31.   In April, six other rebel groups signed a peace pact with the government.

32.   Iraqi Kurdish groups sign peace agreement.

33.   It was unknown how many more groups would sign.

34.   Many ethnic groups have signed cease-fires with Yangon, but analysts have warned that the agreements are tenuous because underlying political differences have not been solved.

35.   Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said his group would never sign an accord with Israel.

36.   More than a dozen other groups have signed cease-fire agreements in recent years.

37.   Opposition groups signed a pact in Rome appealing for democratic elections and other proposals to end three years of fighting between government forces and Islamic fundamentalists.

38.   Several gay groups have signed a letter urging Attorney General John Ashcroft to include the surviving partners of gay victims.

39.   Sixteen international telecommunications groups signed an agreement Tuesday to lay an undersea optic fiber cable from France to Singapore that will transmit high-definition television signals.

40.   Several rebel groups did not sign the peace protocol at all, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.