News Currents

UNITED STATES President Bush will not resort to an exotic weapon like the neutron bomb to hasten the end of the Gulf war, White House chief of staff John Sununu said Sunday on ABC-TV's ``This Week with David Brinkley''.... Sununu also said the war is likely to cost between $40 billion and $50 billion this fiscal year and that the allies have agreed to contribute $30 billion so far. A senior US Treasury Department official said over the weekend the US has called a meeting of the Gulf Crisis Financial Coordination Group for early next month to discuss the aid issue.... GBU-15, the big bomb that was dropped on the spigots at the sprawling al-Ahmadi oil complex in Kuwait, is one of the brightest of the new generation of smart weapons being used for the first time in the Gulf War. The 2,450-pound weapon is actually a glider with wings that, after being dropped away from the target, cruises with deadly accuracy to its target.... Orders for US-made machine tools leaped 43.7 percent over in December over November levels in a sign that capital spending remains firm despite the recession.... The New York Giants won their second Super Bowl in five years Sunday night, beating Buffalo 20 to 19 after Scott Norwood of the Bills missed a 47-yard field goal with eight seconds left.

EUROPE

Poland's sixth international computer fair, which wound up Friday, was so successful that 80 companies asking for space had to be left out. IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Oracle are now invading Poland with a much bigger range of products now that the strategic risk ban has been lifted.... German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher said in a radio interview Sunday that his country is ready to grant military aid to Israel as soon as the Israelis decide what they want. Antiaircraft equipment is a strong possibility.... British Defense Secretary Tom King gave a fresh hint on Sunday that allied war aims extended beyond expelling Iraq from Kuwait. He said that UN Security Council Resolution 678 authorized the coalition to restore peace and security to the entire Gulf area.... The Lithuanian government accused Soviet special forces Monday of attacking two customs posts in the rebel Baltic republic, firing shots and beating up one of the officers.

AFRICA

Rival black leaders ANC Deputy President Nelson Mandela and Inkatha Freedom Party President Mangosuthu Buthelezi, whose followers have been fighting for years, are reported as go into their first face-to-face peace talks Tuesday in a mood of reconciliation.... Rebels in Somalia have claimed victory and promised a new start for the country after President Mohamed Siad Barre fled the capital Mogadishu in a tank. His whereabouts were still unknown.... The co-leader of a weekend coup attempt in South Africa's nominally independent Ciskei homeland was shot dead Monday, witnesses said. Charles Sebe, brother of former Ciskei President Lennox Sebe, had been wounded Sunday when he and Col. Mangwane Guzana tried to overthrow the homeland's military government. Guzana was killed on Sunday.