NDJAMENA – The Sudanese government and rebels began indirect negotiations in the Chadian capital on Wednesday, aimed at ending an increasingly bloody conflict in the western Darfur region. More than 10,000 people are thought to have died in just over a year of vicious skirmishes between rebels and government-backed militia groups in the region. RUSSIAN COLONEL LOSES APPEAL OVER CHECHEN MURDER

MOSCOW – Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld a 10-year prison sentence handed down to a Russian colonel, Yuri Budanov, for the murder of a Chechen woman. Budanov has admitted to strangling 18-year-old Elsa Kungayeva in March 2000, but said he was temporarily insane at the time and was convinced she was a rebel sniper. The woman was abducted from her village, sexually assaulted, and strangled. BODY OF FORMER SEPARATIST LEADER DISCOVERED IN CHECHNYA

GROZNY – The body of a former Chechen separatist leader, Nasrudin Bazhiyev, was discovered on Monday in Chechnya’s capital Grozny. According to Bazhiyev’s relatives, masked men took him away from the village of Katayam on Grozny’s outskirts last week. Separately, the bodies of five men were discovered buried in a Grozny basement. Aged between 25 and 50 years old, their bodies bore signs of torture. The men are likely to have been killed three to four months ago. BORDER CLOSURES ‘WILL NOT SECURE’ IRAN-IRAQ BORDER

MUNTHERIA, IRAQ – The US-led coalition has shut 16 of the 19 border crossings into Iraq from Iran as part of a security clampdown, but US civil administrator Paul Bremer has admitted that illegal infiltration was likely to remain a problem. As part of the new security plan first announced on March 13, a computerized tracking system has been introduced at the three remaining crossings. The coalition intends to extend the scheme to all of Iraq’s 20 major border crossings by its June 30 deadline for the handover of power. JORDAN DETAINS 60 OVER RIOTS IN PALESTINIAN CAMP

AMMAN – Jordanian authorities arrested more than 60 people for burning the Jordanian flag and destroying property during demonstrations in a Palestinian refugee camp, government spokeswoman Asma Khodr said on Monday. Some 2,000 people took part in the demonstration, held in protest at the assassination of Hamas’ spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin by Israel, after Friday prayers on March 26 at Al Wihdat refugee camp in the southern suburbs of Amman. ISRAELI RESERVISTS REFORM UNDERWAY

JERUSALEM – The duties of reservists in Israel’s army could undergo major changes by next year, including exemptions from carrying out patrols in the occupied Palestinian territories. Reservists would not be mobilized for more than 42 days over three years, and reserve duty would no longer be compulsory after the age of 36. Around 631,500 troops, including 445,000 reservists, serve in the Israeli army. Reservists currently serve one month a year, or longer in emergencies, until the age of 40. SYRIA WOOS AUSTRALIA

CANBERRA – Syria and Australia have held talks aimed at ending Syria’s isolation from the mainstream international community – a role Australia also played with Libya. During a half-hour meeting in Canberra on Monday, foreign minister Alexander Downer told Syria’s charges d’affaires Tamam Suleiman that Damascus had to be prepared to abandon efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction and control the flow of terrorists across its borders. Syria is due to open an embassy in Canberra.  AUSTRALIANS WANT TROOPS IN IRAQ UNTIL JOB DONE

SYDNEY – Australians support keeping troops in Iraq, according to a poll for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age of Melbourne that showed 61 percent of voters back Prime Minister John Howard’s position of keeping forces in Iraq until post-war reconstruction is completed, with 35 percent opposed. The poll was the first to show weakening support for opposition leader Mark Latham, who promised to pull the 850 Australian troops out of Iraq if his Labor party wins elections due by the end of this year. TEHRAN’S MAYOR CHALLENGES BERLIN OVER MEMORIAL

TEHRAN – Tehran’s mayor is threatening to erect a plaque denouncing Germany for supplying Saddam Hussein’s Iraq with chemical weapons if Berlin unveils one accusing Iran of the assassination of four Iranian Kurds. The Berlin Charlottenburg District council plans to erect the plaque on the site of a restaurant where the dissidents were shot dead on September 17, 1992. A German court ruled in 1997 that the killers acted on Tehran’s orders. 10 MORE KUWAITI POWS FOUND IN IRAQ

KUWAIT CITY – The remains of 10 more Kuwaitis, taken prisoner during Iraq’s 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait and found in mass graves in Iraq, have been identified. The remains of at least 92 POWs have so far been identified. Kuwait says thousands of its citizens and other nationals were taken prisoner during the seven-month occupation of the Gulf state. ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE CRITICIZED OVER IRAQ ASSESSMENT

JERUSALEM – Israeli MPs have criticized the intelligence services for exaggerating the risk of an Iraqi attack before and during last year’s conflict, saying they had relied too much on speculation rather than facts. An initial draft of the report, released on Sunday, said the intelligence establishment had exaggerated the threat of Iraq having nonconventional weapons, while remaining ignorant of Libya’s nuclear developments.