CENTRAL AMERICA The devastating Hurricane Mitch claims 10,000 lives, mainly in Honduras and Nicaragua. (See special feature : Weather from hell)

INDIA Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee responds to the challenge from neighbour and arch-rival, Pakistan, and says that his country too is prepared to sign a global treaty to ban nuclear testing within the coming year.

ALBANIA Pandeli Majko, aged 30, becomes Europe’s youngest Prime Minister as he is sworn in as Albania’s new Socialist leader.

CHILE General Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator is arrested in London following an extradition request from Spain. (See special feature : International justice)

ANGOLA Heavy fighting plunges much of northern Angola into a state of undeclared war as Government forces go on the offensive against their old enemy the Unita rebel movement. According to the UN, blame for the renewed conflict lies firmly with Jonas Savimbi, Unita’s leader, who has refused to comply fully with the Lusaka Peace Accord ever since its inception four years ago.

IRAN appoints its first female diplomat since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, who will be posted to the UN in New York.

CUBA A record 157 countries vote in the United Nations General Assembly, calling for an end to Washington’s embargo against Cuba.

NIGERIA Responding to his country’s new freedoms, Wole Soyinka, a leading dissident and Nobel Prize-winning author, returns home, ending four years of self-imposed exile.

PERU/ECUADOR A peace treaty is signed that ends the border dispute which has erupted into war three times during the past 60 years.

YUGOSLAVIA US envoy Richard Holbrooke reaches a political deal with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, that averts immediate NATO air strikes. Milosevic agrees to let unarmed foreign monitors observe the withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo, and to begin political talks to give the province greater autonomy.

SRI LANKA More than 700 Sri Lankan soldiers and Tamil Tigers are killed in fighting for a strategically important highway town.

ISRAEL/PALESTINE Three-way talks between Binyamin Netanyahu, Yasser Arafat and President Clinton result in the Wye Accord, which it is hoped will be a major step forward for the Middle East Peace Process. (See special feature : Middle East)

CHINA/TAIWAN The first talks in five years are held.

ONLINE CHRONICLE DESIGNED & MAINTAINED BY SIMON, Simon Loffler.