News In Brief

Leftist rebels killed six soldiers yesterday in attacks on an Army post and a bridge, authorities said. Four soldiers were killed in a previous attack at the National Guard headquarters Tuesday afternoon, according to the military.

Military officials believe the attacks were carried out by the Farabundo Mart'i National Liberation Front, the umbrella group of five leftist guerrilla organizations.

Solidarity, Warsaw union to try to rescue shipyard

The outlawed Solidarity trade federation reversed a longstanding policy yesterday and agreed to work with the government-approved union in an effort to save the Lenin Shipyard. Lech Walesa made the announcement at an outdoor rally attended by nearly all the yard's workers. Separately, a domestic Polish airliner with 29 people aboard crashed yesterday while trying to make an emergency landing in a field, and a police officer said all but one passenger survived.

Soviets to permit teaching of Hebrew

Soviet officials have agreed to permit the teaching of Hebrew and to allow Soviet Jews to participate in the World Jewish Congress, an official of the international group said yesterday. Both steps, announced by World Jewish Congress executive director Elan Steinberg, after meetings with Soviet officials, would constitute major changes in how the Kremlin deals with the country's 1.8 million Jews.

Nicaragua suspends radio news show

The leftist government indefinitely suspended a private radio news show for broadcasting a story about a reported Air Force bombing, the Sandinista newspaper Barricada said yesterday. The Interior Ministry order, reprinted in the newspaper, said the show, aired on Radio Corporaci'on, violated the government's communication law. A newscaster aired a news service story Monday citing US-supported rebels as saying the Air Force bombed Indian villages along the Atlantic Coast as hurricane victims sought refuge in Honduras.

US shuttle Atlantis moves to launch pad

The space shuttle Atlantis moved to the launch pad aboard a mammoth caterpillar-tread transporter yesterday for a late November flight during which it will deploy a secret intelligence-gathering satellite for the Pentagon. The crew will deploy the satellite, believed to carry instruments to verify arms control agreements, and conduct other experiments of a military nature.

The shuttle will be manned by a crew of five, headed by Navy Comdr. Robert Gibson.

Paper criticizes US Navy for effort to train dolphins

A secret Navy program to train dolphins as underwater security guards is in disarray, with four of the animals dead and others blinded or crippled by abusive handlers, a newspaper reported yesterday. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer quoted unidentified sources as saying four of the Navy's three dozen dolphins have died in the past 18 months. However, Navy Lt. Comdr. Craig Quigley told the newspaper Tuesday that the marine mammal project had been ``very successful ... effective and cost-effective.''

Supreme Court hears arguments on drug tests

The Reagan administration told the Supreme Court yesterday that mandatory drug tests for some railroad workers and US Customs Service employees are vital to public safety and confidence in government. Attorney General Thornburgh made an appearance to plead for testing of rail workers after train accidents. Lawrence Mann, an attorney for the railway workers, said the drug tests are unconstitutional, on grounds they are incapable of proving on-the-job impairment.

The eventual rulings on the two cases, involving governmental authority and to test workers for drugs and individual privacy protection, is expected next year.

Two firms indicted in insider trading

A federal grand jury indicted two stock trading firms yesterday, charging them with criminal insider-trading offenses, the US Attorney's office in Manhattan said. Marcus Schloss & Co., one of Wall Street's biggest arbitrage firms, and Victor Teicher & Co. are accused of involvement in an illegal network that bought and sold stocks on the basis of information from New York law and investment firms. The offenses allegedly occurred in late 1985 and early '86.

In February, Marcus Schloss settled a separate civil insider-trading case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Also indicted were D. Ronald Yagoda, head of arbitrage trading at Marcus Schloss; Victor Teicher, who managed his own arbitrage firm; and Ross Frankel, who worked in the domestic arbitrage department at Drexel Burnham Lambert.

The indictment alleges that the defendants joined in a conspiracy with Michael David, formerly an associate with the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Andrew Solomon, a former arbitrage analyst at Marcus Schloss; Robert Salsbury, a former arbitrage analyst at Drexel; and a former unidentified employee of Ivan F. Boesky & Co.

Messrs. David, Solomon, and Salsbury were part of the ``Yuppie 5'' who pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in June 1986.

A Christmas scrapbook

Yuletide, we suspect, is not universally drawn from a Norman Rockwell painting or from an episode of ``The Cosby Show.'' It is the Christmas of large, extended families and splintered families; of people in nursing homes, of gas-station attendants who work that day, of hostages in Lebanon. It's about store-bought gifts, homemade gifts, or no gifts at all. It's about symbols - like a candle in the window. And acts - like serving in a soup kitchen. What special celebrations are a part of your Christmas? What events or traditions are unique to your family, your town, your way of life? Please write in and tell us, as briefly as possible. (We will return any materials if you enclose a self-addressed envelope with adequate postage, but we cannot acknowledge each submission individually. Letters are subject to editing.) A sampling of your responses will be published in December.

Deadline for submissions is Dec. 5. Offerings from adults and children, in writing or in pictures, are welcome. Please send to: Christmas Scrapbook, The Christian Science Monitor, One Norway Street, Boston, MA 02115.

For the record

A federal judge told Imelda Marcos yesterday she was free to return to her Hawaiian exile home after millionairess Doris Duke put up $5 million in bail for the former Philippine first lady. Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union reached an 8-year high in October, with 2,473 Jews allowed to leave, the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration said yesterday.