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NICARAGUA: The largest group of rebels held over from the U.S.-backed Contras that fought the leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s has agreed to lay down its arms, according to news reports. Members of the Northern Front 380, the largest of several groups still fighting in northern Nicaragua, signed an agreement with the government to disarm by the time peace talks end in April, the newspaper Diario Barricada and Radio Ya reported Thursday night.NOISE SUIT: A district court in Japan ruled Thursday that residents living near the U.S. Kadena Air Base are entitled to compensation totaling 807.5 million yen ($7.8 million) for damage caused by aircraft noise but rejected the plaintiffs' demand for a ban on night flights. In its ruling on the 12-year-old suit, the Naha court on the island of Okinawa ordered the national government to pay an average of 1.05 million yen ($10,000) per plaintiff to 768 residents living near the base. Kadena serves the 18th Tactical Fight Wing and is the key base of the U.S. Air Force in the Far East.