Nicaragua

MANAGUA - The government promised to provide $2 million in emergency food and agriculture aid to some 20,000 farming families suffering a severe drought.

Taiwan

TAIPEI - Chiang Wego, the adopted son of Chiang Kai-shek, died Monday of kidney disease at a Taipei hospital, his doctors said. He was 80. Chiang Wego was a high-ranking commander in the army before retiring from the military in the 1980s.

France

PARIS - Police specialists scraped paint off the pillar and tunnel wall where Princess Diana's car crashed, seeking clues to whether a second car was involved in the deadly accident, judicial sources said.

Vietnam

HANOI - The government said it was easing a system of higher charges for many items for overseas Vietnamese and other foreigners, but it reserved lower airfares for those who have displayed loyalty to the communist government.

China

BEIJING - A fire swept through a shoe factory dormitory in southeast China, killing 32 workers who were locked inside, a government official said.

Iran

TEHRAN - Iran and Turkey have agreed to restore top- level diplomatic relations after they recalled their ambassadors in a row earlier this year, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

Philippines

MANILA - The Supreme Court threw out a petition by supporters of President Fidel Ramos, dealing an apparent death blow to their dogged campaign to keep him in power beyond 1998.

Mongolia

ULAN BATOR - More than 1,000 people demonstrated against soaring university fees, saying rises in study and lodging costs could kill higher education in the cash-strapped north Asian nation.

Uzbekistan

TASHKENT - The government said shells from clashes in neighboring Afghanistan fell on its territory last week, injuring four civilians.

Russia

MOSCOW - President Boris Yeltsin is likely to announce an increased role for the state in Russia's economy when he addresses the upper chamber of parliament on Wednesday, a highly placed source said.

Afghanistan

KABUL - The U.N. mine clearance program for Afghanistan has voiced concern about the future of its operations, saying it is running short of funds.

Qatar

DOHA - The government said 34 state-owned and private firms will contribute $2.84 million toward sponsoring the Middle East and North Africa summit it plans to host in November.

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Paraguay

ASUNCION - Gen. Lino Oviedo, a former army chief accused of a 1996 coup plot, could become Paraguay's next president after being chosen as the ruling party's candidate.

Ireland

DUBLIN - The post office is issuing four commemorative Dracula stamps to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the world's most famous vampire created by Irish author Bram Stoker. The stamps feature Dracula rising from a coffin, stalking in the woods with a wolf, standing in his Transylvanian castle with bats fluttering around him, and leaning in to suck the blood from a woman's neck.

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