ehud Barak hold the first Israeli-Palestinian summit in seven months on Sunday.

BONN - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his junior coalition partners, the Greens, scrapped a meeting aimed at resolving a dispute on nuclear energy. News of the cancellation was followed by rumours — swiftly denied — in some financial markets that the Greens were pulling out of the coalition.

ANKARA - Turkish state minister for the economy Hikmet Ulugbay, a key figure in efforts to reform the country‘s

deficit-ridden economy, was in a stable condition after an apparent suicide attempt, a hospital statement said.