News Currents

UNITED STATESJapanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is close to a $200 million deal giving it control of a car assembly plant in Illinois that it built jointly with Chrysler Corporation, the Detroit News reported. Chrysler, in need of cash, has been rumored for months to be seeking the deal, giving the large part of its ownership in the high-technology factory known as Diamond-Star Motors.... The lone announced Democratic candidate for president, former US Sen. Paul Tsongas, has berated his party's economic platform as "Twinkie economics," which he said is unable to produce a recovery.

EUROPE Werner Grossmann, the head of former East Germany's foreign intelligence agency, has been charged with treason for directing spying operations against West Germany, the federal prosecutor said yesterday. Erich Mielke, the 83-year-old ex-minister for state security, was charged with espionage three days earlier for his three decades at the top of the ministry that ran East Berlin's HVA intelligence agency.... Finns will choose their next president by direct popular election for the first time since gainin g independence in 1917. The election is scheduled for 1994.... Belgium, after months of delay and argument, seems set to approve a high-speed train link that will form a key part of a new European rail network.... President Bush played host at a farewell breakfast yesterday with Turkish President Turgut Ozal before departing for Washington.

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC The US plans to launch a joint antidrug campaign with Southeast Asian nations against Burma, US Undersecretary of State Robert Zoellick said yesterday in Kuala Lumpur. In Burma, tyranny still prevails over the popular will, he told foreign ministers of the ASEAN and their seven main trading partners. He also said the US's security commitment in the Asia-Pacific region remains strong. The European Community said its future ties with ASEAN would require addressing the issues of human rights.... Secretary o f State James Baker III will visit Mongolia later this week before traveling to the Moscow summit between President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev July 30 and 31. There had been speculation that Baker would return to Israel from Malaysia to hear an Israeli response to peace proposals.... A ruptured Greek oil tanker, responsible for Australia's worst oil spill, was being towed out to sea yesterday and may be sunk. The huge oil slick of light crude was slowly being blown away from shore.... China 's economy grew at a 6.1 percent rate in the first half of 1991 despite devastating floods and industries saddled with debt. But stockpiles of unsold goods grew by about $4 billion in the first five months of the year.... Madame Chiang Kai-shek, widow of the late Nationalist leader who ruled China and Taiwan, has called on foreigners to return Chinese works of art seized in wars earlier this century.