EVENTS

BATTLES RAGE AROUND YEMEN PORT CITY Tank and artillery battles raged around Aden yesterday as the south defended its secessionist stronghold from another northern onslaught. For the past two weeks, Aden has been the target of some of the heaviest artillery bombardment in seven weeks of civil war. The war erupted on May 4 after the four-year union of conservative North Yemen and then-Marxist South Yemen collapsed because of lingering political differences, despite its grass-roots popularity. The north appears to be trying to wear the southerners down into surrendering, despite stern warnings from the United States and Gulf states against attacks on Aden. US-North Korean talks

The United States and North Korea will reopen high-level talks over the Communist regime's nuclear program July 8 in Geneva, the White House announced yesterday. Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said there was no scheduled end date to the discussions. Another US official said, however, the first round was expected to run a week or less. Firefighters head west

Fire crews from neighboring states converged on southern California yesterday to help battle brush fires that have so far blackened more than 8,000 acres. The worst fire was a 2,000-acre blaze in the San Bernardino and Angeles national forests, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Officials believe it sprang Saturday from a campfire near a Boy Scout camp. Gay rights march in N.Y.

Tens of thousands of gays and lesbians from across the United States gathered peacefully Sunday to remember the Stonewall Inn riot of 25 years ago that is considered to mark the birth of the gay rights movement. Crowd estimates varied. Organizers of the parade estimated 1.1 million marchers and spectators; City Hall, 150,000. The police estimated 100,000 at the Central Park rally. Afghan warlord strikes

Rashid Dostum, a powerful warlord whose troops were chased from Kabul in recent days, responded yesterday with airstrikes against government strongholds in the city. The city also came under a sustained rocket attack launched from southern Kabul by Dostum's ally, rebel Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Indonesian protest crushed

Riot police and soldiers in Jakarta yesterday forcibly broke up a peaceful demonstration by about 150 journalists, artists, students, and human rights activists against the government's ban on three publications (see photo below). The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, a human rights group, called the police action ``extremely brutal and repressive'' and said it showed again that the government and armed forces were unable to cope with the issue of democracy.