News Currents

MIDDLE EASTIsraeli Foreign Minister David Levy visited Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa. It was the first trip to Cairo by a senior Israeli Cabinet member in two years. They are seeking a formula for who might represent Palestinians at a peace conference. In Moscow, Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh threw the Kremlin's weight into the peace initiative on July 29, saying that a conference should be held before the end of the year. He also raised the p rospect that he and US Secretary of State James Baker III would make a joint trip to the region, though US officials seemed less enthusiastic about that idea. Saudi Arabia's King Fahd reportedly has told the PLO's Yasser Arafat that he will have to accept that Palestinians be included in a sub-listed delegation, with Jordan, as the only way to get the peace process going. Arafat was said to have reacted with contempt.... In Washington, the US Senate July 29 passed a bill that calls for an international tria l of Iraqi "war criminals" and sets up a special State Department office to develop the plan. ECONOMY AND BUSINESS The US Federal Reserve Bank has slapped a record $200 million fine on the scandal-plagued Bank of Credit and Commerce International for secretly owning all or part of three American banks, including one which failed at a cost of $2 billion to US taxpayers. Congress will likely investigate why the Fed did not blow the whistle long ago on BCCI. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau says the fraud and larceny charges he filed against the now-shut bank July 29 would be followed by more charges in the next few weeks. Former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford was chairman of First American Bankshares, one of the institutions BCCI allegedly owned secretly, and also served as BCCI's chief American lawyer for 13 years.... Drexel Burnham Lambert Group Inc. said July 29 it had signed a settlement with the US Internal Revenue Service calling for payment of $290 million, a major hurdle in Drexel's bankruptcy reorganization plan. This is a fraction of the $5.28 billion the IRS originally demanded.... The Califo rnia Supreme Court said July 29 that financial institutions such as savings and loans are exempt from paying municipal business taxes.... The US Chamber of Commerce endorsed Clarence Thomas's nomination to the US Supreme Court, while the Alliance for Justice, a group representing 27 public interest legal groups, said it will fight the nomination.

EUROPE US President Bush made the following remarks at a Kremlin welcoming ceremony at the Moscow summit: "Together, we will work toward building a lasting peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors. And we'll also work together to resolve difficulties and conflicts in Afghanistan and Cambodia, just as we worked to build peace and democracy in Angola, Namibia, and Nicaragua."