Around The World

PEACE TALKS LIKELY TO RESUME AND BE FRUITFUL, SAYS RABIN

WASHINGTON - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said in an interview broadcast yesterday that he believed "there will be fruitful continuations" in the coming week of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

"No doubt progress was made" in sessions in the past week, Rabin said on CNN's "Evans & Novak" program.

"I believe that next week in Cairo, there will be fruitful continuations of the talks" between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat, Rabin said. "But still, many issues have to be solved."

Peres and Arafat are scheduled to meet tomorrow in Cairo.

After meetings a few days ago in Switzerland, both sides said an accord was close on withdrawal of Israeli troops from occupied territories.

Troop withdrawals were to begin Dec. 13, three months after the signing of a landmark Israel-PLO accord in Washington, but the implementation was delayed by disagreement over details of the pullout.

FRENCH PORTS REOPEN AFTER PREMIER PLACATES FISHERMEN

RENNES, France - Fishermen protesting cheap imports lifted blockades at the ports of Calais and Dunkirk yesterday, reopening freight and ferry shuttle service across the English Channel.

On Friday, thousands of fishermen protested in Rennes, Brittany's capital, during a visit by Premier Edouard Balladur. Violence erupted and 61 people - 25 police and 36 protesters and bystanders - were treated for injuries.

The fishermen want protection from the cheap imports, as well as other guarantees to support their jobs.

Balladur then promised his government would move to protect the French fishing industry if the 12-nation European Union didn't act swiftly to support fish prices.

The EU later announced that at France's request it was setting minimum prices for Atlantic salmon and certain types of imported white fish, meeting one of the protesters' key demands.

The fishermen also want the EU to slap limits on cheap imports from eastern Europe, North America and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, fire officials said a fire that ravaged the landmark Brittany Parliament may have been started by flares fired by angry fishermen during the protest Friday.

Balladur ordered immediate steps to restore the 17th century building that houses Rennes' appellate court.

SUDANESE SECURITY FORCES KILL 2 WEST AFRICANS LINKED TO RAID

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Two west Africans believed to be responsible for a machine-gun attack on a mosque Friday in which hospital sources said 19 people died were killed by Sudanese security forces yesterday, Sudanese radio reported.

The radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp. in London, quoted Sudanese Interior Minister Abdel-Rahim Mohammad Hussein as saying a third man , from what he described as Arab North Africa, was wounded and had been taken to a hospital.

Fifteen other people were wounded in the attack as they streamed out of the mosque in Khartoum's twin city Omdurman following prayers, hospital sources said.

The shooting was the first of its kind in Sudan, whose Islamic fundamentalist-leaning government is battling mainly Christian and animist separatists in the south.

Residents said three members of the group attacked a police station in the Omdurman district of Um Badda before the mosque raid. They wounded one policeman and seized guns and a pickup truck.

MAN HELD FOR QUESTIONING IN SOUTH AFRICAN SERIAL KILLINGS

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - South African police questioned a man yesterday about the serial killing of 21 boys, while an angry crowd of about 500 people outside the station demanded he be handed over to them so he could be dealt with "once and for all."

Police used birdshot and teargas to disperse the crowd.

The detained man was found sitting in a car with a boy, said police spokesman Col. Raymond Dowd. But he added: "It is far too early to say whether this man is even a suspect in the strangler case."

Dowd said three policemen suffered minor injuries in the clash outside the station. Three other people were also slightly injured and taken to the hospital.

Bodies from the latest murders, committed by a man dubbed the "Station Strangler," were found only last week, provoking hysteria in parts of Cape Town's colored (mixed race) suburb of Mitchells Plain.

Eighty detectives are hunting the killer, who also raped some of his victims. A note saying "One more, many more in store" was found on one of the bodies unearthed last week.