1.   Local authority leaders have been warned by the Scottish Secretary that the government is determined to keep public spending under control.

2.   A special environmental session of the Knesset and a meeting of local authority leaders are planned.

3.   Authority leaders are striving to build support for the initiative, which continues to get a mixed reception on Long Island.

4.   He has been assisting in the talks because he is a friend of McMullen, who has had clashed with sports authority leaders.

5.   Kawaguchi is to arrive in Kabul on Wednesday to meet Afghan interim authority leader Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, Kyodo said.

6.   Palestianian authority leader Yasser Arafat paid his last respects to Francois Mitterrand late Monday in a visit to the apartment where the former French president died, witnesses said.

7.   Ross said his opening talks on preparations for the conference had gone well and that on Wednesday he was to hold talks with Palestinian authority leader Yasser Arafat.