London

Following U.S. space scientists' recent discovery of ice at the poles of Earth's moon, the European Space Agency (E.S.A.) revealed the presence of water vapor in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Using sophisticated spectronomic equipment, the agency's Infrared Space Observatory detected the vapor on Titan, as well as around stars, in interstellar space, in other galaxies and around several planets. Titan appears remarkably like early Earth, according to E.S.A. science director Roger Bonnet, and with "a little heat...maybe the birth of life may be seen."

Riga

Relations between Latvia and Russia deteriorated, as the Kremlin threatened sanctions over an alleged increase in anti-Russian sentiment in the Latvian capital. Riga has seen a series of events in recent weeks apparently targeted against the country's Russian-speaking minority: a march by Latvian SS veterans, aggressive police control at a rally of ethnic Russian pensioners and an explosion outside the Russian embassy. Moscow is considering retaliation, including curtailing transshipments of Russian oil and a boycott of Latvian goods.

Moscow

Russia's Constitutional Court ruled that President Boris Yeltsin acted unconstitutionally last year in refusing to sign a bill that would prevent the return to Germany of art seized by Soviet troops in World War II. Under the law, such "trophy art" would become Russian property. The loot includes the Trojan gold unearthed by Heinrich Schliemann, as well as works by Matisse, Monet and Rembrandt. Although the bill was approved twice by the Russian parliament, Yeltsin has refused to sign it, contending that it violates international law. However, Yeltsin said he now would acquiesce and sign the bill, although he may yet challenge it in court.

Prijedor

NATO troops seized another two Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects amid rumors that their former leader, Radovan Karadzic, was considering turning himself in to the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague. In the northwestern town of Prijedor, British NATO troops arrested Miroslav Kvocka and Mladen Radic, who are charged with running the infamous Omarska detention camp in which hundreds of Muslims and Croats were killed in 1992. Radic is also accused of rape. The apprehensions bring the number of war crimes suspects in custody to 25. Meanwhile, according to reports citing French intelligence sources, Karadzic is negotiating the terms of his surrender.

Ramallah

Having initially blamed Israel for the March 29 death of fugitive bombmaker Muhiadin Sharif, Palestinian Authority officials said their investigation revealed he actually was the victim of an internal feud within Hamas, the militant Islamic group. Jibril Rajoub, head of preventive security in the West Bank, said Sharif was shot and killed by Hamas activist Emad Awedallah--who remains at large--in a power struggle. Rajoub said Sharif's body was then blown up to confuse investigators. Rajoub's account, which was denied by Hamas spokesmen, was met with widespread skepticism among Palestinians.

Al-Mundariya

In their biggest prisoner swap in eight years, Iran and Iraq--enemies in the 1980-88 war in the Persian Gulf--exchanged thousands of POWs at a border checkpoint. Signaling a warming of relations between the two countries, Iran released 5,584 Iraqi prisoners, while Iraq freed three Iranian POWs, plus 316 "civil detainees."

Mina

More than 100 Muslim pilgrims were killed in a stampede in Mina, near Mecca, where they had gone to participate in the ritual stoning of the devil. The victims were trampled or plunged to their deaths from an elevated walkway as a crowd estimated at 700,000 surged toward the Islamic holy site in Saudi Arabia. Stampedes, fires and other fatal incidents have marred the annual hajj in recent years.

Pakor

Against the backdrop of a 20-year civil war, hundreds of thousands of people in southern Sudan are facing severe famine. The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army has made military progress against the government forces this spring, and the hostilities have made farming difficult. Relief agencies warn they are underfunded and ill-equipped to deliver food to an area the size of Western Europe. Hundreds of people have died, and without urgent help thousands more will perish, aid officials say.

Islamabad

Pakistan announced the successful test-firing of a medium-range ballistic missile, believed to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead deep within India's borders. The test of the Ghauri missile provoked criticism from India, which contended that Pakistan had received Chinese help with its missile program. India urged the U.S.--which has accused Pakistan in the past of utilizing such Chinese assistance--to investigate the matter. Both Pakistan and China denied the assertion.

Seoul

South Korea agreed to take part in the first direct talks with North Korea since July 1994. Initiated by the North, the discussions--on South Korean aid to the North and other matters of mutual concern--opened over the weekend in Beijing. The bilateral contact, on the vice-ministerial level, is the countries' first since the death four years ago of the North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, although they have met indirectly through various agencies and in four-party talks with the U.S. and China.

Canberra

Australia is poised for early elections following the Senate's rejection--for the second time in four months--of Prime Minister John Howard's proposals limiting Aborigines' land claims. The Wik bill, named for the 1996 High Court ruling that native titles could co-exist with government leases to ranchers, farmers and miners, was defeated despite last-minute compromise attempts. Aborigines and the Labor opposition say the bill harms the indigenous people by limiting their right to negotiate land use and by phasing out their land claims. The next elections--not due until 2000--could come as early as July.

Toronto

Twelve Cuban political prisoners arrived in Canada, freed following Pope John Paul II's plea--during his recent visit to Cuba--that Havana release hundreds of dissidents. Fidel Castro's government responded to the papal appeal but insisted that 19 prisoners would be let go only if they went into exile. Canada agreed to take them but withdrew its offer to five after immigration officials concluded that their links to acts of violence would pose a threat to the safety of Canadians. Meanwhile, the Cuban baseball player Jorge Luis Toca, who fled to the Bahamas by boat on March 20, accepted Japan's asylum offer.

New York

The U.N. Security Council, concerned that continuing violence in Rwanda may ignite further genocide, reactivated a commission investigating illegal arms sales to the country. A U.N. embargo imposed four years ago prohibits arms sales to Rwanda, where an estimated 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in Hutu-led massacres in 1994. Violence resumed in late 1996, after more than a million Hutu refugees returned to the Tutsi-led country from exile in Congo. The French Parliament is looking into France's role in the disaster, amid assertions that France supplied missiles used to shoot down the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana--whose assassination set off the tragedy--and an admission that France had supplied weapons to the Hutu regime after the killings began.

Villa Tunari

Firing tear gas and rubber bullets, Bolivian police and army troops regained control of the Chapare coca-producing region after several days of violence. Coca leaf farmers had set up roadblocks to protest government plans to halt compensation payments for clearing coca crops, as well as the introduction of a new strategy to eradicate 35,000 hectares of coca plantations by the year 2002. The unrest in the heart of the country coincided with a general strike called by the Bolivian trade union movement. Teachers fought running battles with the police near La Paz, while 20,000 students marched in the capital to demand increases in university budgets. Peasants also laid siege to the city of Potosi, demanding funds to ease the severe drought caused by the El Nino weather pattern.

Abelardo Luz

Sadi Pahilha, a leader of Brazil's landless peasant movement, was killed on a ranch that he and other landless people had invaded in the southern state of Santa Catarina. He was the third leader of the Rural Workers Movement (M.S.T.)--Latin America's largest land reform group--to have been murdered in the last month.