EVENTS

SOUTHEAST BATTLES RISING RIVERS More water spilled into the swollen Flint River through a breached earthen dam Saturday. The heaviest rains from Tropical Storm Alberto seemed over, but rivers in Georgia continued to rise. In Alabama, high-water woes eased. In the Florida Panhandle, more than 3,200 people fled low-lying areas. About 1,200 feet of the earthen dam at the 8,515-acre Lake Blackshear north of Albany, Ga., was breached Saturday, but authorities said the water will drain from the lake slowly. Albany remains cut in half by flooding, which spread as far as three miles from the river's edge. It will be days before officials can estimate the cost of the damage from the storm, which stalled over Georgia for three days and sent torrents of water raging down the Flint and Ocmulgee Rivers. About 400,000 acres of crops are under water. The flooding has left thousands homeless and about 300,000 people without drinking water in southwest Georgia. Forty-three counties in Georgia have been declared disaster areas. Latvia withdrawal

Russian President Boris Yeltsin said yesterday that all Russian troops will leave the Baltic republic of Latvia by Aug. 31, but that withdrawal from neighboring Estonia is more complex and will take longer. Mr. Yeltsin, appearing at a news conference with President Clinton at the G-7 meeting in Naples, said that at the urging of the US leader he would consult soon with Estonian President Lennart Meri to resolve disputes over final withdrawal. Russian troops already have pulled out of Lithuania, the third former Soviet Baltic state. US, Panama confer

Panama President Guillermo Endara and US officials apparently smoothed over hard feelings Saturday after President Endara revoked an offer to accept up to 10,000 Haitian refugees. Panama had announced on July 4 that it would accept up to 10,000 Haitians, provided the UN oversaw the operation and Haitians were not housed on US bases here. Endara said he changed his mind when he discovered that US officials wanted to build temporary housing on a military base and work directly with Panama, not through the UN. Yemen fence-mending call

Former South Yemen President Ali Nasr Mohammed yesterday urged Yemeni leaders to mend fences with southern rivals and those Arab nations who backed them. He said an amnesty declared by Sana was a good first step to overcoming ``the painful ordeal that befell our people,'' according to a statement carried in Sana by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. The northern government of President Ali Abullah Saleh proclaimed victory last Thursday in the nine-week civil war after the key southern bastion of Aden fell and separatist leaders fled the country. Hussein ready to meet

Israel yesterday welcomed King Hussein's readiness to meet with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as an important step in the peace process. King Hussein told his parliament Saturday he would meet with Mr. Rabin. He said the meeting was pressed on him by President Clinton's administration, which he said promised to ask Congress for a write-off of Jordan's $1 billion debt to the United States, and to provide Jordan with sophisticated American weaponry.