EVENTS

BRITISH ROYAL COUPLE TO SEPARATE

The Prince and Princess of Wales have agreed to separate but not to divorce, Prime Minister John Major said yesterday in London, confirming years of speculation of a royal romance gone sour. "This decision has been reached amicably and they will both continue to participate fully in the upbringing of their children," Major said, reading a statement issued by Buckingham Palace. Because there will be no divorce, Major said the Princess of Wales remained eligible to be crowned queen. Serbian court ruling

The Serbian Supreme Court yesterday overturned a ruling by Serbia's electoral commission that had disqualified Premier Milan Panic from running for Serbian president. The court's decision, which is final, means that Mr. Panic will be registered as a candidate for Serbian president in elections scheduled for Dec. 20. Panic, a moderate, has been at odds with hard-line President Slobodan Milosevic ever since Panic was elected to head the federal Yugoslav government last July. Panic has endeavored to end the

fighting in Bosnia and get the sanctions lifted. Noriega ruled a POW

A United States federal judge in Miami on Tuesday ruled that former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is a prisoner of war entitled to certain rights, but can be jailed in a civilian prison as long as he is afforded the protections of the Geneva Convention. Noriega, who surrendered to US troops during their invasion of Panama in early 1990, was sentenced July 10 to 40 years in prison on eight drug- trafficking charges. Neo-Nazi rights targeted

Desperate to keep neo-Nazis in check, the German government took the rare step yesterday of asking the courts to muzzle two leading figures in Germany's extreme right. The government wants Thomas Dienel and Heinz Reisz to be deprived of their right to participate in political meetings, to belong to groups with political goals, and to run for office. German guard convicted

A former East German border guard was convicted of manslaughter in Potsdam yesterday and sentenced to six years in prison for killing a man who had given up on an attempt to escape to the West in 1965. The sentence was the longest given so far in a series of trials that started in September 1991 to judge guards involved in some of the estimated 350 deaths at the Berlin Wall and the border between East and West Germany. Book award expanded

Russian author Mark Kharitonov won the first international Booker Prize on Tuesday for his novel, "Lines of Fate, or Milashevich's Casket." One of the world's most prestigious literary awards, it has been given annually for 30 years for the best English-language novel of the year. This is the first year the competition has been extended to works in other languages. Schott apologizes

Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott apologized yesterday in Louisville, Ky., at an owners meeting for making racial and ethnic slurs that brought an investigation by major league baseball. "I acknowledge that in the past I have... made insensitive remarks," she said.