TENTATIVE CEASE-FIRE

Bosnia's cease-fire now appears to be in effect everywhere except in the Sanski Most area of northwestern Bosnia. "U.N. officials say the town itself was quiet but fierce fighting could be heard to the east and north, indicating that the Muslim and Croat allies may be trying to capture Prijedor, about 20 miles to the north," reports Alexandra Stiglmayer from Sarajevo. "Prijedor is of major symbolic value to the Muslims because in 1992, Serbs brutally expelled the Muslim population from there, committing some of the worst massacres of the Bosnian war." The area is also of strategic value as well, Stiglmayer says, because it straddles an important Serb-held road. Although a U.N. spokesman expressed concern that the fighting could endanger the peace process, Stiglmayer notes, "the prevailing impression is still that this battle will also cease soon." Next up for the Balkans: U.S.-brokered peace talks scheduled to begin October 31, probably near Washington, D.C.