EVENTS

YUGOSLAVIA TALKS, AID CONVOYS RESUME Foreign ministers from the 12 states of the European Community meet in Geneva today to restart stalled Bosnian peace negotiations and try to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Bosnia this winter. The EC has proposed the gradual lifting of sanctions against rump Yugoslavia if the Serbs agree to return land to the Muslims. The Bosnian Serbs say they will not hand back land until sanctions are lifted. In response, Bosnia's Muslim president, Alija Izetbegovic, said yesterday that if the Bosnian Serbs do not make territorial concessions then sanctions on Serbia should be tightened. Also on the agenda are aid convoys. With the presidents of Serbia and Croatia beside their Bosnian prots, the ministers will press the Bosnian leaders once more to guarantee safe passage to UN aid convoys. The first fuel convoy since August headed for the frozen and besieged city of Sarajevo yesterday, UN officials said. No Aideed at Somalia talks

Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed announced yesterday he would not attend a UN conference designed to forge peace among factions and prevent the country from sliding back into anarchy. His spokesman told reporters yesterday that the faction leader would not go because eight of his followers were still being held by the UN. Paskistan nuclear weapons

Pakistani Foreign Minister Sardar Assef Ali said yesterday Pakistan will not give up the ability to build a nuclear bomb until there is an agreement to make the entire region a nuclear weapons-free zone. But Pakistan's neighbor to the east, India, has resisted any attempts at a regional nuclear non-proliferation agreement. Opposition leaders stormed out of Parliament yesterday to protest the government's refusal to debate the nuclear issue. The government cited national security. Separate ATF, FBI

Vice President Albert Gore Jr.'s reforming-government group agreed to scrap plans to merge the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms into the FBI, the Washington Post reported Thursday. The report cited little congressional support for the proposed measure and internal questions about cutting back on firearm-law enforcement at a time of high gun violence nationwide. OPEC production

OPEC leaders decided last week not to cut oil production, a move likely to send already-low oil prices down further. This abandons the group's longtime practice of cutting production to prop up prices. Japan rice imports

Japan is poised to unveil a partial opening of its closed rice market around Dec. 10 to avoid blocking a successful conclusion to world trade talks, Japanese media reported Saturday. A final decision, however, is likely to hang on whether the US and Europe can resolve their farm trade wrangling in talks set for early December. Officially, Japan has stuck to its hardline refusal to allow rice imports. UN and Iraq

Iraq regards the UN's decision not to lift quickly its oil embargo against Baghdad as unfair, viewing it as a double-cross caused by US influence, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Saturday. He blamed the US for Friday's decision by the UN Security Council that the embargo should not be lifted until Iraqi sincerity in permitting arms monitoring is tested. Iraq asked the Security Council to lift the embargo, saying it had decided to allow long-term UN weapons monitoring, something Baghdad has refused to do for more than two years. Indian elections

India's Hindu nationalist opposition suffered a serious setback yesterday in its once seemingly inexorable march to power as it headed for losses in at least two of five regional polls. Senior members of the ruling Congress Party were jubilant as results poured out of three of the four states where Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao dismissed nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party governments last December. The BJP appeared to be losing its efforts to regain power in those states.