News Currents

AROUND THE MIDDLE EAST Syria criticized an increase in Washington aid for Israel after talks with US Assistant Secretary of State John Kelly. Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said an increase in US aid to Israel since Iraq invaded Kuwait links the Gulf crisis to the Palestinian problem.... Followers of assassinated right-wing Rabbi Meir Kahane broke away from the funeral procession and attacked Arabs and journalists. Kahane was buried Wednesday under heavy police security in Israel.... The UN Security Council's sanctions committee is warning that medicines sent to Iraq could be used in chemical and biological warfare.... British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; US Secretary of State James Baker; Cardinal Basil Hume, head of the Britain's Roman Catholic Church; and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze all made separate statements calling war an undesirable but possible means of expelling Iraq from Kuwait.... Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he believes the coalition allied against Iraq should wait at least two to three more months to see if economic sanctions can force Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait.

UNITED STATES

Jubilant Democrats say they are poised to defeat President Bush in 1992 after congressional election gains, but Republicans said they were on track to keep Bush in the White House and win big gains in Congress in 1992.... Sexual activity of teenage girls increased in the 1980s, especially among whites and those in higher-income families, but the pregnancy rate remained stable because of greater contraceptive use, an Alan Guttmacher Institute study reported.... The US will dispatch inspectors to check sanitation at European meat-packing plants, Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter said Wednesday. The EC banned imports of US pork and plans to cut off shipments of US beef at the end of the year, citing sanitation doubts in US slaughterhouses.

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Indian Prime Minister V. P Singh resigned, leaving doubt over how India can find a stable government to lead it through separatist insurgency and a Hindu revolt. President Ramaswamy Venkataraman yesterday asked opposition leader Rajiv Gandhi to form the new Indian government.... Talks on US military bases in the Philippines opened yesterday after Washington surprised Manila by announcing it would withdraw all its fighter aircraft next year. US chief negotiator Richard Armitage said he hoped the decision would allow the talks to focus on long-term US access to the Subic naval base 50 miles northwest of Manila.

ENVIRONMENT

In Geneva, about 130 nations agreed to combat global warming. The Second World Climate Conference ended with a call to begin negotiations on a climate treaty and to stabilize and eventually reduce the pollution that causes warming.