DRUMCREE

Police in Northern Ireland found stashes of weapons and fire bombs when they cleared the fields around the Drumcree parish church, where Protestant members of the fraternal Orange Order had been attempting to defy a ban on a march along a road through a Catholic neighborhood. British troops strengthened the police barrier across the road and the Church of Ireland closed its fields to the Orangemen, who had been there for 10 days. But the protesters, at times reduced to no more than a dozen, say they will continue to lay siege to the police barrier from positions on the road.

WURZBURG

Four days of talks between Colombia's second-largest guerrilla faction, the National Liberation Army (E.L.N.), and representatives of several Colombian church and trade union organizations met with partial success. The E.L.N. agreed to stop using landmines; abducting minors, pregnant women and elderly people; striking at civilian targets and sabotaging oil pipelines. The delegations met in the Himmelspforten monastery in Bavaria, under the auspices of the German Bishops Conference, to discuss moves toward ending nearly four decades of conflict. Direct talks with the Bogota government could follow.

PRISTINA

Serbian police raided the headquarters of the Democratic League of Kosovo (L.D.K.) and carried away documents as the rebellious Yugoslav province's new, self-styled Parliament swore in the L.D.K. leader, Ibrahim Rugova, as President. The 120-member body was chosen in March in unauthorized elections. Rugova--who favors independence for Kosovo but rejects the violence of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army--pledged to continue setting up government institutions. The moves came as a visiting delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe began meetings with Serb leaders and representatives of the province's ethnic Albanian majority in the latest diplomatic effort to initiate peace talks.

BAGHDAD

At Iraq's request, U.N. arms experts--led by Horst Reeps of Germany--took new samples of Iraqi missile warhead fragments to France and Switzerland to be tested for traces of deadly VX gas. Iraq sought the analyses after tests carried out last month by a U.S. laboratory found traces of VX, a banned agent, on warheads prepared before the 1991 Gulf War. Iraq acknowledges experimenting with VX, but has repeatedly said that it did not load the gas onto warheads.

TEHRAN

Refusing to appease hardline Iranian legislators, President Mohammad Khatami nominated Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari, one of his main moderate allies, as Iran's new Interior Minister to replace Abdollah Nouri. Nouri, a strong supporter of Khatami's reforms, was impeached by parliament last month after promoting greater political and social freedom. The nomination is viewed as an important test of Khatami's ability to push through his proposals to strengthen civil society and the rule of law in Iran.

ABUJA

Nigeria's government ordered the immediate release of hundreds of prisoners, many jailed by the regime of General Sani Abacha, who died in June. In announcing the releases, the government said it intended to "decongest the prisons" and to "defend the freedom and basic rights of individuals." Abacha's successor, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, abolished three of Nigeria's discredited electoral bodies and was due to announce his plans for returning the country to democracy.

KIGALI

Unable to reach agreement with Rwanda's government on a new mandate for monitoring human rights abuses, the U.N. said it was pulling its human rights mission out. Among its complaints, the government said the mission had focused too much on reported reprisal killings by the army than on attacks by Hutu rebels. U.N. officials maintained that their ability to monitor rights abuses was crucial and would enhance the rule of law. Mass killings continue in Rwanda.

RICHMOND

Bloody vendettas between political warlords in Richmond, in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, have resulted in 27 deaths. An uneasy peace is being maintained by police and troops, whose numbers have been reinforced since a series of shootings in the town and in nearby villages began early this month. The governing African National Congress and the traditional Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party blame each other for the flareup in KwaZulu-Natal, long a hotbed of political and tribal rivalries.

JAKARTA

Military police arrested seven elite Indonesian soldiers accused of kidnapping and torturing opposition activists before President Suharto's ouster two months ago, nine of whom are still missing. Additionally, a report presented by the human rights organization Volunteers of Humanity to the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights said that 20 women, most of them ethnic Chinese, died after being raped--along with more than 100 others--during 10 days of rioting in May. Indonesia's Chinese minority has been hated and envied because of its economic success.

HONG KONG

Cargo delays at Hong Kong's problem-plagued airport at Chek Lap Kok may well mean losses of $590 million--0.35% of the territory's Gdp this year--officials say. Closed after its computers crashed following the rushed opening on July 6, the cargo terminal is processing freight at only half its capacity. Although passenger flow and baggage services are now running smoothly, the cargo facility is unlikely to be fully operational before the end of August.

WUHU

Driven by annual torrential rain, floods swept through southern China, leaving 760 people dead along the swollen Yangtze River. According to the National Ministry of Civil Affairs, the eastern province of Anhui and southwestern Sichuan province were the hardest hit since the storms arrived last month, earlier and more intense than usual. Millions of hectares of farmland have been destroyed, bringing losses of nearly $6 billion in summer corn, wheat and rice crops.

MURUROA

France will permanently close its nuclear test centers on the French Polynesian atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa and demolish most buildings at its military installations there. Thirty French legionnaires will stay on to prevent unauthorised landings. The French announcement came two weeks after the release of a study, commissioned by the International Atomic Energy Agency, that found little long-term environmental impact around the atolls--despite the recording of several kilograms of residual plutonium in lagoon sediment.

QUITO

The center-right mayor of Quito, Jamil Mahuad, is Ecuador's new President after narrowly defeating the banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa. International observers rejected allegations of vote fraud in the defeat of Noboa, a close ally of the populist former President Abdala Bucaram, who was removed from office in February 1997 following questions about his erratic behavior. Mahuad, the country's third President in two years, faces a tough challenge in restoring public confidence in the government.

MEXICO CITY

In a show of cross-border law enforcement cooperation, Mexican officials allowed the country's imprisoned former top policeman to testify in a U.S. court about alleged drug-related corruption in the administration of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. The man, Adrian Carrera Fuentes, was director of the Federal Judicial Police before being convicted of protecting drug lords. He reportedly told a grand jury in Houston, Texas, that he gave about $1.8 million in bribes from a Mexican drug trafficker to Mario Ruiz Massieu, a former assistant attorney general, in 1993 and 1994. Mexico had previously blocked U.S. attempts to investigate corruption among its police.

TERRACE

A Canadian Indian group in British Columbia has signed the province's first native treaty in almost 140 years. Negotiators for the provincial government and the Nisga'a agreed on a pact giving the group rights to 2,000 sq km of land in the Upper Nass Valley, powers of self government--including policing and the judiciary--major control of forest and fishery resources and $128 million. The agreement will be an important model for negotiations on other native land claims in British Columbia.

DALLAS

Soaring temperatures across the U.S. South and West have been blamed for at least 60 deaths, more than half of them in Texas, while the heat wave showed no sign of abating. Demand for electricity also rose as residents used fans and air conditioners. Brush fires broke out in the hot, dry conditions, but without much wind blowing, they were kept under control.