Compiled by MATT BROMLEY
Staff Writer
 

The Polish Catholic Right held legislative elections Sunday to decide who will succeed the left ex-communist government which has governed the country during the past four years.

Poland's president, Alksander Kwasniewski, a social democrat, is supposed to hold power until the year 2000. But now he must govern with a new "cohabitation" after the cohabitation with Lech Walesa between 1993 and 1995.

Serbia:

More than 7 million Serbs voted Sunday for their president and to renovate their parliament.

After the closing of the voting booths at 8 p.m., the central electoral commission indicated that the percentage of voter participation was greater than 50 percent. (For a president to be elected by popular vote, the voter percentage must be greater than 50 percent).

In the legislative elections, a boycott of one party of the opposition may permit the Socialists of Slobodan Milosevic to retake the ballot. The leftist coalition (which resembles the Socialist party), the New Democracy Party, and the leftist Yugoslavia United Party are the favorites. Twelve parties of the opposition are boycotting the ballot because they assert that arbitrarily bringing the number of circumscriptions from nine to 29 then the Socialist Party will maneuver to assure 40 seats to Kosovo on the 250 that count in Parliament.

Algeria:

Between 180 and 200 people, according to witnesses, were massacred Monday night at Bentalha at the doors of the capital, in the suburbs of Alger. The official count is 85 dead and 67 wounded. There were dozens more wounded, some in a grave state. Most of the victims were women and children, throats cut or burned to death in their own houses.

Elsewhere, at least one person was killed and many more wounded in a bomb explosion Tuesday in a cafe in Reghaia, about 30 kilometers south of Alger.

These new killings came 24 hours after a speech given by Liamine Zeroul, the president of Algeria. The speech affirmed that Algeria was determined "to definitively extirpate the evil of terrorism."

Ireland:

A first since 1921, the Protestant Unionists and the Republicans of Sinn Fein found themselves at the negotiating table.

The Protestant Union and the Sin Fein Republicans spent 45 minutes in conversation. It was enough time for the leader of the Protestants to demand the expulsion of Sin Fein. They then left the table without waiting for a response from the Republicans. Negotiations resumed Wednesday.

Israel:

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the construction of 300 new houses in the Efrat colony near Bethlehem. This announcement comes after a call launched by Madeleine Albright during her recent visit to the region.

The Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have frozen since the construction, last March, of a new Jewish quarter in East Jerusalem which provides 6,500 houses.

Indonesia:

A direct consequence of the smoke produced by the fires on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra has been two deaths, in Indonesia, due to respiratory problems.

For two weeks the air pollution has directly menaced the health of 20 thousand people in the region. The smoke extends over thousands of kilometers and concern is mounting in the Philippines, the Isle of Phuket, and Thailand.