TOKYO - Japan‘s cabinet approved a 542.9 billion yen ($4.45 billion) extra budget for the fiscal year to next March aimed at addressing worsening unemployment as firms become more aggressive about restructuring.
PRISTINA, Serbia - Thousands of young Kosovo Albanians jammed Pristina‘s main street for an apparently spontaneous demonstration of support for Kosovo rebels and NATO.
LOME - Sierra Leone‘s warring parties signed an accord to end one of Africa‘s most brutal conflicts but an amnesty plan for perpetrators of atrocities, including mutilation of civilians, has raised new concerns.
LONDON - British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott stepped up a public row with Prime Minister Tony Blair when he was quoted as accusing some of Blair‘s advisers of undermining his policies.
DAMASCUS - Syria is ready to match peace moves by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak step by step.
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Bill Clinton will meet new Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on July 15 to discuss reviving the Middle East peace process.
MIAMI - In a huge defeat for the U.S. tobacco industry, a Florida jury ruled that smoking causes diseases such as lung cancer and U.S. cigarette makers hid the dangers of their products from the public.
BELFAST - British Prime Minister Tony Blair called off a trip to Poland so he could devote more time to salvaging Northern Ireland‘s stalled peace process before a July 15 deadline.
DENVER - Attorneys for convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols argued their client was entitled to a new trial because certain FBI memos that would have helped his case were not disclosed.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Eileen Collins, who on the 30th anniversary of the first moonwalk will become the first woman to command a crew in space, said such an opportunity had "been a long time coming."
NEW YORK - Cooler temperatures eased a suffocating heat wave in the eastern United States, but not before at least 44 people died from weather-related causes.
STOCKHOLM - Nordic rescue crews evacuated about 1,200 people from a blazing Norwegian passenger and car ferry off the west coast of Sweden early Thursday with no serious injuries reported.
DHAKA - Bombings rocked the Bangladeshi capital on Thursday as the city awoke to an opposition strike, violent mayhem and reports of a late-night rampage by police.
