World : IN BRIEF : ETHIOPIA : Major Rebel Group Agrees to Hold Talks

A major Ethiopian rebel group said it has agreed to open preliminary talks with the government. The Tigre People’s Liberation Front, which launched a new offensive in late August, said the talks will begin in Rome next Saturday and be observed by representatives of the Italian government. The Tigrean rebels pushed the government out of Tigre province in February. Last week, the insurgents claimed to have captured the town of Mekane Selam, 100 miles north of the capital of Addis Ababa. The government is also scheduled to resume peace talks with another rebel group, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, next month in Nairobi, Kenya.