News Currents
UNITED STATESAdministration officials say they are satisfied so far with the Soviet response to President Bush's plan for a sharp cutback of the US nuclear arsenal and add it will take time for Moscow to develop a detailed response.... American students on average can read and do mathematics and science about as well as they did 20 years ago, an improvement over 1980 levels but still not good enough, according to a report issued yesterday by the office of the US Education Secretary.... President Bush wrapped up a qui et weekend with his wife yesterday, heading out for a campaign-style swing through Florida and Louisiana on their way home to Washington.... Hundreds of people, disappointed and angry by California Gov. Pete Wilson's (R) veto of a bill banning housing and job bias against homosexuals, protested in West Hollywood and San Francisco Sunday.... Travelers picked San Francisco as their top destination not only in the US, but in the world as well, according to a new survey by Conde Nast Traveler magazine. EUROPE The Soviet Union could plunge into economic anarchy if republics scrap the ruble for a host of competing currencies that are not convertible, EC Economy Commissioner Henning Christophersen said Sunday during a flight to Moscow for two days of talks on the dire state of the Soviet economy.... Romanian Prime Minister Petre Roman has withdrawn his resignation, which he offered last week during severe rioting in Bucharest. The riots were lead mainly by striking miners. Roman is now pushing hard for early ele ctions. His party won elections last May but has become embattled in an effort to switch to a market economy.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC Japanese voters skipped a chance to punish the government for recent financial scandals when the ruling Liberal Democratic Party candidate won a parliamentary by-election Sunday in southern Japan.... New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger said yesterday his government would examine whether to modify a law preventing nuclear-powered ships from entering the country's waters now that President Bush has decided to remove nuclear weapons from navy surface vessels.
ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE The US government and Alaska have reached a new settlement with Exxon over the March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The pact replaces a $1 billion settlement rejected last spring and comes one week before the scheduled Oct. 7 start of Exxon's criminal trial. In the last 10 days, Alaska and the federal government reached separate accords with native Alaskans and with private plaintiffs.... Fires have destroyed at least 75,000 acres of forest in the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo in the past two mon ths, largely because of a four-month drought.
