Kosovo-NATO-Clark

RINAS, Albania: NATO's supreme commander, General Wesley Clark, said the Alliance would intensify its bombings in Kosovo despite the danger of killing civilians used as human shields.

Russia-impeach

MOSCOW: Russia's embattled President Boris Yeltsin easily fended off impeachment to hand his old Communist foes in parliament a crushing and humiliating defeat.

Israel-vote

JERUSALEM: Arab-Israeli candidate for prime minister Azmi Bishara withdrew from the race in a move seen as boosting the chances of a first round victory on Monday by Labor Party chief Ehud Barak.

China-investment

SHANGHAI: China's expected entry into the World Trade Organisationwill sound the death knell for the special economic zones which have dominated foreign investment since it began in earnest in the 1980s.

Asia-bankruptcy

MANILA: Asian countries are making slow progress clearing the wreckage of a two-year financial crisis with weak or untested bankruptcy laws running into cultural barriers and other hurdles, analysts said.

APEC-bonds

LANGKAWI, Malaysia: Efforts to develop Asian bond markets intensified over the weekend as regional financiers called on Asia-Pacific governments to formulate an "action plan" to address market shortcomings.

APEC-IMF-Russia

LANGKAWI, Malaysia: International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Michel Camdessus said he hoped Russia's new government would remain committed to a far-reaching program agreed with the previous government of sacked prime minister Yevgeny Primakov.

APEC-currency

LANGKAWI, Malaysia: Japan wants Asian countries to peg their currencies to a three-tiered basket of the dollar, the euro and the yen as part of a 17 billion dollar credit-guarantee scheme for crisis-hit economies.

US-guns

PALO ALTO: US President Bill Clinton called on the media and entertainment industries to help de-glamorize the image of firearms, amid growing pressure for tighter gun controls following last month's shooting spree by two teenagers at a Colorado high school.

Turkey-Islam

ANKARA: Turkish President Suleyman Demirel has ratified a decree stripping an Islamist deputy, who wore a headscarf in parliament, of her citizenship, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit announced.