IN OTHER NEWS . . .

FIDEL CASTRO has received the Vatican foreign minister in Havana in what could be a prelude to a meeting between the Cuban leader and Pope John Paul II in Rome next month . . . TUTSI REBELS and Zairian troops traded heavy gunfire for two hours early Tuesday near Bukavu airport in eastern Zaire, witnesses said, as the rebels infiltrated the provincial capital . . . FIGHTERS LOYAL to Afghan warlord Rashid Dostum and his allies attacked the Taliban religious army Tuesday but failed to dislodge them from strategic positions in the hills north of Kabul . . . THREE MORE PEOPLE have died of the Ebola virus in the west African nation of Gabon, raising the death toll in the latest outbreak to 14 . . . GUNMEN KILLED 13 people and wounded 17 others in a drive-by attack Tuesday at a crowded intersection in south Mogadishu, Somalia, witnesses said . . . AN AMERICAN AIRLINES pilot made a tricky landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport without front wheels, scraping the jetliner's nose on the runway before bringing the plane to a stop. The 93 people aboard, including five crew members, evacuated down the plane's chutes following the emergency landing Monday night at Kennedy International Airport. Three people were slightly injured.