The World This Week

THE Malaysian parliament meets in special session today until Wednesday to discuss proposals to strip the country's nine hereditary sultans of their immunity from the law and their power to pardon their relatives from criminal charges.

Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister, has tried to head off a constitutional clash by seeking agreement with the hereditary rulers of nine states. Any amendments to the constitution on matters touching the rulers' position need the sultans' own say-so. It is the second time in 10 years Mr Mahathir has tried to curb the sultans' powers. He put forward the amendments after a hockey coach alleged he had been assaulted by Sultan Mahmood Iskandar of Johor, who was convicted of manslaughter in 1978 but pardoned by his father.

Japan sends its future hereditary ruler, Crown Prince Naruhito, on a two-week tour of the Middle East on Friday, after the Imperial Council meeting tomorrow puts the formal seal of approval on his engagement to Masako Owada, a diplomat educated at Oxford and Harvard. The Prince will visit Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The self-styled parliament of Bosnia's rebel Serbs meets near Sarajevo tomorrow to decide the fate of a peace plan negotiated in Geneva last week. The European Community has given the Serbs until tomorrow to accept the principles of the deal or face punitive measures.

Prospects are better for talks opening in Cape Town on Wednesday between the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African government. It is the second round of talks on patching up differences and working out plans for transitional arrangements leading to elections within 16 months. The first phase, last December, was fruitful and produced a number of additional meetings with happy outcomes which have contributed to a trend of increasing convergence between Pretoria and the ANC in recent months. The talks are led by Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC's Secretary-General, and Roelf Meyer, the Minister of Constitutional Development.

Even members of the Commonwealth of Independent States seem to be getting along better these days. Russia and Ukraine have stopped screaming at each other, and the oft- postponed summit of CIS leaders is finally expected to take place in the Belarus capital, Minsk, on Friday. They seem to have been prodded out of their inertia by the five Asian members, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, whih bemoaned the CIS's lack of action but believed that 'possibilities for a profitable partnership' still remained.

A museum dedicated to Josef Stalin which was closed in 1988 after revulsion from the Kremlin, reopens on Wednesday in his home town of Gori in Georgia. New displays include documents showing that Stalin planned to resign as Communist Party chief and head of state on seven occasions.

Today, Martin Luther King Day, the Ku Klux Klan is mounting a number of demonstrations against civil rights, the largest of which is expected to converge on Denver, Colorado. Tomorrow, a disabled convicted killer is to be executed in the state of Virginia: Charles Stamper, who is wheelchair-bound, was convicted of three murders in 1978 and was apparently disabled when beaten by fellow prisoners in 1988. He is to be electrocuted the day before Bill Clinton is inaugurated as President in Washington on Wednesday.

Dewi Sukarno, the former first lady of Indonesia, appears in court in Aspen, Colorado, on Friday to be sentenced. Ms Sukarno, known as 'Goddess of the Essence of Jewels', pleaded guilty to striking the face of Maria Osmena, granddaughter of a former Philippine president, with a jagged champagne glass at a party.