World IN BRIEF : GEORGIA : Accord Signed With Breakaway Province

Georgia and its breakaway province of Abkhazia signed a cease-fire agreement to silence the guns in the region and pave the way for ending the 11-month separatist conflict. The accord, signed on neutral Russian territory in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, provides for a cease-fire to come into force in the province starting at noon today. The agreement, concluded after mediating-power Russia brought pressure to bear on Georgia, was immediately hailed by Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin as opening up “a path . . . to halting the fratricidal war.” Georgia says about 3,000 people, military and civilians, have been killed in the conflict, which erupted in the Black Sea province last August.