News Currents

EUROPEThe West will review its position on aid to the Soviet Union in the light of this week's attempted coup against President Mikhail Gorbachev, British Prime Minister John Major said yesterday.... Russian President Boris Yeltsin told supporters outside parliament yesterday that Russia had ditched its red state flag and adopted a red, white, and blue tricolor. He also ordered the disbanding of Communist Party cells in the Soviet armed forces on Russian territory.... A French magazine, L'Express, reported yes terday that Iran sought confirmation of the death of former Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar 24 hours before French police found his body. The report said the US and Britain had intercepted such a message from Iran's Information and Security Ministry. MIDDLE EAST Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said after the Soviet coup collapsed Wednesday that he hoped a Middle East peace conference would go ahead in October and that Moscow would renew diplomatic ties with Israel. The US is hoping it can stick to an October target date but will not know for sure for several weeks, a senior US official said. US Secretary of State James Baker III had been considering a seventh trip to the Middle East in mid-September and that has not been ruled out. The issues of who should represent the Palestinians and a comprehensive release of hostages have not been worked out. UNITED STATES In New York, hundreds of angry blacks burned an Israeli flag and hurled bricks and bottles at a Jewish sect's headquarters in Brooklyn's Crown Heights Wednesday to protest the death of a black child run over by a car driven by a Hasidic Jew. At least 43 policemen were injured, including eight hit by shotgun pellets believed fired from a rooftop. Police said they arrested 27 people. It was the third successive day of violence in the neighborhood.... President Bush has waived trade restrictions that had de nied Romania access to US food-credit guarantees.... A federal judge Wednesday ordered three anti-abortion protest leaders jailed for contempt of court and ordered each to pay fines of more than $10,000 in the latest confrontation in a 4 1/2-week effort to blockade abortion clinics in Wichita, Kan.... Sen. Albert Gore (D) of Tennessee said he will not seek the 1992 presidential nomination. JUSTICE Police in Coles County, Ill., are awarding drivers who use their seat belts a coupon good for a free burger in a "Buckle Up for Burgers" campaign.... In Markham, Ill., the same judge pronounced William and Jerry Gardner husband and wife, then sentenced William to prison for stealing two pickup trucks. The couple got an hour for a honeymoon. They have been together for 20 years, and the last time William was in prison, Jerry could not sign "wife" when she visited him.