News Currents

EUROPEWorld leaders have applauded President Bush's unilateral nuclear disarmament proposals, saying they herald a new era of international relations, and they called for reciprocal cuts by the Soviet Union. Kremlin officials said the Soviet Union would follow suit, but gave no details. President Gorbachev also said that the US proposal was possible because of the "new thinking" he introduced in the Soviet Union when he came to power.... Protestant gunmen shot dead a Catholic shopkeeper in West Belfast Saturda y. The man is the 2,000th civilian slain in the sectarian violence that has torn Ulster for 22 years, the Royal Ulster Constabulary said.... Georgia's armed standoff took a significant step toward settlement Saturday when allies and enemies of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia agreed to hold high-level negotiations, complete with an authorized envoy from Gamsakhurdia.... Romanian President Ion Iliescu has called off his promised visit to the Jiu Valley to see miners who rioted earlier in the week in Bucharest. H e had promised the visit to convince the miners to stop the riots. Nearly all miners had left the capital by noon Saturday.... Up to 150,000 farmers from all over France converged on Paris yesterday for a giant protest against falling incomes and rising East European competition. One goal was to harden French opposition to lowering EC barriers to meat imports from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary when EC foreign ministers meet today. UNITED STATES UN inspectors have discovered that Iraq had been secretly trying to build a device to detonate a nuclear fission bomb using highly enriched uranium, Newsweek said in its Oct. 7 edition. UN inspectors have learned that Iraq's nuclear program was more advanced and more ambitious than US experts previously believed, the magazine reported. While the 44 UN officials were detained in a parking lot in Baghdad, they secretly transmitted to Washington the contents of documents with this information, using portabl e satellite communications equipment.

AFRICA After more than a quarter century of iron rule, Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko has been forced to share power with his opponents, following massive civil unrest this past week and intense Western pressure. Mobutu and opposition leaders were working yesterday on the exact shape of a new crisis government.

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC South Korean President Roh Tae Woo said yesterday that North Korea, after the Bush nuclear cutback plan, could be forced to open its nuclear facilities to international inspection, with UN Security Council help.... Imelda Marcos is ready to return to her homeland next Friday to face charges of tax evasion and fraud, she told reporters in Honolulu Saturday.