Kaifu to step down as party leader: Former prime minister Toshiki Kaifu has decided to step down as leader of Japan's main opposition party Shinshinto (New Frontier). Kyodo news agency reported yesterday. Reuter reports from Tokyo.

Kyodo said Kaifu. Prime minister from 1989 to 1991. told reporters late Sunday night that he intended to back the party’s secretary general. Ichiro Ozawa, in an election for Shinshinto’s new president.

China to put Wei on trial: china confirmed yesterday that it would put veteran prodemocracy dissident Wei Jingsheng on trial on Wednesday and said the proceeding would be open to the public. Reuter reports from Beijing.

“The trial will begin around 9.00 am (0100 GMT) on Wednesday," a spokesman for Beijing's intermediate people's court told Reuters by telephone.

Gunmen kill 4 in South Africa:

Gunmen killed four people and wounded seven in a township east of Johannesburg on Sunday night. South African police aald yesterday. Reuter reporta from Johannesburg.

"Four people were killed and seven wounded. We don't know who is behind the shooting." said superintendent Eugene Opperman.

Quake shakes southern Israel: An earthquake shook southern Israel yesterday, the second tremor to hit the region in four days, but there were no Immediate reports of damage or casualties. Reuter reports from Jerusalem.

"At 3.31 am (0131 GMT) there was an earthquake of 5.1 magnitude on the Richter Scale. It was fell in Eilat and other places almost to the centre of the country," Israel's Institute of OU and Geophysical Research said in a statement.

20 die in China bldg collapse: More than 20 workers died as a seven-storey building in Deyang city, in southwestern China's Sichuan province, collapsed Friday, a newspaper reported yesterday. AFP

•• reports from Shanghai.

’ The Wenhui Bao daily said the building belonging to" ' Deyang Cotton and Linen Products Company was undergo

ingTInishing works when It collapsed. So far 11 bodies have been dug out. the report said, adding the cause of the accident was being Investigated.

Castro to make stopover in Japan: Cuban President Fidel Castro will make a two-day stopover In Japan this week on his way home from visits to China and Vietnam, the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo confirmed yesterday, AFP reports from Tokyo.

Gunmen kill teenager in Istanbul: Gunmen killed a teenager and injured six people when they raked an Istanbul election office of Prime Minister Tansu Ciller s True Path Party (DYP). the semi official Anatolian news agency said yesterday, Reuter reports from Istanbul.

The agency said a group of five unidentified attackers fired as they drove by the office in a taxi late on Sunday in Istanbul's Gaziosmanpasa District, where a drive-by shooting at a cafe used by local Alevi Muslims sparked violent riots in March. About 17 people died in those riots. A 15 year-old ^oy died in Sunday's attack. Anatolian said.