Zurich

Switzerland's three largest commercial banks offered to pay out $600 million in a global settlement of outstanding claims by relatives of Holocaust victims--a proposal immediately dismissed by Jewish organizations as "shamefully low" and "insulting." Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Bank Corp. and Credit Suisse--after months of negotiations with the World Jewish Congress and lawyers for class-action claimants--said the sum included the $70 million they have already paid into a Swiss compensation fund for Holocaust survivors and was a "fair offer."

Belgrade

As NATO warplanes tore across the skies of Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, close to Serbia's southern borders, President Slobodan Milosevic promised Russian President Boris Yeltsin that he would resume talks with leaders of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority. Milosevic still refused to meet the West's key demand--that he withdraw his forces from the province, where an estimated 300 people have been killed and 65,000 driven from their homes. Instead, the Yugoslav army and Serbian police reinforced their positions in the area, where they have waged a four-month battle to suppress Kosovo separatists. NATO officials were considering a "full range of options," including military strikes.

Minsk

The 15 E.U. countries recalled their ambassadors from Belarus after authorities cut off electrical power to them and seven other ambassadors, dug up the road to their residences and turned away the envoys because they did not have security passes that the authorities had just introduced. The showdown was the latest move in President Alexander Lukashenko's weeks-long standoff with the ambassadors over planned repairs to the antiquated water and sewer system in the residential compound that he shares with them. Lukashenko had ordered the diplomats--from such countries as the U.S., Germany, France, Britain and Turkey--to move out while the repairs took place. Most of the envoys resisted, saying their residences are sovereign territory under the Vienna Convention.

Moscow

Russia's most controversial advocate of market economics, Anatoli Chubais, returned to the government less than three months after being fired. The reason: Russia's lingering and deepening economic crisis. Chubais, 43, was made a vice premier and charged with leading aid negotiations with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, institutions where he has many friends and admirers.

Ankara

Relentlessly pursuing Islamist sympathizers, the Turkish military expelled 167 officers, many accused of having links with radical Muslim groups. The military also sent six F-16 fighter planes to northern Cyprus, responding to the arrival of four Greek warplanes in the southern part of the island two days earlier. The action signaled a further escalation of tension between the two countries.

Hebron

Two Israeli teenagers, residents of a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, killed a Palestinian pedestrian by clubbing him in the head with a wooden rod as they rode past him in a van. The 16-year-olds, residents of a center for troubled youth in Beit Haggai near Hebron, said the attack was a "prank" and that they did not mean to kill Abdul Majeed Abu Turki, 48, a farmer and father of 12. "Murder is murder," replied Ahmed Tibi, an aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. After the assault, the adult driver of the van, who is also under investigation, continued without stopping to Beit Haggai.

Baghdad

Iraq declared a deal reached with the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector, Richard Butler, "in essence a breakthrough" in the country's drive to end sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The accord, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said, met Iraq's longstanding request that inspectors be specific about what they want to see. Under the agreement, the inspectors could terminate their work within two months if Iraq cooperates fully. By week's end, however, U.N. officials were cautioning against over-optimism--and Butler was reporting that Baghdad was still withholding key information.

Abuja

Nigeria's new ruler, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, moved to appease demands for the release of political prisoners and a quick return to civilian rule by freeing a former President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, and eight others. Obasanjo, who seized power in 1978 and handed over to a civilian government two years later, had been jailed for 15 years for a 1995 plot against Abubakar's predecessor, General Sani Abacha, who died on June 8. Still imprisoned is Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of elections annulled by the military government in 1993.

Bissau

Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau bombarded the capital, Bissau, with artillery shells after peace talks collapsed. Refugees continued to pour across the country's border with Senegal, while Senegalese troops--who came to the rescue of President Joao Bernardo Vieira--closed in on Bissau's international airport, which has been in the hands of rebels now on the run. The conflict began on June 7 with a coup attempt by the former army chief, Anumane Mane.

Kabul

Afghanistan's Taliban government ordered the shutdown of more than 100 private schools that had been teaching girls math, language, weaving and other basic skills. In issuing its edict, the Islamic religious army said the schools were not in keeping with the Taliban belief that women and girls should be kept out of both the workplace and school.

Panmunjom

The founder of South Korea's giant Hyundai Group, Chung Ju Yung, crossed the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea accompanied by 500 head of cattle he presented to the North as a gesture of peace and reconciliation. Chung's delivery was part of a $10 million gift, including 50,000 tons of corn and another 500 cattle for the famine-stricken North in exchange for an eight-day visit to the place he left 64 years ago. Chung, 82, said the gesture repaid a debt to his father.

Manila

In a desperate effort to stay afloat, Philippine Airlines is laying off 5,000 workers, nearly 40% of its work force. The announcement followed a decision to fire nearly all of its 600-plus pilots after they defied a back-to-work order and continued a strike that was costing the carrier about $3.8 million a day. The pilots struck over a new rule forcing them to retire after 20 years or 20,000 flight hours. Several Asian airlines are facing heavy losses due to currency devaluations and a drop in tourism. Philippine Airlines now has only 25 pilots, all flying domestic routes.

Brisbane

Migrants, Aborigines and Asian investors reacted with alarm to the strong performance of the One Nation party in the Queensland state election, the first contested by the anti-immigration, anti-Aboriginal welfare party. One Nation--founded last year by a populist independent M.P., Pauline Hanson--won 23% of the vote and will now field candidates in the next federal election, due by March 1999.

Buenos Aires

A former World War II concentration camp commander, Dinko Sakic, was extradited from Argentina to face trial in his native Croatia. Sakic, 76, who has lived in Argentina since 1947, is accused of having participated in the torture and execution of prisoners at the Jasenovac camp, near Zagreb. Up to 600,000 Orthodox Serbs, gypsies, opponents of Croatia's wartime Ustashe regime and Jews are believed to have met their deaths at Jasenovac, the largest concentration camp in Croatia.

Paramaribo

Suriname declared one of the largest and most pristine tropical rain forest areas on earth as a nature reserve. The Central Suriname Wilderness Nature Reserve encompasses 1.6 million hectares--10% of the country. The Washington-based Conservation International, which announced a $1 million grant for the project, will also assist Suriname in promoting ecotourism, agroforestry and bioprospecting.

Washington

The tobacco industry killed landmark legislation in the U.S. Congress that would have raised cigarette prices and regulated cigarette sales. A deal agreed last year called for the companies to pay $368.5 billion to compensate the individual states for the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses and to fund anti-smoking programs, in exchange for protection from a flood of lawsuits. But tougher proposals emerged in Congress, which would have cost the industry at least $516 billion and afforded less legal protection. A huge industry campaign to paint the legislation as a tax increase in disguise helped to sink it.