Paris

The European Commission is suing France before the European Court of Justice over a new law that allows the killing of migratory birds during their reproductive season. Yielding to France's vociferous hunting lobby, Parliament extended the season on waterfowl by 10 weeks--well into the birds' migratory and nesting term. Despite protests from Brussels that the longer French season violates a 1979 E.U. directive prohibiting hunting during the birds' reproductive periods, President Jacques Chirac signed the measure rather than anger the nation's 1.5 million hunters. The commission's case against France, a country usually cooperative on European matters, seeks a $117,000 fine for each day that the law is applied.

Bonn

The six-nation Contact Group on the former Yugoslavia agreed on a set of principles to guide any future talks between ethnic Albanian Kosovars and the government of Yugoslavia on ending the crisis in Kosovo. No details were released. The group--comprising the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy--chastised both sides for fueling the fighting and pledged to crack down on overseas fund raising for the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army. On the ground in the Yugoslav province, sporadic fighting was reported as diplomatic and military personnel from the U.S., Russia, Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium made the first of a series of visits to monitor the situation. President Slobodan Milosevic also approved a 10-day visit by representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Prague

President Vaclav Havel is expected to name Milos Zeman to head the next Czech government after Zeman, chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party, found an unlikely ally in his archrival Vaclav Klaus. Klaus's right-wing Civic Democratic Party (O.D.S.) will help install a Social Democratic minority government in exchange for chairmanship of both houses of Parliament, the lower house's budget committee and several key oversight bodies. The agreement does not restrict o.d.s. freedom to vote against Social Democratic bills.

Athens

Encouraged by hot, dry winds and high temperatures, seasonal fires have burned thousands of hectares of forests, orchards, brush and farmland in Mediterranean countries. Firefighters battled blazes in Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Lebanon. At least three deaths were reported in Greece, where scores of houses sustained damage. A brush fire even reached the foot of the Acropolis, racing through parched grass and olive trees near the Agora.

Anzhero-Sudzhensk

Accusing the Russian government of failing to deliver on its promise to pay them overdue wages, coal miners again blockaded the Trans-Siberian railway. The miners--who have not been paid in six to eight months--ended a similar blockade last May. The strikers seek a new round of top level talks, but the government is refusing to talk unless the blockade at Anzhero-Sudzhensk is lifted. While Russia fights for a massive IMF loan to save the crumbling ruble, the miners' protest has cost $2.7 million in its first six days. Across Russia, other unpaid workers joined numerous protests.

Jerusalem

Two thousand Ethiopian immigrants clashed with police outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, demanding that Israel bring in 5,000 of their relatives. The Ethiopians protested the closure of an Israeli transit camp in Addis Ababa and a government decision not to admit any more Ethiopians who do not qualify under Israel's Law of Return. About 60,000 Ethiopians have settled in Israel since 1970. The last 20 of 4,000 so-called Falash Mura--Christian converts claiming to be ethnically Jewish--who had been in the transit camp for seven years were flown to Israel last week on humanitarian grounds.

Algiers

Tamazight-speaking Berber shopkeepers in Algeria closed their premises to protest a new law making Arabic the only official language. Opponents of the law say the government approved it to appease Islamic militants. In the latest attack in six years of insurgency, a bomb exploded in a market near Algiers, killing 10 people--shortly after the security forces said they had killed 11 Armed Islamic Group (G.I.A.) guerrillas, including one of the militants' most notorious leaders, Athmane Khalifa.

Luanda

The prospect of a return to civil war in Angola loomed following government assertions that UNITA guerrillas were responsible for a string of attacks on isolated villages. Gunmen of the National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola were accused of killing 16 policemen in Luanda Norte province and of the artillery bombardment of Camaxilo in the remote northeast, where unita maintains diamond-mining operations. If new U.N. sanctions against UNITA, which include a ban on diamond sales, fail to force its compliance with a 1994 peace agreement, the government faces renewed hostilities with the guerrillas.

Kabul

Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban government banned televisions, videocasette recorders, video tapes and satellite dishes, viewing them as a source of corruption. In an edict from the strict Islamist organization that controls most of the country, Afghans were given 15 days in which to get rid of any offending technology. After that, religious police will smash any equipment that they find. The Taliban shut down the country's only TV station in 1996, but many people have satellite dishes and video equipment.

Jayapura

Hundreds of separatists in Irian Jaya, some bearing arrows and spears, demonstrated against Indonesian rule of the province. A total of nine deaths among protesters--in clashes with police and soldiers--was reported, but seven of the fatalities were denied by the government news agency. The demonstrations--occurring shortly after two independence protesters died in East Timor--increased pressure on the embattled government.

Tsukuba

A new star has appeared in space: Japan. Following the launching of its Planet-B Mars probe on July 4--the first anniversary of the U.S. Pathfinder mission--the National Space Development Agency (nasda) remotely docked two satellites for the first time. The successes rocketed Japan into position with the U.S. and Russia as having one of the world's most sophisticated space programs. Seeking water, Planet-B is due to orbit Mars in October 1999.

Lima

Peru's government withdrew troops from seven state university campuses, ending years of military occupation. The pullout apparently stems from student protests over government disregard for the constitution, a view that Prime Minister Javier Valle Riestra--appointed by President Alberto Fujimori last month--shares to some degree. The military presence dates back to May 1991, when the San Marcos University campus in Lima was occupied by troops sent to clean away revolutionary graffiti--provoking a violent reaction from students. Other universities in Lima, Huacho, Huanuco and Huancayo have been occupied since Fujimori's military-backed "auto-coup" in April 1992.

Bogota

Fulfilling a campaign promise, President-elect Andres Pastrana met with leaders of the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (F.A.R.C.), the country's largest guerrilla group, in eastern Colombia. The meeting, the first involving any Colombian president in guerrilla territory, is expected to pave the way to full negotiations between the rebels and the government within three months of Pastrana taking office on Aug. 7. In his meeting with F.A.R.C.'s two top leaders, Manuel Marulanda and El Mono Jojoy, Pastrana agreed to demilitarize five municipalities in guerrilla-held territory as a prelude to talks.

Chihuahua

Mexico's dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (P.R.I.) showed signs of continued vigor by winning two of three state governor elections. Patricio Martinez's victory over the National Action Party (P.A.N.) candidate, Ramon Galindo, in Chihuahua marked the first time the P.R.I. has won back a governorship from an opposition party and the first time it has chosen a candidate in an open primary election. In Durango, the P.R.I.'s Angel Sergio Guerrero Mier won easily, while in Zacatecas, the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party (P.R.D.) was victorious. The winner, Ricardo Monreal, had recently defected from the P.R.I.

Camp Lejeune

Acting on the recommendation of a U.S. military hearing officer, the commander of the Marines' Atlantic forces has ordered the pilot and navigator of a jet that cut through a cable car line in Italy to face courts-martial for man-slaughter. Captains Richard Ashby and Joseph Schweitzer are accused in the deaths of 20 people last February.