EVENTS

CAIRO TALKS ON YEMEN IN DOUBT Breakaway Southern Yemen, its beleaguered capital of Aden battered by heavy shelling, accused its Northern foes yesterday of planning to use UN-sponsored talks in Cairo as a cover for fresh attempts to take the city. UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi held talks in Cairo yesterday with Southern officials to try to halt the war, which began on May 4 after four years of uneasy union between the traditionalist North and the formerly Marxist and more secular South. A Northern delegation was reportedly traveling to Cairo for talks on how to enforce a cease-fire. Five truce attempts have failed during the war. Proposals for foreign monitoring have been snagged over the issue of whether Yemen is one state or two. Norway-Iceland `cod war'

Norway's coast guard yesterday cut the nets of another Icelandic trawler to prevent it from fishing in disputed waters, the latest skirmish in a mini ``cod war.'' The incident occurred near the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, where Norway has sovereignty under a 1920 treaty. Iceland's government has called the actions illegal, threatening to take Norway to court. Vote set in Barbados

Shaken by a no-confidence vote in parliament, Prime Minister Erskine Sandiford on Saturday called a general election two years ahead of schedule. It was the first time since Barbados gained independence from Britain in 1966 that a prime minister has called an early election. Wilder launches campaign

Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder entered the United States Senate race as an independent Saturday, ensuring a four-way battle this fall. Mr. Wilder, a Democrat, opposes his longtime rival, incumbent Democratic Sen. Charles S. Robb. Also in the race are Republican Oliver North, the central figure in the Iran-contra arms-for-hostages scandal, and former Republican Attorney General Marshall Coleman, running as an independent. N.Y. strike settled

A two-day-old strike at the nation's largest commuter railroad, Long Island Rail Road, was settled late Saturday. The United Transportation Union and management settled on a three-year contract that provides for retroactive raises of 2.5 percent in the first year, 2.5 percent in the second, and 3.5 percent in the third.