• Peru reports capture of rebel leader

  Peru captured the leader of Shining Path yesterday, and President Alberto Fujimori called it "the beginning of the end" for one of Latin America's bloodiest rebel groups, a movement that has fought for 19 years to impose a Maoist state. p
  

• Iranian hardliners show strength as `a new cleaning' is threatened

  Hundreds of thousands of Iranians attended a rally in support of the Islamic regime in Tehran yesterday as top leaders warned that anti-government protesters could face the death penalty as "counter-revolutionaries". p
  

• Students sacrificed to mainstream reform movement

  Iran's pro-democracy students, among the strongest backers of President Mohammad Khatami, have been sacrificed to a mainstream reform movement that values its seat at the table of power more than profound political change. p
  

• Eager Clinton will meet Barak twice for extensive talks during PM's visit

  At one of the many low points in the Clinton-Netanyahu relationship, the US President and the Israeli prime minister flew into Los Angeles Airport on the same day in November 1997. The Clinton administration, fuming at Mr Netanyahu's stalling on peace moves, had resolutely rejected Israeli requests for an invitation to the White House during the prime minister's US visit. p
  

• Indonesian results tomorrow

  Jakarta - Tentative results from Indonesia's historic June parliamentary election will finally be ready tomorrow, election officials said more than five weeks after polling day. As international observers warned the painfully slow official count threatened to undermine the credibility of Indonesia's first free elections in more than four decades, the National Elections Committee (PPI) said it had counted votes from 26 of the country's 27 provinces. p
  

• Sex prosecutor commits suicide

  Brussels - The Belgian public prosecutor investigating the country's paedophile scandal and the murder of a former Socialist Party leader has committed suicide by shooting himself, Belgian media reported. p
  

• Report highlights cigarette contents

  London - Tobacco companies have been adding chemicals to cigarettes to enhance their flavour and make them more addictive, a new report said yesterday. p
  

• Hodgkin's cell found study

  Washington - Researchers said yesterday they had characterised the culprit cell that causes Hodgkin's disease, a kind of cancer that kills 1,300 people each year in the United States. p
  

• White farmer paints S African

  Balfour - A white farmer "punished" a black labourer by stripping him and coating his body with silver paint for allegedly trespassing on his land in South Africa's Mpumulanga province, reports said. p
  

• Two killed as Jordanians vote

  Amman - Two people were killed and 12 wounded yesterday as polling day clashes marred Jordan's first elections since King Abdullah II ascended the throne in February promising to boost freedom and democracy. p
  

• Ocalan wants company paper

  Ankara - The condemned Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan, has appealed to Turkish prison authorities to have fellow inmates at the high-security prison island of Imrali because he is feeling lonely, one of his lawyers said. p
  

• Argentineans can visit

  London - The ban on Argentineans visiting the Falkland Islands was lifted yesterday in the first formal agreement between the British and Argentinean governments since the war. p
  

• PNG elects new Prime Minister

  Port Moresby - The former central banker, Sir Mekere Morauta, was elected Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea yesterday. He replaces Mr Bill Skate, who resigned last week ahead of a no-confidence vote he was expected to lose. p
  

• `Voyeur Dorm' voted shut down

  Tampa - A city zoning board has voted to pull the plug on Tampa's Internet "Voyeur Dorm", which offers round-the-clock live television pictures of six young women, officials said yesterday. p
  

• Montenegro and Serbia the discuss future of Yugoslavia

  Members of the ruling parties of Serbia and Montenegro said yesterday, after exploratory discussions on redefining Yugoslavia that they would move ahead with trying to reform their joint state. p
  

• British officials estimate that at least 10,000 died in Serb ethnic cleansing

  At least 10,000 Kosovan Albanians were killed by Serb forces in a planned campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, British officials said yesterday. p
  

• Red Square-style military parade still `evokes French conquest of freedom'

  King Hassan II of Morocco watched the Bastille Day parade at the side of President Jacques Chirac. A giant plywood replica of the Gate of Meknes was built on the Place de la Concorde for the occasion. p
  

• Departing Santer admits to `strategic errors'

  Admitting that "a number of strategic errors were committed" by his Commission, the outgoing President of the European Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, yesterday nevertheless insisted that "history with a big H" would be kind to them. p
  

• Commission lifts ban to allow export of deboned British beef

  On August 1st, three years and five months after the EU banned the export of all British beef because of BSE contamination, it will be allowed back on world markets, the European Commission agreed yesterday. p
  

• Police negotiate with Albanian bus hijacker over hostages

  A grenade carrying Albanian, protesting against an alleged police beating, held seven people hostage in a Greek bus early today but was blocked by authorities from taking his captives into Albania. p
  

• Commandos rescue hostages, kill captors

  Indian commandos rescued 12 hostages, including five women and four children, being held by Islamic militants in northern Kashmir early yesterday morning by shooting dead their captors at a camp in Bandipur, 40 miles from the state capital, Srinagar, Rahul Bedi reports. p
  

• Cash prize for worst prose

  San Francisco - Wry and sensitive it is not, but the sentence crafted by a British civil servant, Mr David Chuter, has won him first prize in a contest for bad prose. p
  

• `Mir' cargo vessel may launch

  Astana - Russian space officials voiced confidence yesterday that Kazakhstan will authorise the launch of a cargo vessel to the Mir space station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by the weekend. "The flight will take place, but not today because it is too late," said the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Ilya Klebanov. p
  

• US warns N Korea on missiles

  Seoul - The US envoy to South Korea has warned North Korea that another launch of a long-range missile would have "serious consequences" for its chances of improving relations with Washington. But the ambassador, Mr Stephen Bosworth, said the US was ready to improve relations with the communist state across a "broad front" if it heeded the warning, according to comments released by the embassy yesterday. p
  

• Bouteflika plea for democracy

  Algiers - President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria yesterday advocated the need for democracy as he officially closed the 35th summit of the Organisation of African Unity. p
  

• Timor process to start - Annan

  United Nations - The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, announced in a letter to the UN Security Council that voter registration for a poll on the future of East Timor can start tomorrow without further delay. p
  

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