Update: Milosevic again rejects NATO troops BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - A top U.S. negotiator failed to persuade Yugoslavia's president to sign onto a new Kosovo peace deal Wednesday. Along the border, Yugoslav forces backed by tanks torched the homes of ethnic Albanians and sent hundreds fleeing. Following eight hours of talks, U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said there had been no change in President Slobodan Milosevic's opposition to the Kosovo peace plan. Holbrooke planned to return to Washington Thursday to brief the Clinton administration. He declined to say whether he would return to Belgrade, saying the decision was up to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and President Clinton. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558755448-de5> *** Also: 3 found dead in Kosovo, see full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558746943-4d1> Nations discuss Sudan's civil war OSLO, Norway (AP) - Twenty nations that provide aid to Sudan urged the factions in its 15-year civil war Wednesday to make peace or risk a reduction in funding. "That is more of a prediction than a warning," said Norwegian Minister of Development Aid Hilde Frafjord Johnson at the end of the one-day meeting in Oslo. "There are already symptoms of donor fatigue." About 50 delegates from the U.S., the European Union and U.N. agencies, gathered in the Norwegian capital to discuss ways of the Sudan peace process forward. More than 1.9 million people have died in the war, many of them in famines caused by the fighting. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558753010-44a> French gender equity measure approved PARIS (AP) - The lower house of France's Parliament approved a constitutional amendment Wednesday aimed at giving women greater equality in politics. The measure, which was already approved by the Senate, now goes to a special joint session of the National Assembly for final approval. Lawmakers are expected to pass the measure easily. The amendment says that the law "favors equal access of women and men" to elective office, language endorsed by France's right-wing Senate. The Senate originally opposed the measure, saying it should be left to political parties and not the law to decide how men and women are elected. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558755559-c3b> Mexico under fire over pollution MEXICO CITY (AP) - Dozens of dead sea turtles. A decomposing gray whale lying on the sand. And hundreds of fish asphyxiated by the tainted water around them. Environmentalists charge a salt plant on the Baja California Peninsula, run by the Mexican government in a joint venture with Japan's Mitsubishi Corp., killed the animals with discharges of brine. Now President Ernesto Zedillo's government is under fire from local and U.S. environmental groups that claim it has failed to prosecute alleged environmental crimes by the salt company in which it owns a majority stake. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558759214-858>
