By

adrid

Former Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez categorically denied allegations that he or his former Socialist government approved or ordered a "dirty war" campaign against the Basque separatist movement E.T.A. in the early 1980s. Gonzalez, testifying at the trial of 12 senior Socialist government officials, told the Supreme Court that, far from hurting E.T.A., the shadowy Anti-Terrorist Liberation Groups (G.A.L.) jeopardized France's cooperation with Spain in a joint campaign against E.T.A. If found guilty, Jose Barrionuevo, a former Interior Minister, and Rafael Vera, a former Secretary of State for Security, face sentences of 23 years for organizing a kidnapping, belonging to an armed gang and misuse of public funds. Ten others, who face shorter sentences, also are being tried. As the trial continued, E.T.A. guerrillas murdered a seventh governing Popular Party councilor. The latest victim, killed by a bomb in the Basque town of Renteria, was Manuel Zamarreno.

Geneva

In the first country-by-country analysis of the AIDS epidemic, U.N. officials presented a horrific picture of the way the disease is ravaging Africa. One quarter of all adults in Zimbabwe and Botswana are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, they said, adding that other countries--including South Africa and Namibia--could soon reach the same levels if strong prevention programs are not initiated promptly. The experts reported the findings ahead of an international AIDS conference that began at the weekend.

Prague

Milos Zeman and his Czech Social Democratic Party won the election but may yet see former Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus and his Civic Democratic Party forming the next government. Asked by President Vaclav Havel to put together a governing coalition, Zeman is finding that the key to elusive success is the support of the Freedom Union--which maintains it would have to sacrifice 70% of its program if it cooperated with Zeman and a center-right grouping. Klaus, meanwhile, has initiated his own talks with the parties. He, too, will have a difficult time reconciling them into a viable governing coalition.

Jerusalem

The Israeli cabinet provoked international outrage when it approved a plan to strengthen Israel's hold over the Greater Jerusalem area. Under the Oslo accords of 1993, the city's future is to be determined in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, who hope to make Jerusalem's eastern portion their capital. Under the Israeli plan, a new "umbrella municipality" would link the city, as Israel defines it, with neighboring towns. After the U.S. called the measure "provocative," the Israelis said they did not intend to expand Jerusalem further eastward, into occupied territory.

Najaf

For the second time in two months, gunmen in Iraq assassinated a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric who served at the Imam Ali mosque and seminary in the holy city of Najaf. Grand Ayatullah Mirza Ali Gharavi, 70, was ambushed on a highway while en route to the city from Kerbala, another Shi'ite holy place. Iraqi officials denounced the attack, but opposition groups said the murder was part of a campaign of intimidation against mullahs who refused to support Saddam Hussein's regime.

Tizi Ouzou

Lounes Matoub, a popular Algerian singer who recently returned to the country from France, was assassinated near his Berber hometown in northeastern Algeria. The killing provoked angry street protests as well as traditional Muslim mourning. In September 1994, Matoub was kidnapped by the Armed Islamic Group (G.I.A.), considered the most violent of Algeria's radical Islamic organizations, then released two weeks later with a message demanding Berber support for the G.I.A. The Berbers, for whom Matoub had been a vocal representative, have been harshly critical of both the Islamic militants and the government. An estimated 75,000 people, including numerous artists and intellectuals, have been murdered in six years of insurgency in Algeria.

Lome

President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo was re-elected as President, but the much disputed victory by Africa's longest-ruling leader drove opposition supporters onto the streets in protest. Western diplomats and election observers joined many Togolese in believing the outcome to be fraudulent. Five members of the National Election Commission resigned during the count, complaining of threats and intimidation. When the count resumed, Eyadema was declared the winner with 52%--just enough to avoid a runoff.

Maputo

After being held for more than three months in a maximum security prison in Mozambique's capital, Robert McBride, a senior South African foreign affairs official, is to face charges of gun running, espionage and criminal conspiracy against the Mozambican government. The African National Congress contends he has been set up by supporters of South Africa's former apartheid regime. McBride, an A.N.C. militant once sentenced to death for the 1986 bombing of a Durban bar, was freed in an amnesty deal in 1992. He became head of the East Asia desk in the Foreign Affairs Department in 1994--a post from which he was suspended after his arrest.

New Delhi

Amid worldwide furor in the wake of nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, India announced a deal by which Russia will construct two 1,000-megawatt light-water nuclear reactors in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The deal had been on hold since the collapse of the Soviet Union. While condemning the Indian and Pakistani tests, Russia opposes economic sanctions. The U.S. criticized the deal as "the wrong message at the wrong time" and urged Russia to reconsider.

Sokcho

The bodies of nine crewmen, all dead from bullet wounds, were found in a North Korean miniature submarine captured in South Korean waters. Towed to a navy base at Donghae after it became ensnared in the net of a fishing boat, the vessel was opened by South Korean navy commandos. Four of the sub's crew had been shot in the head, while the other five had bullets in other parts of their bodies, giving rise to speculation that the men had died in a murder-suicide plan in order to avoid capture and interrogation. The vessel got into trouble off the coastal town of Sokcho--not far from where a North Korean sub ran aground in 1996 and a clash led to 37 deaths.

Bogota

Colombian voters chose Andres Pastrana, the Conservative challenger who pledged to stop political corruption in the country and negotiate an end to four decades of guerrilla war, as their new President. Pastrana's election paves the way for improved relations with the U.S., strained during the presidency of Ernesto Samper after allegations that his campaign had received $6 million from drug cartels. In the runoff vote, Pastrana captured 50% of the vote while Horacio Serpa, the Liberal Party candidate--and Samper's biggest defender--won 46%.

San Salvador

Three of the five Salvadoran national guardsmen convicted of raping and killing four U.S. religious workers at a rural roadblock in 1980 were ordered freed from prison. Parole for Daniel Canales Ramirez, Jose Roberto Moreno Canjura and Luis Colindres was expected following implementation of a new law designed to reduce crowding in El Salvador's prisons. In an incident that provoked considerable outrage at the time, three Roman Catholic nuns--Dorothy Kazel, Ita Ford and Maura Clark--and a lay colleague--Jean Donovan--were raped and shot to death. The military had considered them sympathetic to leftist guerrillas, and allegations persist that the killings--which occurred during the civil war years--were ordered by a senior military official.

New York

The U.N. Security Council agreed, without a vote, to maintain sanctions against Iraq for a further 60 days after the chief weapons inspector reported that Iraq had placed VX nerve gas in the warheads of some missiles. The official Iraqi News Agency called the assertions "baseless and mere fabrications." The U.N. weapons specialist, Richard Butler, said a U.S. Army laboratory in Maryland, one of the world's premier chemical weapons labs, had found the traces, but he agreed to submit the materials to other facilities in Switzerland and France for testing, as Iraq has demanded.

De Land

New wildfires burned across the state of Florida, where unrelenting heat and lightning strikes have given rise to hundreds of blazes. "Walking on cornflakes," one resident said of the dry conditions. More than 50,000 hectares have burned in the east-central part of the state, not far from Daytona Beach. While there have been no fatalities, thousands have been forced to flee their homes.